Legal bid to get Pence to overturn results fails

A federal judge on Friday rejected a lawsuit from a Republican congressman that sought to allow Vice President Mike Pence to reject Electoral College votes for Joe Biden when Congress meets on Jan. 6 to certify his victory over President Donald Trump. 

The latest long-shot attempt by Trump's Republican allies to overturn the Nov. 3 election was dismissed by one of Trump's own appointees to the federal bench, Jeremy Kernodle. He ruled that US Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas and a slate of Republican electors from Arizona could not show they suffered any personal harm "fairly traceable" to Pence's allegedly unlawful conduct and, therefore, lacked legal standing to bring the case.

Trump has refused to concede defeat to Democrat Biden and has repeatedly falsely claimed the election was tainted by widespread fraud. He and his allies have lost dozens of court efforts seeking to reverse the election results. Biden beat President Donald Trump by a 306-232 margin in the Electoral College and is set to be sworn in on Jan. 20.

Gohmert's suit argued that Pence had discretion to decide what votes should count. They also asked the judge to bar Pence from following the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which lays out how objections to votes are handled by Congress.

Some Republicans have said they plan to object to the count of presidential electors next week in Congress. Reuters reported this week the effort could trigger a lengthy debate in the Senate but has virtually no chance of overturning the results.