Mr. Reyes, the 2020 election has been decided.
That’s not really news. It has been the reality for many weeks now. The time has come for all Americans to accept this, as well as to accept that allegations of election fraud have not been proven in court and have not been substantiated by any credible evidence.
We agree with Gov. Gary Herbert and Gov.-elect Spencer Cox, who have criticized Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes for joining a court brief in support of a Texas action seeking to invalidate 62 electoral votes in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. This is more than just a last-minute “hail Mary” pass to throw the election to President Trump. It is a waste of time, an abuse of the good name of Utah and a dangerous repudiation of a system that has worked as designed.
Utah voters elected Reyes to represent them in cases concerning the state of Utah, not to use their money to tilt at windmills of partisan speculation in other states. Herbert and Cox said Reyes never consulted with them before joining this action.
Utah’s presidential election has been settled and certified. Its residents have no interest in involving themselves in matters concerning other states, especially given the damage the Texas lawsuit would do to confidence in the election, and in American democracy.
On Monday, electors from all 50 states and the District of Columbia will meet to formally cast their votes for president and vice president. These electors were chosen according to the candidates certified as winners in those state elections. That certification is made official by the governors of those states, who send certificates of ascertainment, complete with the official raised seal of each governor, to the National Archives. These certificates include the names of the electors each state designates to cast votes in the Electoral College.
Before that, canvassing boards in each state formally certify who won in that state. To date, all 50 states have certified their results, and many governors already have sent their certificates to the National Archives. The results show Biden with 306 certified electoral votes and Trump with 232.
The Electoral Count Act of 1887 clearly states that any disputes in states as to the winner shall be determined by the certification of the governors of those states. That law also says that if disputations over election results are resolved at least six days before the Electoral College meets, the certified results are considered conclusive. This “safe harbor” law is meant to protect states from further attacks on its certified results.
This also means that Trump’s continued legal attacks are likely to fail, as has nearly every one so far. The Associated Press last week reported that the administration had filed about 50 lawsuits challenging election results. More than 30 had been rejected outright, and 10 were, at that time, pending. Only one, a challenge to the extension of a deadline for absentee voters to provide proof of identification, had succeeded.
In more than one case, judges have issued stinging rebukes. In Michigan, U.S. District Judge Linda Parker said the case for decertifying that state’s results amounted to “nothing but speculation and conjecture.”
In Georgia, a lawsuit filed by pro-Trump lawyer L. Lin Wood was rejected by a conservative 11th Circuit Court of Appeals judge who had been on Trump’s short list of possible Supreme Court appointments. The judge, William Pryor, said the attorney had no standing and that the case was moot because Georgia had certified its results.
Despite all the claims of widespread fraud, the evidence offered has been paltry. U.S. Attorney General William Barr, a staunch ally of President Trump, said U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have failed to uncover fraud on a scale that would change the election result.
A joint statement from the administration’s own Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council and the election infrastructure sector coordinating executive committees pronounced the election “the most secure in American history.”
It’s over. That should be clear to everyone, including Utah’s attorney general.