Why Trump files so many minor lawsuits in battlefield states



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“While the Trump campaign has made its legal arguments, it hasn’t really produced any stronger legal facts or theories than it started out,” said election lawyer and CNN analyst Rick Hasen.

President Donald Trump’s campaign strategy increasingly appears to be to cast enough doubt on the vote count so that he can find judges to prevent states from certifying his voters’ choice, according to election experts, including including longtime Republican lawyer turned CNN analyst Ben Ginsberg. The Electoral College does not officially select the president until December 14, with a key deadline of December 8.

If that worked, in theory, then it could pave the way for state legislatures – especially the ruling Republicans in Michigan and Pennsylvania – to argue that they should make their own choice for their constituency list, giving to Trump a victory that goes against it. Biden’s victory in more than one state. But it couldn’t come close to giving Trump election victory without a lot of help.

“I suspect that the pipe dream of the Trump campaign is to force all of these issues that never went to the Supreme Court,” Ginsbergr said.

Liberal and Conservative legal experts say the theoretical approach Trump appears to be trying is extremely unlikely. Even longtime GOP strategist Karl Rove wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday night that Biden’s victory would not be undone.
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“To win, Mr. Trump must prove systemic fraud, with illegal votes in the tens of thousands. There is no evidence of that so far. Unless some quickly emerge, the president’s chances before the courts will drop precipitously when states begin to certify results, ”wrote Rove, long considered a mastermind of political maneuvering under President George W. Bush.

Lawyers for the Biden campaign have called the scene of the Trump campaign lawsuits, and nothing more.

Pennsylvania

Keystone state has seen the most attempts by the Trump campaign to scramble Biden’s apparent victory in the state in court, and now has its most daring case to try to prevent leaders from State to certify the results of the vote.

However, senior Republicans in the Pennsylvania Legislature said the state’s presidential voters would follow the outcome of the popular vote.

Biden leads by 50,000 votes in Pennsylvania and CNN screened him to win the state.

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The Trump campaign filed a case in Federal Court on Monday exposing numerous grievances about the Pennsylvania election with little evidence. The case alleges that voters faced violations of constitutional rights, because counties took different approaches to processing mail ballots and observers sometimes failed to fully see the processing of ballots. voting – the same types of arguments faced by skeptical judges in other courts.

The Trump campaign has called on Federal Judge Matthew Brann in the Middle District of Pennsylvania to stop certification of election results. Brann will be holding arguments and a hearing for witnesses to testify next Tuesday and Thursday.

Other live Trump campaigns or Republican affairs in the state deal with the handling of missing ballots with defects or other special situations, such as missing privacy envelopes, lack of address on the envelope external or corrected by a provisional vote, or mailed ballots received after Election Day. Even if all cases – including a persistent challenge in the United States Supreme Court over late votes – were to be successful, the number of ballots affected would be a few thousand. That wouldn’t be enough to overcome Biden’s lead over Trump.

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Another lingering case in the state is a call by Democrats after election observers for the Trump campaign in Philadelphia were granted the opportunity to get slightly closer to poll processors, which the Trump campaign used to continue its efforts to public relations in order to sow doubt in the electoral process.

Michigan

Two court cases from the Trump campaign – in Michigan state and federal courts – seek to slow down or prevent Wayne County and State, which includes heavily democratic Detroit, from certifying votes there. Michigan officials said the election went smoothly.

In a federal court case filed Wednesday, the Trump campaign is asking the court to essentially force an overhaul of the absentee vote count in Michigan and prevent the state from certifying its election results.

CNN projected Biden as the nearly 3% state winner over Trump, with nearly 150,000 votes ahead.

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A Michigan Claims Court judge has already dismissed the state-level lawsuit within two days of its filing, calling the Trump campaign “evidence” regarding the vote count of absentees hearsay.

On Wednesday, in a state court hearing, two plaintiffs made a similar offer to the Trump campaign and called for an audit and to prevent certification of the outcome.

Attorney David Fink, representing Detroit, told the judge at this hearing that blocking Michigan’s vote finalization would either result in the state’s expulsion from the Electoral College or the president’s return to the House of Representatives. America, or allowing the Republican – has asked the state legislature to attempt to seat its own voters list.

Judge Timothy Kenny said he would publish his opinion on Friday.

Attorney David Fink, representing Detroit, explained at this hearing that blocking the finalization of Michigan’s votes would result in either the state’s expulsion from the Electoral College or the return of the president’s selection to the House of US officials or state authorization held by Republicans. legislature to try to sit on its own voters list.

Arizona

The Trump campaign filed a complaint on Saturday to attempt to block solicitation or certification of all ballots cast in person on election day in Maricopa County, the most populous county in the battlefield state and Phoenix understands, until they can be examined.

Biden leads Trump in the state by more than 12,000 votes. CNN did not project a winner in the state. But the Trump campaign claims that examining nearly 166,000 in-person ballots cast on Election Day “would yield up to thousands more votes for President Trump and other Republican candidates in the Nov. 3 general election. 2020 “.

In the lawsuit, which reignited refuted claims that Sharpie pens deprived voters of their voting rights, the campaign argued that some voters’ ballots had been rejected by tabulation machines due to flaws, such as stray marks or ink stains from Sharpie pens. The campaign is trying to make its case using statements from two voters who suspected but had no evidence that their ballots had not been counted.

A Maricopa County election official told the court that only 180 candidates on election day were even subject to review and that there was no systemic problem with the election.

The Trump campaign has tried to delay a court hearing, and a lawyer for Trump has sought to seal the identity of the people he wanted to call to testify at a hearing scheduled for Thursday.

Lawyers for Maricopa County opposed it.

“The public has a right to know how fragile the plaintiffs’ evidence is,” they wrote.

The Trump campaign had previously been part of a lawsuit in Arizona filed by a dozen voters who claimed Sharpies may have caused voting problems. They eventually dropped this trial.

Georgia

Georgia has no pending litigation, but a manual recount is underway, the state said Wednesday morning. Biden leads by about 14,000 votes in the state, or 0.3%. CNN did not call the state for any of the candidates.
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Even with a recount, a voting margin of over 1,000 is a large and seemingly insurmountable gap that Trump must overcome. In recounts since 2000, the average change in the number of votes has been a few hundred, according to a study by non-partisan group FairVote.

“Everything is a step on the way to the ultimate goal of the president’s re-election,” campaign legal adviser Stefan Passantino said on the recount on Wednesday.

CNN’s Jessica Schneider, Annie Grayer, Michael Warren and Pamela Brown contributed to this report.

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