Ohio’s Republican attorney general is joining in part of the lawsuit Texas has filed against Pennsylvania challenging results of the presidental election. But he's not asking for results in four battleground states that Democratic President-Elect Joe Biden won to be thrown out - which is what some Republicans were hoping for.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement he wants the court to decide on the clause that says state legislatures set the rules for the Electoral College, not governors or judges.
That’s similar to Yost’s filing in a case about absentee ballots that was dismissed in Pennsylvania.
Ohio State University election law professor Ned Foley said this filing could settle a longstanding question about who sets election rules.
"I think Attorney General Yost has a point about the need for clarity on this general proposition. I don’t think this Texas case is the right vehicle to decide the broader question," Foley said.
The lawsuit is widely considered a longshot lawsuit by President Trump's campaign. Foley said he thinks it's likely to be dismissed.
While Yost did file the brief in support of the court making a call on the so-called Electors Clause, he wrote that he disagreed with Texas’ call to halt the Electoral College vote on Monday.
“Federal courts, just like state courts, lack authority to change the legislatively chosen method for appointing presidential electors. And so federal courts, just like state courts, lack authority to order legislatures to appoint electors without regard to the results of an already-completed election," Yost wrote in his statement.
Forty-two Ohio House Republicans sent a letter to Yost asking him to join the suit as 17 other Republican AGs did, from states Trump won.
