The state of Mississippi has joined a lawsuit filed by Texas against several other states on the grounds those states made uncon­sti­tu­tion­al changes to 2020 elec­tion laws.

The suit from the Texas attorney general, Republican Ken Paxton, demands that the 62 total Electoral College votes in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin be invalidated because voting and election procedures were altered by judges, secretaries of state or other leaders, when that power is specifically under the authority of state legislatures.

Fitch said the integrity of our elections is paramount.

“The people of Mississippi must have confidence that their votes are not diminished by fraud,” said Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch. “Since taking office earlier this year, I have gone to court to defend the integrity of our own elections against outside groups seeking to use the pandemic as an excuse to re-write the laws passed by our duly elected legislators. I have also joined my colleagues from other states to defend the fundamental principle that courts do not write election laws; they interpret them. When courts seek to do otherwise, they violate the separation of powers that is critical to our democracy.”

Some legal experts have dismissed Paxton’s filing as a legal longshot.

Paxton contends the four states “exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to justify ignoring federal and state election laws and unlawfully enacting last-minute changes, thus skewing the results of the 2020 General Election.” Paxton said the battleground states “flooded their people with unlawful ballot applications and ballots while ignoring statutory requirements as to how they were received, evaluated and counted.”

Officials in the states being challenged described the lawsuit as an outlandish stunt with no legal basis.

“These continued attacks on our fair and free election system are beyond meritless, beyond reckless,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro wrote on Twitter.

“I feel sorry for Texans that their tax dollars are being wasted on such a genuinely embarrassing lawsuit,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul wrote on Twitter. “Texas is as likely to challenge the outcome of the Ice Bowl as it is to overturn the will of Wisconsin voters in the 2020 presidential election.”

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who was recently named the new chair of the Republican Attorneys General Association, also expressed skepticism about the lawsuit.

“With all due respect, the Texas Attorney General is constitutionally, legally and factually wrong about Georgia,” a spokesperson for Carr said, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Fitch said she supports Texas’ efforts to ensure that our elections are free and fair. She said voter fraud elsewhere dilutes the votes of Mississippians.