Jordan Wilkie for Carolina Public Press:

Each expert to whom CPP talked for this story said that, in election litigation in the United States, the motivation is always driven at least in part by the pursuit of power, and that is not limited to one political party over another. 

“In the history of battles over voting in this country, you’re going to find it’s rare that any of these actors have pure motives,” said Roberts, the UNC political science professor. 

“It’s almost all motives based on what’s going to help them in the short run, and that’s certainly the case here.” 

But Justin Levitt, law professor at Loyola Marymount law school, is not convinced that Republicans actually want to win their Elections Clause arguments. 

“It would not be the first time that hubris and lack of forethought caused a political party to take a whole bunch of moves that turned out to bite them in the rear a couple years down the line,” Levitt said. 

While the independent state legislature doctrine could help Republicans control federal election rules in states like North Carolina and Pennsylvania, it could actually be more harmful to the party’s national authority. 

“Believe me, the tradition and the history in both New York and California, says that, if unleashed, Democrats will have absolutely no trouble figuring out how to abuse their power,” Levitt said.