Jenna Ellis: Jan. 6, Not Dec. 14 Is Date Campaign Has Eyes on Regarding Electoral College Vote
Trump campaign senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis said Tuesday that the Electoral College date her team is focused on is Jan. 6 when Congress counts and certifies the vote, not Dec. 14, the statutory date electors vote in their individual states.
In an interview on Fox Business Network, Ellis cited the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissenting opinion in Bush v. Gore in 2000, in which she wrote the date of “ultimate significance” is not when the Electoral College meets, but Jan. 6, when Congress determines “the validity of the electoral votes.”
“While we are on some tight constitutional deadlines, we still have plenty of time to make sure that this election and the outcome is free and fair for all Americans,” Ellis said.
The attorney elaborated in a Tuesday interview on Newsmax saying that the statutory deadlines for states’ Electoral College votes are ultimately “meaningless,” when there are ongoing legal challenges.
“The only constitutional deadline that’s in the text is January 20 at noon, when the president is sworn in for four years. And so that’s what we’re looking at,” Ellis said.
“There’s definitely plenty of time here to make sure that we correct all of the corruption, all of these breaches of the rules and we make sure the Constitution is followed.”
Ellis also hit the mainstream media for trying to dismiss the legal challenges brought forth by the Trump campaign and others, including the Texas attorney general.
Members of the media are “trying to rush Joe Biden through and it’s absolutely irresponsible for the mainstream media to turn a blind eye to all of this that we have put forward,” she said.
“Funny how MSM is quick to believe one or two unnamed “sources” every time, and yet refuses to acknowledge hundreds of eyewitnesses across six states who signed affidavits under oath,” Ellis tweeted on Tuesday.
Funny how MSM is quick to believe one or two unnamed “sources” every time, and yet refuses to acknowledge hundreds of eye witnesses across six states who signed affidavits under oath.
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) December 8, 2020
She posted a portion of the brief Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed at the U.S. Supreme Court Monday night challenging the election procedures in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
From Texas:
“Our Country stands at an important crossroads. Either the Constitution matters and it must be followed, even when some officials consider it inconvenient or out of date, or it is simply a piece of parchment on display… We ask the Court to choose the former.”
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— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) December 8, 2020
Texas accused officials in these states of using the pandemic to justify ignoring state laws regarding absentee and mail-in voting.
In the suit, Paxton further argued the defendant states violated the Electors Clause of the Constitution “by taking non-legislative actions to change the election rules that would govern the appointment of presidential electors.
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“Each of these States flagrantly violated the statutes enacted by relevant State legislatures, thereby violating the Electors Clause of Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution. By these unlawful acts, Defendant States have not only tainted the integrity of their own citizens’ votes, but their actions have also debased the votes of citizens in the States that remained loyal to the Constitution.”
The suit cited violations of federal requirements for elections, including equal protection and due process under the law, as well as “irregularities in the Defendant States that would be consistent with the unconstitutional relaxation of ballot-integrity protections in those States’ election laws.”
“[T]hese flaws cumulatively preclude knowing who legitimately won the 2020 election and threaten to cloud all future elections.”
