A handful of failed Republican candidates have scaled back the scope of their challenge to the results of the Nov. 3 election in Massachusetts and one — former 9th Congressional District hopeful Helen Brady — has dropped out of the lawsuit altogether.
But John Paul Moran, a former 6th Congressional District candidate who’s spearheading the legal challenge, told the Herald the four remaining plaintiffs are forging ahead undeterred.
“Our goal here is we want free and fair elections that are done legally and constitutionally,” Moran said. “Everybody benefits from that, so we think the whole public should be on our side.”
Moran, Brady, former 5th Congressional District candidate Caroline Colarusso and former state representative hopefuls Ingrid Centurion and Craig Valdez sued the state, GOP Gov. Charlie Baker and Democrat Secretary of State William Galvin last week seeking to throw out millions of ballots cast in the November election over their claims pandemic-related changes to voting laws were “unconstitutional.”
The group was initially looking to bar the state from selecting electors and transmitting certified election results to the Electoral College.
But the Bay State’s 11 electors cast their votes as expected for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Monday.
On Wednesday, the day before U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs was set to hold a hearing on their request, attorney Gregory Hession — who the plaintiffs brought on as counsel after filing the lawsuit — requested it be called off.
Hession wrote in his filing that he had reviewed both sides’ arguments — “concluding that the plaintiffs would not be able to meet their burden of proof for the court to issue a preliminary injunction at this time.”
But he said the withdrawal “does not forfeit any other causes of action set out in the complaint.”
Moran told the Herald the group’s claims that the state “unconstitutionally” approved “no-excuse” mail-in voting and expanded early in-person voting for the November election still stand. According to the federal lawsuit, potentially 2 million ballots cast through those means “should be considered invalid and removed from the vote counts.”
“We would not be a fan of going and invalidating 2 million ballots. But we’re pointing out if they were illegal and unconstitutional, what do you do?” Moran said, adding that he would “strongly prefer” a re-vote.
Brady filed notice to voluntarily dismiss herself from the lawsuit on Wednesday. She said in a statement to the Herald that she still wants to review this year’s expanded vote-by-mail effort and was “encouraged” by the fact-finding mission launched by a trio of Republican state legislators last week calling on Galvin for more information about the program.
“The lawmakers who voted for mail-in voting need to press Galvin for more transparency,” Brady said, “And ask him to provide the public with all the information it needs so that we the people can decide if vote-by-mail should be made permanent.”
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December 17, 2020 at 07:59AM
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Former GOP candidates scale back lawsuit challenging Massachusetts election results - Boston Herald
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