As votes continue to be tabulated in key states including Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia, President Donald Trump’s campaign is pushing ahead with a sweeping series of lawsuits aimed at both halting counts in process and questioning the validity of others.
Some states, like Georgia and Michigan, have already tossed out the lawsuits. Others are still up in the air, and the Trump campaign is unlikely to yield before the results of the election are finalised.
Here are the key states where President Trump’s campaign or the Republican Party have filed election-related lawsuits and where they stand:
The Georgia Republican Party and Trump’s campaign filed a lawsuit citing concerns about 53 absentee ballots in Chatham County.
It was dismissed by a judge after elections officials in the Savannah-area county testified that all of those ballots had been received on time.
On Wednesday, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit in Michigan that called for a temporary halt in the counting of ballots until it is given “meaningful” access in numerous locations and allowed to review ballots that have already been opened and processed. The lawsuit claimed Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, was allowing absentee ballots to be counted without teams of bipartisan observers as well as challengers.
Judge Cynthia Stephens dismissed the suit on Thursday. Stephens noted the lawsuit was filed Wednesday afternoon, just hours before the last ballots were counted, and added that the lawsuit also appeared to target the wrong official over local election issues.
Republicans and President Donald Trump’s campaign gained no quick decision Tuesday in a Nevada Supreme Court appeal aimed at stopping the count of mail-in ballots in the Las Vegas area — a Democratic stronghold in an otherwise red GOP state.
Justices did not stop Election Night counting, calling instead for written filings to be completed next Monday on an issue that could affect reporting the vote in Clark County and Nevada, a presidential battleground with six electoral votes at stake.
A hearing date was not immediately set.
The Trump campaign and the Republican Party have mounted several legal challenges to aspects of Pennsylvania’s vote count.
One suit contended that GOP election observers were kept too far away from the tabulation in Philadelphia. Trump scored one legal victory on Thursday when a state appeals court granted more access to party and candidate observers, allowing them to get closer — 6 feet away — to election workers processing mail-in ballots in Philadelphia.
The city filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, citing concerns over worker safety and the potential for intimidation.
Another suit maintains that some Democratic-leaning counties unfairly allowed people to fix technical problems with their mail-in ballots. The lawsuit argues that the process, known as “curing” ballots, is illegal under Pennsylvania state law. A judge is set to deliver a ruling on Friday.
The final suit in Pennsylvania contends that any mail-in ballots arriving after Tuesday should not be counted. On Wednesday, Trump’s campaign sought to intervene in an appeal that asks justices to reverse a three-day extension on the state’s mailed ballots. The justices could decide to step into the dispute over the three-day extension for absentee ballots if they prove crucial to the outcome in Pennsylvania.
Even a small number of contested votes could matter if a state determines the winner of the election and the gap between Trump and Biden is small.
Late Thursday, the Trump campaign filed another lawsuit in Pennsylvania, this one alleging that Republican poll watchers are being denied access to observe ballot counting in Philadelphia.
While not technically a lawsuit, Trump’s campaign demanded a recount in Wisconsin’s tally after the Associated Press called the state for Biden on Wednesday.
Election officials said all outstanding ballots had been counted, save for a few hundred in one township and a small number of provisional ballots around the state. The former vice president’s lead there is now so great that there is no way that the remaining votes would allow Trump to catch up.
Trump’s campaign said it planned to call for a recount, which a trailing candidate is allowed to do under state law if a race is within 1 percentage point. Statewide recounts in Wisconsin have historically changed the vote tally by only a few hundred votes.
Biden leads by 0.624 percentage points out of nearly 3.3 million ballots counted.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.