Court OKs Texas winner-take-all presidential elector system

Source: Associated Press


Kevin Mcgill, Associated Press
Updated 4:01 pm CST, Wednesday, February 26, 2020

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The winner-take-all system Texas and 47 other states use to assign Electoral College presidential votes is constitutional, a federal appeals court said Wednesday.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans unanimously upheld a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the Texas system. It was the latest defeat for organizations challenging such systems in Texas and three other states. Cases are pending at the appellate level in at least two of those cases.

Domingo Garcia, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a lead plaintiff in the case, said he expects the issue to wind up at the Supreme Court. LULAC said in a news release that it was considering its next move. The league and its allies could request a rehearing by the full 5th Circuit, which has 16 active members, or go straight to the Supreme Court.

. . .

Among those pushing the challenges are LULAC and attorney David Boies, who represented then-Vice President Al Gore in the litigation over the Florida vote count in the 2000 presidential election. The challenges say the winner-take-all system violates the “one-person, one-vote” principle arising from constitutional equal protection and freedom of association rights.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Court-OKs-Texas-winner-take-all-presidential-15086187.php