Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Trump’s Election Lawsuits: Where the Court Fights Are Playing Out

Trump’s Election Lawsuits: Where the Court Fights Are Playing Out

The Trump campaign has launched a legal onslaught over vote counts in battleground states that are slipping away from him.

The Trump campaign has filed at least six lawsuits in battleground states since Election Day to challenge the ballot counts. Republican and Democrat activists have also sued, but only a few of the cases may have a real chance to affect the final outcome -- and only if the races remain extremely close. Trump has scored three wins and five losses since Nov. 3. Below is a list of key court cases to watch:

Pennsylvania


With 20 electoral college votes, Pennsylvania is the biggest remaining prize on the map. President Donald Trump cannot win re-election without it, so slowing down the vote count and possibly challenging many of the ballots cast there has been the main focus of his legal efforts so far. The state has already seen its voting practices get challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which voted 4-4 in October to leave intact a three-day extension to receive mailed ballots. Republicans are seeking a reversal of that ruling now that Justice Amy Coney Barrett is on the court.

Court: U.S. Supreme Court

Case Name: Republican Party of Pennsylvania v. Boockvar, 20-542; Scarnati v. Pennsylvania Democratic Party, 20-574

Status: Appeal of state supreme court decision

Summary: Two groups are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that Pennsylvania cannot count mail-in ballots that arrived up to three days after Election Day but were postmarked by Nov. 3, an extended deadline upheld by the state supreme court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case before the election but explicitly left open the possibility of doing so after the vote. The Trump campaign filed to intervene in the case Wednesday, which could push the high court to take it up again. On Friday, state Republicans asked the court to order Pennsylvania counties to segregate mail ballots that arrived after Election Day, saying state officials haven’t gone far enough to make sure those votes can be invalidated if the GOP wins the legal challenge. Democrats said Thursday the number of ballots at issue likely would not "be large enough to be decisive in the races for president and House of Representatives.”

Court: Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania

Case Name: Donald J. Trump for President Inc. v. Kathy Boockvar and County Boards of Elections, 602 MD 2020

Status: Trump win

Summary: President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee sued Pennsylvania’s top election official, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, claiming she improperly extended the deadline for absentee and mail-in voters to provide any missing proof of identification from Nov. 9 to Nov. 12. They scored a victory on Thursday when a judge ordered Boockvar to segregate mail-in ballots from voters providing identification between Nov. 10 through Nov. 12, saying she would rule later on the validity of the deadline extension.

Court: Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania

Case Name: Hamm, Kelly, Allred, Horner, Connor and Hauser v. Boockvar, 600 MD 2020

Status: Trump partial win

Summary: A Pennsylvania state judge on Friday ordered county boards of election in the state to put aside provisional ballots cast on Election Day for voters who also sent absentee or mail-in ballots that arrived on time. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought a group of Pennsylvania Republicans, including Mike Kelly, who was elected to a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, that have been challenging what they believe to be defective ballots. The judge denied a request for a preliminary injunction.

Court: Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Northampton County (Easton).

Case Name: In re: Motion for Injunctive Relief of Northampton County Republican Committee, C-48-CV-2020-6915,

Status: Trump loss

Summary: A judge dismissed a lawsuit Friday which was filed by a group that includes Republican candidates and officials who sought to block election officials in Montgomery County, which is mainly Democratic-leaning suburbs of Philadelphia, from notifying voters and helping them “cure” defective votes. The judge said the suit lacked merit.

Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Case Name: Philadelphia County Canvassing Observation Appeal, 1094 CD 20

Status: Trump win, Democrats have appealed the ruling

Summary: The Trump campaign sued on Election Day, claiming its representatives were being denied “reasonable access” to monitor the counting of votes in Philadelphia because they were kept at a far distance from the process. The suit was dismissed on Wednesday by a Philadelphia trial court, but an appellate court on Thursday reversed that ruling and ordered officials to allow all poll observers to watch the ballot-counting from a distance of six feet. Philadelphia election officials are seeking to appeal that decision to the state’s highest court.

Court: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Case Name: Donald J. Trump for President Inc. v. Philadelphia County Board of Elections, 20-5533

Status: Judge denied request for an injunction, saying an agreement was reached

Summary: The Trump campaign filed an emergency request to stop the county Board of Elections “from continuing to count any ballots so long as Republican observers are not present as required by state law.”

Michigan


Biden is the projected winner of the state’s 16 electoral college votes, according to the Associated Press. The Trump campaign has tried to halt the count, saying it needs more access.

Court: Michigan Court of Claims

Case Name: Donald J. Trump and Eric Ostergren v. Jocelyn Benson, 20-000225-MZ

Status: Trump loss

Summary: The Trump campaign claims it hasn’t been given meaningful access to counting locations to observe the process for opening and tabulating ballots as guaranteed under state law. A judge on Thursday rejected the request, saying “At this point, the essence of the count is completed, and the relief is completely unavailable.”

Georgia


Trump has a lead that is narrowing as more votes are counted. A Democrat hasn’t won a presidential election in the state since Bill Clinton.

Court: Eastern Judicial Circuit of Georgia

Case Name: In Re: Enforcement of Election Laws and Securing Ballots Cast or Received after 7:00pm on November 3, 2020, SPCV20-00982

Status: Trump loss

Summary: The campaign claims a Republican poll observer in Chatham County, which includes the Democratic-leaning city of Savannah, witnessed late ballots being illegally added to a stack of on-time absentee ballots. A judge rejected that assertion, ruling Thursday that “there is no evidence that the ballots referenced in the petition were received after 7 p.m. on Election Day, thereby making those ballots invalid.”

