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Donald Trump’s efforts to reduce the impact of early voting took a severe blow after judges from two states rejected lawsuits aimed at stopping ballot counting, a sign that the president’s strategy of using the courts to bolster his chances Reelection is getting turbulent even earlier. election day.
A federal judge in Texas on Monday dismissed a Republican lawsuit aimed at disqualifying 130,000 “direct vote” ballots in Houston, and a Nevada judge dismissed a similar attempt to stop counting the first few votes in the Las Vegas area.
Both states are seen as battlegrounds, particularly Texas, which has not elected a Democrat since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Anti-Trump sentiment and demographic shifts have pushed Democratic candidate Joe Biden a surprising distance in opinion polls. of Texas on the eve of elections.
The court rulings were part of some of the most aggressive pre-election maneuvers in modern American history, and an Election Day sign may become part of a week-long political and legal drama to determine the next president.
Trump has publicly stated that he views the courts as a tool to stop the mail-in vote counting, which Democrats overwhelmingly cast in most states, according to the Biden campaign and independent analysts.
On Monday night, the president appeared to suggest his supporters were ready to hit the streets because of a US Supreme Court decision allowing Pennsylvania to extend the deadlines for vote-by-mail ballots.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to vote in Pennsylvania is very dangerous. It will allow rampant and uncontrolled deception and undermine our entire system of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done! “Trump said in a tweet.
The post prompted the social media platform Twitter to add a disclaimer saying the president’s claim was “disputed” and “could be misleading.”
Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign manager, told reporters Monday that the sheer scale of the initial votes had put the former vice president and Democrats in pole position heading into Tuesday.
“Leaders like ours and what we are seeing will be hard to beat on Election Day,” he said. “We really believe that we came into election day with a great advantage.”
On several key battlefields in the industrial north, early and mail ballots could take days to count, meaning an early cut-off could hurt Biden’s chances.
Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel warned Monday that any attempt to prevent the state from counting more than 3 million absentee votes expected to be cast would amount to a “coup.”
“The election ends when all the votes are counted. Not when the polls close, ”Ms. Nessel said. “Voters can determine the winner, not the candidates.”
On the eve of the election, Biden has a national advantage of 8.2 points, according to the Financial Times analysis of poll data compiled by RealClearPolitics.
Biden also has the upper hand in all changing states except North Carolina, Ohio and Iowa. But his lead in some is within the margin of error, raising concerns among some Democrats that Trump may repeat his surprise victory in 2016 when polls in some swing states did not beat their late rise.
Trump and Biden traded picks on Monday while campaigning in Pennsylvania, which is critical for both candidates and is one of the states that is expected to take several days to count late votes.
Speaking in Cleveland, Ohio, Biden said it was “time for Donald Trump to pack his bags and go home.”
“We have ended the chaos. We are done with tweets, anger, hatred, failures, irresponsibility, “said the former vice president of the United States.
In Scranton, the city where Biden was born, Trump mocked his rival for his plan to campaign with the musician Lady Gaga in Pittsburgh later Monday. “Now you have Lady Gaga, Lady Gaga,” Trump said. “I could tell you stories about Lady Gaga.”
Years ago, Lady Gaga posted a link on Facebook to an anti-fracking website, and Republicans have used it as evidence that Biden wants to ban fracking, which is critical to the economy in southwestern Pennsylvania.
“No matter how many times Trump tries to lie about it, I will not ban fracking,” Biden said in Monaca.
Counting early votes has taken on a new meaning given the large volume of votes cast before Election Day on Tuesday. According to the US Elections Project, which tracks voting, more than 97 million people – 70 percent of the total vote count in 2016 – have already voted.
On Sunday, Trump said it was “a terrible thing” that ballots could be counted after Election Day in Pennsylvania. Mrs. O’Malley Dillon said: “Under no circumstances will Donald Trump be declared the winner on Election Night.”
Pennsylvania, which many in the Trump campaign believe is critical to the president’s reelection, will accept mail-in ballots postmarked on Election Day and arriving within three days of the election. The US Supreme Court recently rejected a request by Republicans to block that measure, but did not rule out tackling the issue again.
Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro insisted Trump would have no say in the state’s vote count. “Our elections end when all the votes are counted. But if their lawyers want to judge us, we will be happy to defeat them in court one more time, “he said while urging voters to” drown out the noise and the lies. “
Trump vs Biden: who is leading the 2020 election polls?
Use FT’s interactive calculator to see which states are most important to winning the presidency
The court battles added to the pre-electoral tensions. Stores and buildings in several large US cities, including Washington DC, were bricked up as a precaution against possible unrest after the results.
Stephanie Martz, general counsel for the National Retail Federation, said that retailers were “on a high alert in some parts of the country.”
Tiffany, the jeweler, said it would put windows in the windows “in key cities,” while Macy’s said it would take additional security measures at several stores.
Additional reporting by Patti Waldmeir, Courtney Weaver, and Alistair Gray
Follow Demetri Sebastopulo On twitter
Swamp notes
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