Ohio political group asks Trump to impose martial law, hold new election

COLUMBUS (WCMH) — An Ohio-based political organization is calling on President Donald Trump to impose limited martial law and conduct a new presidential election, a move that Ohio's Republican attorney general called "utterly irresponsible."

The We the People Convention, based in Akron, took out a full-page ad in the Washington Times on Tuesday, asking Trump to "invoke limited martial law in order to allow the U.S. military to oversee a new and fair federal election," according to a news release.

In November, Trump lost his reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden. Since then, Trump has alleged election fraud and attempted legal challenges in several states that he lost to Biden, but he has not been successful in changing the outcome in any of those states.

Tom Zawistowski, president of the We the People group, said in the release, "It is our exclusive right to elect our President and that sacred right has been infringed by the massive, planned, illegal election fraud conducted by corrupt Democrat/Socialist Party operatives."

Claims of fraud have not been shown to have merit, and the views aren't shared among all Republicans. Trump's own election security chief, Chris Krebs, said recently, "There is no foreign power that is flipping votes. There’s no domestic actor flipping votes. I did it right. We did it right. This was a secure election.”

Dave Yost, Ohio's attorney general and a Republican, responded to the ad by saying, "This ad, though protected by the First Amendment, is utterly irresponsible, ahistorical and without precedent or legal rationale."

The Electoral College, the body that casts each state's votes for president under the Constitution, is scheduled to meet on Dec. 14.