Update: Around noon EST, a judge in Georgia dismissed the lawsuit from Trump and his campaign, which raised concern over 53 absentee ballots in Chatham County. According to the Associated Press, the judge did not provide an explanation of why he decided to dismiss the suit.
Filed on Wednesday (Nov. 4), Trump and his campaign’s lawsuit alleged that Chatham County officials had broken state laws while processing the absentee ballots. However, officials denied any wrongdoing and said that all 53 ballots had been received on time.
Original story: As Joe Biden inches closer to the 270 electoral votes necessary for presidential victory, Donald Trump’s campaign is continuing to attack individual states’ voting credibility with a new lawsuit. His campaign and the Georgia Republican Party filed a lawsuit on Wednesday (Nov. 4) against Georgia, following similar suits in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The new suit alleges that absentee ballots in Georgia’s Chatham County are being improperly counted after the state’s deadline. Filed in Chatham County Superior Court, the suit marks the third legal action from the Trump campaign in a battleground state. As of Thursday morning (Nov. 5) 10 a.m. EST, Trump holds a slim lead — 0.4 percent — over Biden in the state. According to Georgia’s Secretary of State, election officials are expected to finish counting votes by noon, local time.
Trump’s lawsuits in Michigan and Pennsylvania call for a temporary halt on ballot-counting until his campaign is given “meaningful” access and allowed to review ballots. The Associated Press previously called Michigan in favor of Biden; however, votes are still being tallied in Pennsylvania. At the time of publishing, Trump holds a 2 percent lead in Biden’s home state.
On Wednesday, Biden addressed his supporters and said that ballot counting should continue in all states.
“No one’s going to take our democracy away from us,” he said. “Not now; not ever.”
Biden’s campaign spokesman, Andrew Bates, further said in a statement that Trump’s legal challenges were not the behavior of a winning candidate.
“What makes these charades especially pathetic is that while Trump is demanding recounts in places he has already lost, he’s simultaneously engaged in fruitless attempts to halt the counting of votes in other states in which he’s on the road to defeat,” he said.
Biden currently needs just one more battleground state to clench the victory. At the time of reporting, the former vice president holds less than a 1 percent lead in Nevada — a state which would give him the necessary six electoral votes to win.