Sues as path to victory narrows

[struggle4progress]

... Trump .. is challenging .. counts in .. Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The BBC projects Mr Biden won Michigan. US media forecast he took Wisconsin. No result has yet emerged in Pennsylvania ...

Mr Biden had the support of 70.5 million voters, the most won by any presidential candidate ever. Mr Trump has pulled in 67.2 million votes, four million more than he gained in 2016 ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54818992

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1. The lawsuits

By Sean Boynton Global News
Posted November 4, 2020 11:01 pm
Updated November 5, 2020 12:24 am

... Wednesday .. Trump .. asked a judge to halt ballot counting in Pennsylvania, claiming that Republicans had been unlawfully denied access to observe the process. No fraudulent or illegal activity has been reported ...

... The campaign said the case in the Michigan Court of Claims seeks to halt counting until it has an election inspector at each absentee voter counting board. The campaign also wanted to review ballots which were opened and counted before an inspector from its campaign was present ...

... a lawsuit .. in .. Georgia ... is not asking a judge to halt ballot counting. Instead, the campaign said it received information that late-arriving ballots were improperly mingled with valid ballots, and asked a judge to enter an order making sure late-arriving ballots were separated so they would not be counted ...

The .. campaign says it will request a recount of all ballots in the state of Wisconsin ...

https://globalnews.ca/news/7443646/us-election-trump-biden-lawsuits/

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2. Lawsuit in Georgia

... The lawsuit alleges that 53 ballots were turned in after the 7 p.m. deadline Tuesday in Chatham County, according to a statement by campaign officials ...

... the lawsuit .. reveals that the witness the Trump campaign cites only said he was working as a poll observer and got up and left. Those ballots were processed while he was gone, and he does not know where they came from ...

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/politics/metro-attorneys-getting-ready-possible-legal-challenges-presidential-us-senate-races/6AAHOL5OTFETVGN5LZJSP6K6VI/

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3. Lawsuits in Michigan, Pennsylvania alleging lack of access for poll observers

... "They're not letting our poll watchers watch the polls, not letting them inside," said Eric Trump, one of the president's sons, at a press conference Wednesday afternoon referring to the Pennsylvania case. "They're trying to cheat."

The Trump campaign has not produced any evidence of cheating, but has alleged that poll watchers were being denied close-up access to observe vote counting at locations in Philadelphia and Detroit.

The legal action would not impact the vote tallies in either state -- where elections officials are still counting ballots. Myrna Perez, the director of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Program, called the suit a "nuisance" saying it is "designed to distract Americans from the counting process. The courts are unlikely to take this seriously" ...

Officials in both states pushed back on the allegations -- which they said stem from social distancing requirements imposed in vote-counting facilities to protect poll workers from coronavirus ...

ttps://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-files-election-lawsuits-michigan-pennsylvania-alleging-lack/story?id=74032924

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4. Sues in Michigan

... The new filings, joining existing Republican legal challenges in Pennsylvania and Nevada, demand better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted, the campaign said. However, at one Michigan location in question The Associated Press observed poll watchers from both sides monitoring on Wednesday ...

https://www.lockhaven.com/news/local-news/2020/11/trump-sues-in-pennsylvania-michigan-asks-for-wis-recount/

[struggle4progress]

5. Lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia

... "The legal rationale is that state law allows for a campaign to have access to monitor the counting, the opening of mail-in ballots and tabulating, to make sure there's no fraud. So by definition of him filing the lawsuits, he's saying he's not been given that access. But you hear all the election officials in these states, in both Michigan and Pennsylvania, say that they have provided adequate access, that they have complied by state law," said D.C. attorney Cristina Antelo.

Antelo adds, "Would there be a legal remedy to do this if there was a wrong? Yes, but in this, it doesn't appear there was a wrong, so it does seem illegitimate that he's putting out these lawsuits" ...

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/election-legal-battle-brewing-after-trump-campaign-files-lawsuits-in-pennsylvania-michigan-and-georgia

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6. Lawsuits 'Without Merit'

... state leaders and election law experts have said that the campaign's allegations are baseless ...

"This afternoon, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit to stop the counting of ballots in Pennsylvania. That is simply wrong," Wolf said. "It goes against the most basic principles for our democracy. It takes away the right of every American citizen to cast their vote to choose our leaders" ...

Speaking about the Trump campaign's lawsuit alleging that Democratic election officials are "hiding the ballot counting" from Republican poll observers, Levine noted that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has already made clear that the state's election law governing poll watchers does not grant them permission to conduct a signature-by-signature review of returned ballots ...

