President Donald Trump’s campaign is set to sue the states of Michigan and Pennsylvania to stop the vote count as the Republican finds himself in a tight battle with Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the race for 270 electoral votes.
The Trump campaign’s lawsuit in Michigan states they “must be allowed to review the ballots which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access.”
Meanwhile, the campaign is filing two legal actions: one, accusing Democratic officials of “hiding ballot counting and processing from our Republican poll observers” and two, seeking to undo the order allowing a deadline to be extended for absentee and mail-in voters to provide missing proof of identification.
The news comes as Mr. Trump trails Mr. Biden in both states and needing a massive comeback to win re-election. A total of 94% of the ballots in the state had been counted so far.
“As votes in Michigan continue to be counted, the presidential race in the state remains extremely tight as we always knew it would be,” said Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien.
“President Trump’s campaign has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law,” Stepien said.
Mr. Biden’s campaign manager Andrew Bates responded to the Trump campaign’s claims late Wednesday in a statement.
“When Donald Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by roughly the same amount of votes that Joe Biden just did, or won Michigan with fewer votes than Joe Biden is winning it now, he bragged about a ‘landslide,’ and called recount efforts ‘sad.,” he said.
“This is not the behavior of a winning campaign. Plain and simple, Donald Trump has lost Wisconsin, he is losing Michigan, and he is losing the presidency. Put another way, ‘It is what it is.’”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel responded to the Trump campaign’s lawsuit in a statement.
“Michigan’s elections have been conducted transparently, with access provided for both political parties and the public, and using a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that all ballots are counted fairly and accurately,” he said.
