Rep. Ken Calvert Signed Brief That Backed Trump, Texas Lawsuit

CORONA, CA — Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona), who represents much of Southwest Riverside County, joined more than 125 other House Republicans in signing an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court that backed a Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

The Republican-led effort failed. Friday evening, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit. In its decision, the court denied the complaint for “lack of standing.”

President Donald Trump and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton were attempting to invalidate the election in four battleground states — Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Voters in each of the states handed President-elect Joe Biden a win. Briefs denouncing the Texas suit were issued to the U.S. Supreme Court by the four states' attorneys general.

In its decision, the high court ruled that Texas did not demonstrate "a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections."

In signing onto the brief in support of Texas, Calvert was joined in California by Republican colleagues Kevin McCarthy, Doug LaMalfa and Tom McClintock.

Calvert told The Press-Enterprise, "The Trump campaign deserves to have the opportunity to argue its case before the Supreme Court, and have the Justices weigh its merits with a ‘careful and timely review’ as stated in the brief.”

The Texas lawsuit alleged the four states made changes to election law that compromised election integrity. As of Friday, 18 states had signed on in support of the lawsuit, while more than 20 states — including California — and U.S. territories were backing Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

City News Service spoke to two longtime Riverside County political figures on Thursday, before the SCOTUS decision, and both expressed sharply divergent views on the best resolution for the country.

"Joe Biden is the clear winner of the election. President-elect Biden received the greatest number of votes won by a presidential candidate in history and secured 306 Electoral College votes," Rep. Mark Takano, D- Riverside, told City News Service. "The American people delivered President- elect Biden a strong mandate."

Takano, who was just elected to his fifth term representing the 41st Congressional District, denounced President Donald Trump's multi-state contest to invalidate hundreds of thousands of votes based on alleged fraud, saying it's an effort to "de-legitimize the election," which the congressman called "dangerous."

On the opposite side, former state Sen. Jeff Stone, a Republican who previously represented the 28th Senate District, stretching from Temecula to Blythe, and now serves as the U.S. Department of Labor's western regional director, told CNS he believes the president is waging a battle for "transparency and honesty."

"Let me be clear, I cannot speak for the president, and I am not a spokesman for the administration, but as an American citizen and someone who has been in politics for many years, what I saw in this election raised a mountain of concerns," Stone said. "There's evidence of fraud."

"This is the United States of America, and our elective process can't be turned into a sham," he said. "If we allow potentially fraudulent acts that influence a presidential election to go uncorrected, we are headed down a very dark road, and God help us. People are going to lose hope that their vote really counts."

Stone, who was interviewed outside of his working hours on the federal payroll, said the issue is not a partisan one, but a matter of sustaining "election integrity."

Takano countered that the president's "constant attacks on our democratic process and his false claims are undermining our democracy."

"There is no evidence that supports his false claims, and the courts have upheld the legitimacy of the election time and time again," the congressman said.

While Trump waits to see if the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the Texas case, the president has had a string of court losses following the election. He has alleged "ballot dumping" in Wisconsin and Michigan, saying tens of thousands of votes for Biden appeared in the predawn hours of Nov. 4, erasing leads the incumbent was holding. He has also alleged the equivalent of ballot-box stuffing for the challenger in Georgia and Pennsylvania, and irregularities in Arizona and Nevada.

Takano called the accusations baseless, asserting "the voices of the American people will not be silenced" just because the president is unhappy with the outcome of the election.

Stone acknowledged that he was a fan of electronic voting in the 2000s, while a Riverside County supervisor. At the time, he disagreed with civic action group Sav-R-Vote of Temecula Valley when it claimed the county's Sequoia voting units were vulnerable to hacking. The machines were ultimately de-certified by the state, and the county switched to paper ballots processed using high-speed scanners.

"I have had to adjust my opinion of electronic voting after this election," Stone said. "In just one county in Michigan (Antrim), they found 6,000 votes were flipped from Trump to Biden. Who's to say it couldn't be 600,000, or 6 million across the country?"

Antrim County officials attributed the vote switch to an unspecified glitch.

Takano expressed no qualms regarding e-voting.

"Soon, every state in the nation will have certified their election results, and the process will continue for the Electoral College to certify that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States," he said. "I look forward to working with him to help the American people."

Electoral College delegations are due to meet Monday in their respective states to certify ballots for the highest vote-getter in the election. Certification then moves to the House of Representatives.

Stone said he hoped the disputes can be resolved ahead of inauguration day.

"I don't want us to be three years down the road only to realize, "`Wow, President Trump really did win,"' he said.

—City News Service contributed to this report.