On Wednesday (Nov. 4), Donald Trump’s campaign announced that they filed a lawsuit against the state of Michigan to “halt” the process of counting votes.
“As votes in Michigan continue to be counted, the presidential race in the state remains extremely tight as we always knew it would be,” the statement signed by Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager, read. “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. 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. President Trump is committed to ensuring that all legal votes are counted in Michigan and everywhere else.”
The lawsuit was filed after Joe Biden pulled ahead of Trump in Michigan after a lot of counties added in their mail-in ballots overnight. On Wednesday morning, the president tweeted misleading information about the votes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He questioned the legitimacy of the mail-in votes that were being counted after Election Day.
“They are working hard to make up 500,000 vote advantage in Pennsylvania disappear — ASAP. Likewise, Michigan and others!” Trump tweeted. Twitter flagged the tweet, and several others, for containing misleading information about the election.
On Wednesday, the Trump campaign also demanded a recount in Wisconsin citing “irregularities” in the state’s voting results. Multiple outlets reported that Trump was trailing by nearly 20,000 votes in Wisconsin.
“There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results,” read the statement from Stepien. “The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so.”
Check out the full statement from the Trump administration below.