Judges dismiss Trump lawsuits in Georgia and Michigan

Judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly dismissed Trump
campaign lawsuits Thursday, undercutting a campaign legal strategy
to attack the integrity of the voting process in states where the
result could mean President Donald Trump’s defeat.

The rulings came as Democrat Joe Biden inched closer to the 270
Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, and Trump
and his campaign promised even more legal action based on
unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud.

Speaking in the White House briefing room Thursday, the
president launched into a litany of claims, without proof, about
how Democrats were trying to unfairly deprive him of a second term.
“But we think there’ll be a lot of litigation because we can’t have
an election stolen like this,” Trump said.

Earlier Thursday, a Biden campaign lawyer called the lawsuits
meritless, more political strategy than legal. “I want to emphasize
that for their purposes these lawsuits don’t have to have merit.
That’s not the purpose. … It is to create an opportunity for them
to message falsely about what’s taking place in the electoral
process,” lawyer Bob Bauer said, accusing the Trump campaign of
“continually alleging irregularities, failures of the system and
fraud without any basis.”

Trump is used to suing and being sued. A USA Today
analysis found that he and his businesses were involved in at least
3,500 state and federal court actions in the three decades before
he became president. [The latest] Election 2020
live updates: Biden makes gains in key states, Trump pushes
baseless claims of electoral misconduct as vote counting continues
»

In this election, the court battles so far have been small-scale
efforts to get a closer look at local elections officials as they
process absentee ballots. A Michigan judge noted that the state’s
ballot count is over as she tossed the campaign’s lawsuit.

In Georgia, a state judge dismissed a case over concerns about
53 absentee ballots in Chatham County after elections officials in
the Savannah-area county testified that all of those ballots had
been received on time. Campaign officials said earlier they were
considering similar challenges in a dozen other counties around the
state.

In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, the Trump campaign won an appellate
ruling to get party and campaign observers closer to election
workers who are processing mail-in ballots in Philadelphia.

But the order did not affect the counting of ballots that is
proceeding in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, as elections officials
are dealing with an avalanche of mail ballots driven by fears of
voting in person during a pandemic.

The lawsuits in multiple states highlight that the Trump
campaign could be confronting a political map in which it might
have to persuade courts in two or more states to set aside enough
votes to overturn the results. That’s a substantially different
scenario than in the contested presidential election of 2000, which
eventually was effectively settled by the Supreme Court, when the
entire fight was over Florida’s electoral votes and involved a
recount as opposed to trying to halt balloting.
[The latest] Some Republicans break with Trump over
baseless vote-fraud claims »

Biden, for his part, has said he expects to win the election,
but he counseled patience Thursday, saying: “Each ballot must be
counted.”

Trump campaign officials, meanwhile, accused Democrats of trying
to steal the election, despite no evidence anything of the sort was
taking place.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, in a call with reporters
Thursday morning, said that “every night the president goes to bed
with a lead” and every night new votes “are mysteriously found in a
sack.” It is quite common in presidential elections to have vote
counting continue after election day.

Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said additional legal
action was expected and would be focused on giving campaign
officials access to where ballots were being counted.

Trump’s campaign has also announced that it will ask for
a recount in Wisconsin. Stepien previously cited “irregularities in
several Wisconsin counties,” without providing specifics.
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The Associated Press called Wisconsin and Michigan for Biden on
Wednesday. The AP has not called Georgia, Nevada or
Pennsylvania.

The president’s lawyers have asked to intervene in a pending
Republican appeal to the Supreme Court over the three-day extension
for the receipt and counting of mailed ballots ordered by
Pennsylvania’s top court. Democrats in the state told the justices
Thursday that they should put off granting the request because they
“may well not need to hear and decide” the matter if Pennsylvania
is not critical to the outcome or the late-arriving ballots
wouldn’t make a difference.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Washington, Ed White in
Detroit, Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Maryclaire Dale in
Philadelphia, and Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta contributed to this
report.