SUDBURY, MA — Five Massachusetts Republicans who lost races this fall filed a lawsuit seeking to effectively cancel the results of the November election, echoing claims made by President Donald Trump’s campaign about fraud and illegal voting in 2020.
The suit was filed Monday by former candidates Caroline Colarusso, Ingrid Centurion, John Paul Moran, Craig Valdez and Helen Brady. The former candidates are asking a federal judge to decertify the results of the November election, largely due to the expansion of absentee voting during the coronavirus pandemic.
The plaintiffs claim the state constitution allows absentee voting under limited circumstances, and none include a pandemic. The state Legislature and Gov. Charlie Baker expanded absentee voting in July to allow residents to cast ballots by mail if they felt unsafe going to the polls.
The former candidates accused lawmakers of creating an “incumbent protection scheme” by expanding the early voting period in the weeks before the November election.
“Voters tend to vote for the candidates who have name recognition, a commodity that incumbents generally come into the race with and challengers hope to acquire in limited time,” the lawsuit says.Subscribe
Each of the former candidates lost by wide margins to Democratic incumbents. State Rep. Carmine Gentile defeated Centurion with about 69 percent of the vote in a race for a district that covers Sudbury, Framingham and Marlborough. U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark defeated Colarusso with about 75 percent of the vote. Moran only took about 34 percent of the vote against victorious U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton.
The lawsuit also claims Dominion Voting Systems machines used across the state in November came pre-programmed to divert votes to certain candidates — an assertion made by Trump supporters that has been debunked by government officials and election experts.
Apart from a total decertification of the November election, the former candidates want a federal judge to prevent the state’s electors from picking President-elect Joe Biden at the Electoral College; the impounding of all voting machines for inspection; a full recount of all “valid/legal” ballots; and the removal of up to 2 million “invalid/illegal” votes that may have been cast under the absentee voting expansion, or by “non-U.S. citizens.”
The lawsuit also resembles one filed in November by Shiva Ayyadurai, who lost to Kevin O’Connor in the Republican U.S. Senate primary in September. Ayyadurai claims Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin ordered electronic voting machines to delete ballot images after votes were counted — a claim also made in the latest election lawsuit.
The five former candidates are suing Baker and Galvin directly. The former candidates are representing themselves in court and were set to appear before a federal judge Tuesday afternoon.
PEABIDY, PATCH
