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Washington (AFP)
A Pennsylvania judge on Saturday threw out Donald Trump’s complaints about widespread electoral fraud in this state, in a move that was a further blow to the outgoing Republican president’s attempt to reverse the outcome of the US presidential election in his favor.
This tough court ruling paves the way for Pennsylvania to confirm Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the state, an announcement scheduled for Monday.
With the inauguration of Biden as president of the United States on January 20, Trump’s team is focused on trying to hinder the ratification of the results of the presidential elections in states that have witnessed intense competition, in addition to the many legal procedures that have been introduced and have so far failed.
Judge Matthew Bran wrote in his ruling that the Trump team had made “tense, substantiated and speculative legal arguments” in its complaints about ballots mailed to Pennsylvania.
“In the United States, this cannot justify denying a voter the right to vote if not all voters of the sixth state of the population” of the country, he added, noting that “our people, our laws and our institutions demand more.”
Biden won in all states the votes of the electorate who decides at the end of the tour who will enter the White House. He received 306 votes to 232 for his opponent, Trump.
The electorate will formally vote on December 14 and will be preceded by state approval of the results. Generally, states routinely validate results after each presidential election.
But Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his defeat complicates the process and raises concerns that doing so could damage Americans’ confidence in his electoral system.
Few Republicans recognized Biden’s victory and urged Trump to do so.
The Pennsylvania court ruling prompted Republican state Senator Pat Tommy to join them. He claimed that Biden “won the 2020 election and will become the 46th president of the United States.”
“President Trump must accept the election result and ease the presidential transition,” Tommy said in a statement congratulating Biden and making it clear that he voted for Trump.
Before him, Republican Senator Lamar Alexander joined colleagues who urged Trump to back the election result, saying that Biden “has a very good chance” of becoming the next president and “all resources should be provided for a smooth transition “.
– ‘The results are clear’ –
The ruling was issued in Pennsylvania hours after Republicans also called for a delay in ratifying the results in Michigan, which is another battlefield, in a letter repeating allegations of wrongdoing in the state where Biden won by 155,000. votes.
They requested a two-week delay to allow a full review of the results in Wayne, the state’s largest county, which includes the majority-black city of Detroit, in which Biden won an overwhelming majority.
Michigan’s Board of Audit Experts, which includes two Democrats and two Republicans, will meet Monday to approve the results.
And he asked the president of the Republican National Committee, Rona McDaniel, and the president of the party in Michigan, Laura Cox, that this council “postpone for a period of 14 days to allow a full scrutiny and investigations into these gaps and irregularities.”
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said audits can only be done after approval because officials don’t have the legal right to see required documents before then.
And he wrote in a tweet on Twitter on Saturday that “there was no evidence” to question the election result. He added: “In summary: 5.5 million citizens voted in Michigan,” and emphasized that “the results of their vote are clear and no evidence has emerged to undermine this.”
As part of his bid for change, Trump invited Michigan lawmakers to the White House on Friday who had confirmed they would respect the election result.
So far, Biden has toned down his criticism of Trump’s actions, though he spoke of “very damaging messages being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy works.” “It’s hard to understand how this man thinks,” he added.
Trump rarely appeared in public after the election, but he did not abandon his provocative Twitter campaign. “The evidence is undeniable,” he wrote on the site Saturday while on the golf course.
“Many more votes are required. That is the slippery slope,” he added.
Of course, Twitter put another warning sign in his tweet, along with one he posted later.
© 2020 AFP
