United States: Republicans suffer setbacks in court over election

Republicans suffered setbacks in their presidential challenges in three hotly contested states on Friday, while a law firm that has faced criticism for its work for President Donald Trump’s campaign withdrew of a major case. in Pennsylvania.

The legal defeats began when a federal appeals court rejected an attempt to block about 9,300 mailed ballots that arrived after election day in Pennsylvania. In their argument for the three-day extension, the judges highlighted the “huge upheavals” and “unprecedented challenges” the nation is facing following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Presiding Circuit Judge D. Brooks Smith said the three-judge panel had not lost sight of “an indisputable idea in our democratic process: that every citizen’s legally cast vote must count.”

The ruling involves a decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to accept mail-in ballots until Nov. 6 due to the pandemic and the potential for delays in the postal service.

Republicans have also asked the Federal Supreme Court to look into the matter. However, there aren’t enough late ballots to alter the results in Pennsylvania, given President-elect Joe Biden’s lead. The former vice president won the state by a difference of around 60,000 votes, out of around 6.8 million votes.

The Trump campaign and his associates have filed more than 15 court challenges in Pennsylvania in an attempt to recover the 20 electoral votes the state has given itself, but so far they have provided no evidence of electoral fraud generalized.

A Philadelphia judge found none, refusing to reject some 8,300 mailed votes Friday afternoon. The campaign launched similar litigation in other states, with little success.

In Michigan, a judge on Friday refused to stop the certification of election results in the Detroit area, dismissing allegations that the city had committed fraud and falsified the tally in its handling of absentee votes. This is the third time a judge has refused to intervene in the state’s tally, showing Biden more than 140,000 votes ahead.

And in Arizona, lawyers for the Trump campaign asked to withdraw a request for manual inspection of ballots in the Phoenix metropolitan area, when it was clear the number of ballots in question could not change the result. of the presidential race.

Meanwhile, the huge law firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, which had been criticized for its work on the Trump campaign, withdrew from a lawsuit aimed at preventing Pennsylvania authorities from certifying the election results.

Porter Wright filed a motion to withdraw on Thursday after criticism mounted that law firms backing Republican challenges in the election are helping Trump oppose the will of the American people.

The company raised more than $ 700,000 in revenue from the Trump campaign. He apparently terminated his Twitter account on Tuesday after being the target of a wave of criticism.