President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign filed lawsuits in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia on Wednesday, preparing to contest the voting results in these battleground states.
The campaign has sued in Michigan and Pennsylvania to stop the counting of absentee and mail-in ballots, and in Georgia to prevent the counting of absentee ballots that it claims were received after a deadline set for Election Day.
“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,” wrote Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien. “We have filed suit today in the Michigan Court of Claims to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted. We also demand to review those ballots which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access.”
Ryan Jarvi, press secretary for Attorney General Dana Nessel, dismissed Stepien’s claims. “Michigan’s elections have been conducted transparently, with access provided for both political parties and the public, and using a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that all ballots are counted fairly and accurately,” he said.
The announcement of the Michigan and Pennsylvania lawsuits came shortly before Trump’s Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, became projected to win the vote in Michigan.
This latest development in the US election follows a vow from the incumbent president that he would ask the Supreme Court to end the counting of ballots after Election Day. The Trump campaign has also sought to intervene in a case heard by the Pennsylvania state supreme court regarding the counting of ballots postmarked by Election Day but received by election authorities up to three days later.
Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon issued a statement referring to moves to halt the counting of ballots as “outrageous, unprecedented and incorrect.”
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“Nearly 100 million people cast their ballot before Election Day in the belief — and with the assurances from their state election officials — that their ballot would be counted,” she said. “Now Donald Trump is trying to invalidate the ballot of every voter who relied on these assurances.”
Dillon added that the Biden campaign has teams of lawyers ready to challenge legal action from the Trump campaign, and that “they will prevail”.