Nevada


The Trump campaign held a press conference Thursday announcing it would file a lawsuit alleging 10,000 votes were illegally cast by people no longer residing in the state. Instead, a suit was filed by a group that included Republican officials who claimed “over 3,000 instances of ineligible individuals casting ballots.”

Court: U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada

Case Name: Stokke et al v. Cegavske et al, 2:20-cv-02046-DJA

Status: Trump loss

Summary: The case targeted Clark County, a heavily Democratic area that includes Las Vegas, with two Republican candidates for Congress claiming the election there was “plagued by irregularities.” The Republicans failed to produce evidence of wrongdoing , a federal judge ruled in tossing the suit. If they return “with more evidence,” the judge said, he’d reconsider the case.

Wisconsin


The Trump campaign has said it will seek a recount in Wisconsin, where he trails Biden. The president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, suggested another lawsuit could be filed in the state, claiming “exactly the same thing happened” as in Pennsylvania in terms of denying the Trump campaign access to the ballot count. No suit has apparently been filed, although one Democrat has asked a judge a New York to step into the matter.

Court: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

Case Name: Pierson v. Stepien, 20-CV-9266

Status: Filed Nov. 4

Summary: A Wisconsin woman who voted for Joe Biden asked a federal court in Manhattan to block the Trump campaign’s manager, its lawyer “and any of their agents” from seeking the launch of a recount in Wisconsin, claiming in a lawsuit that a “peculiar” state law allowing any candidate with ample cash to demand a recount has fueled “a scorched Earth tactic to sow discord and paranoia in the fields of Wisconsin.”

(Updates with Nevada suit. )

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
U.S. and Hungarian Officials Talk About Economic Collaboration and Sanctions Strategy
Technology Giants Activate Lobbying Campaigns Against Strict EU Regulations
Pope Francis Admitted to Hospital in Rome Amid Increasing Speculation on Succession
Zelensky Calls on World Leaders to Back Peace as Tensions Rise with Trump
UK Leader Keir Starmer Calls for US Security Guarantee in Ukraine Peace Deal
NATO Chief Urges Higher Defense Expenditure in Europe
The negotiation teams of Trump and Putin meet directly, establishing the groundwork for a significant advancement.
Rubio Touches Down in Riyadh Before Key U.S.-Russia Discussions
Students in Serbian universities Unite to Hold Coordinated Protests for Accountability.
US State Department Removes Taiwan Independence Statement from Website
Abolishing opposition won't protect Germany from Nazism—this is precisely what led Germany to become Nazi!
Transatlantic Gold Rush: Traders Shift Bullion in Response to Tariff Anxieties and Market Instability
Bill Ackman Backs Uber as the Company Shifts Towards Profitability
AI Titans Challenge Nvidia's Supremacy in Light of New Chip Innovations
US and Russian Officials to Meet in Saudi Arabia Over Ending Ukraine Conflict. Ukraine and European leaders – who profit from this war – excluded from the negotiations.
Macron Calls for Urgent Summit as Ukraine Conflict Business Model is Threatened
Trump’s Defense Secretary: Ukraine Won’t Join NATO or Regain Lost Territories
Zelensky Urges Europe to Bolster Its Military in Light of Uncertain US Backing
Chinese Zoo Confesses to Dyeing Donkeys to Look Like Zebras
Elon Musk is Sherlock Holmes - Movie Trailer Parody featuring Donald Trump's Detective
Trump's Greenland Suggestion Sparks Sovereignty Discussions Amid Historical Grievances
OpenAI Board Dismisses Elon Musk's Offer to Acquire the Company.
USAID Uncovered: American Taxpayer Funds Leveraged to Erode Democracy in Europe Until Trump Put a Stop to It.
JD Vance and Scholz Did Not Come Together at the Munich Security Conference.
EU Official Participates in Discussions in Washington Amid Trade Strains
Qatar Contemplates Reducing French Investments Due to PSG Chief Investigation
Germany's Green Agenda Encounters Ambiguity Before Elections
Trump Did Not Notify Germany's Scholz About His Ukraine Peace Proposal.
Munich Car Attack Escalates Migration Discourse Before German Elections
NATO Allies Split on Trump's Proposal for 5% Defense Spending Increase
European Parliament Advocates for Encrypted Messaging to Ensure Secure Communications
Trump's Defense Spending Goal Creates Division Among NATO Partners
French Prime Minister Bayrou Navigates a Challenging Path Amid Budget Preservation and Immigration Discourse
Steering Through the Updated Hierarchy at the European Commission
Parliamentarian Calls for Preservation of AI Liability Directive
Mark Rutte Calls on NATO Allies to Increase Defence Expenditures
Dresden Marks the 80th Anniversary of the World War II Bombing.
Global Community Pledges to Aid Syria's Political Transition
EU Allocates €200 Billion for AI Investments, Introduces €20 Billion Fund for Gigafactories
EU Recognizes Its Inability to Close the USAID Funding Shortfall Due to Stalled US Aid
Commission President von der Leyen Missing from Notre Dame Reopening Due to Last-Minute Cancellation
EU Officializes Disinformation Code for Online Platforms, Omitting X
EU Fails to Fully Implement Key Cybersecurity Directives
EU Under Fire for Simplification Discussions Regarding Corporate Sustainability Reporting
Shein Encountering Further Information Request from the EU During Ongoing Investigation
European Commission Initiates Investigation into Shein as It Aims at Chinese E-Commerce Regulations
German Officials Respond to U.S. Proposal for Peace Talks with Russia
Senate Approves Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Trump and Putin Engage in Discussions on Ukraine Peace Negotiations Amid Worldwide Responses
Honda and Nissan End Merger Talks
×