The past several days have proven turbulent as states are already in the midst of counting ballots cast that could determine who would win the presidency. As results from several key states have yet to be revealed, Donald Trump and his campaign have filed lawsuits demanding to stop the counting of ballots.
Trump is currently in a neck-to-neck battle with his Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the elections with votes and projections of who would win the 270 electoral college votes needed to secure the White House. Pennsylvania and Michigan have yet to count every single vote that was cast with Trump’s reelection hanging in the balance. Trump and his campaign said Wednesday that it was filing lawsuits in the two states to demand that they stop the counting of ballots. Both states have a combined 36 electoral votes.
The Trump campaign demanded that they be given access to the ballots in Michigan. In Pennsylvania, the campaign announced that they are attempting to intervene in the state’s Supreme Court case regarding the state’s extension of mail-in ballot submission. Their announcement comes prior to projections that Biden had already secured Michigan’s votes.
“We have filed suit today in the Michigan Court of Claims to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted. We also demand to review those ballots which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access,” said Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien.
The Biden campaign has weighed in on the Trump campaign’s demands. Campaign spokesman Andrew Bates described the attempt as “pathetic” and noted that Trump is only demanding a recount in states where he lost to the Democratic candidate.
Meanwhile, legal experts have also weighed in on Trump’s possible attempt to get the Supreme Court to intervene in the canvassing of ballots of the elections. Experts have expressed doubts that the courts would entertain Trump’s demand to stop counting ballots that were received on or before the elections.
According to Ned Foley, this year’s elections is much different compared to the elections in 2000 in the race between George W. Bush and Al Gore. At the time, the Supreme Court ended a recount, with George W. Bush ultimately winning.