"President Trump's campaign has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law," Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said ...

"This is utterly and completely false, as they know," attorney Jordan Acker .. tweeted about the lawsuit's allegations. "I've been in that room in the TCF Center all morning with hundreds of Republican challengers. Meritless" ...

https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-election-lawsuits-are-without-merit-democratic-lawyers-state-officials-say-1545002

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7. Expert explains lawsuits

... Lawyer and Drake University Professor Mark Kende specializes in constitutional law and said some of this seems attainable and some of it is out of reach.

"It's not clear what, if anything, has occurred that is a problem in terms of the counting. There are Republicans, from what I heard, that are present and in the room and therefore there are observers in these places," Kende said.

Kende adds there isn't really any meat on the bones. He said it's going to be challenging for the campaign to intervene in the Pennsylvania case or ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider stopping ballot counts.

Lastly, asking for a recount in Wisconsin in a close call is essentially fair.

https://www.kcci.com/article/national-updates-and-results-presidential-race-and-us-voting/34561805

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8. UH professor explains

... In Wisconsin, where Trump's campaign manager said they intended to request a recount, a losing candidate's votes must be within 1 percent of the winning candidate's votes.

For example, as of 9 p.m. on Nov. 4, Joe Biden received 1,630,542 votes. Trump received 1,610,007. That's a difference of 20,535 votes, which is 1.26% ...

https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/lawsuits-recounts-stopping-ballot-counts-university-of-houston-prof-explains-what-president-trump-can-do-legally/285-5ddc3741-4124-44bc-8d69-71a8cad8730a

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9. Recount laws in Wisconsin

... the recount can be requested within three business days of the county canvass except for presidential election recounts, which must be requested on the first business day following the canvass. The margin required is 40 votes in a race with fewer than 4,000 votes or 1% in a race with more than 4,000 votes ...

https://ballotpedia.org/Recount_laws_in_Wisconsin

[pfitz59]

10. Dying goldfish gasping for air

Death throes of a cult

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11. Experts weigh-in

... “Something I find very interesting about that as a lawyer is that lawyers are not allowed by our ethical code to file lawsuits that are frivolous, and right now some may believe that’s what’s happening.” said University of Dayton School of Law Democratic Transition Working Group Dan Friesen ...

“If the Trump campaign lawyers have some facts that would suggest irregularities or somehow the count isn’t accurate, they need to tell us what those facts are,” said Friesen. “If they have no facts that backup their claims and are just hoping to find some or slow things down because they don’t like where they sit right now, that’s a serious violation” ...

https://www.wdtn.com/news/your-local-election-hq/dayton-legal-experts-weigh-in-on-trump-campaign-lawsuits/

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12. MI Secretary of State Benson: lawsuit is 'frivolous'

... “I think it’s time that we all come together and not allow frivolous lawsuits or any effort to misinform the public about the truth behind our elections to succeed,” Benson said. “And I will remain steadfastly determined in the days ahead to ensure we continue to correct false information and continue to tell the story, the extraordinary story, of our elections in Michigan this year.”

Trump’s lawsuit, filed in the Michigan Court of Claims Wednesday morning, said the president’s campaign “has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law,” according to Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien. The lawsuit came shortly after the Trump campaign asked for a recount in Wisconsin, another swing state Biden narrowly won.

Trump incorrectly declared in a tweet Wednesday that he had won Michigan, saying he “claimed” the state due to a “large number of secretly dumped ballots.” Shortly after, Twitter flagged the post as misinformation ...

https://www.michigandaily.com/section/government/secretary-state-benson-trump-lawsuit-%E2%80%98frivolous%E2%80%99

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13. Campaign's ambulance chasing

... In the early hours of Wednesday, Trump used a 3:00 a.m. speech in the White House to falsely declare “frankly we have won the election” and claim states “started to magically disappear” on the media’s Election Night map. That was followed hours later with Rudy Giuliani’s bizarre election lawsuit announcement in Philadelphia and several other obviously untrue declarations from the campaign, including numerous members of Trump’s family unilaterally — and baselessly — “declaring a victory” in Pennsylvania when more than a million ballots are still left to count ...

... ‘to make matters worse, Rudy is on the case,’ meaning the former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani ,whose credibility throughout all of this really has been shattered, as he has made just one reckless and baseless accusation after another” ...

https://www.mediaite.com/election-2020/jim-acosta-reports-trump-bleeding-gop-support-over-campaigns-ambulance-chasing-routine-to-stop-vote-counting/

[obamanut2012]

14. Great roundup thread -- thanks for posting!