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FT reporters
Donald Trump made unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud during the US presidential election and threatened to go ahead with lawsuits in battle states on Friday when his lead slipped away in the biggest prizes left on the electoral map.
Here’s the latest on the legal challenges Trump is raising in some of the key states.
Pennsylvania (20 votes)The Trump campaign launched its most vigorous legal challenges in Pennsylvania, seeking to stop the counting of votes and demand that Republican observers get better access to the counting centers in Philadelphia.
Trump’s team touted a legal victory in Philadelphia on Thursday, but the ruling simply halted the count in Pennsylvania’s largest city. In the evening, a judge had dismissed the lawsuit after Democrats and Republicans agreed to allow 60 observers to enter the tally centers.
The Trump campaign has asked permission to participate in pending Supreme Court litigation over how long the state can collect postal ballots. The US superior court has previously refused to overturn an extension of the deadline for such votes, although the case remains alive.
Georgia (16 votes): The president’s campaign announced a lawsuit in a Georgia state court questioning whether election officials were incorrectly counting vote-by-mail ballots that had arrived after the Election Day deadline. Biden narrowly snatched the lead from Trump on Friday with the race still too tight to call.
On Thursday, a Georgia judge dismissed the case, saying the campaign lacked sufficient evidence that the ballots were late.
Nevada (6 votes): The Trump campaign announced Thursday that it would file a lawsuit alleging that Nevada authorities were incorrectly counting votes cast by people living out of state.
In the run-up to Election Day, his legal team had tried to stop the processing of some mail ballots in Clark County on an emergency appeal.
A state trial court rejected the challenge to how the county verifies signatures on postal ballots, as well as the “duplication” process it uses to ensure ballots can be entered into counting machines.
Wisconsin (10 votes): Election officials in Wisconsin have said their count is complete, and the Associated Press has called the state for Mr. Biden by a margin of 20,517 votes.
But even before the vote ended, Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager, said in a statement that the president’s team would immediately request a recount.
Scott Walker, the former Republican Governor of Wisconsin, wrote that 20,000 votes can be a “big hurdle,” noting that previous counts had shifted the final tally by at most a few hundred votes.
Michigan (16 votes)Before Michigan was called by Biden Wednesday night, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit to stop the counting of votes in the state, claiming that it had not been given “meaningful access” to observe the count in various locations. .
Stepien said in a statement that the lawsuit filed in state court sought to stop the count until they were given access, as well as a “review” of the ballots already counted.
But a Michigan state judge dismissed the lawsuit Thursday, saying it was too late and challenging his claims.
North Carolina (15 votes)The issue of ballot deadlines is also being questioned in North Carolina, a “new south” state that was always seen as a long shot for Biden.
The state board of elections has said in a court-approved settlement that mail-in ballots could arrive up to six days after November 3. Last week, the US Supreme Court refused to issue an injunction against the extension, but the case remains alive at the bottom. courts.
Read more about Trump’s campaign escalating the legal offensive here.
