White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany (L) speaks alongside RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel (R) during a press conference at the RNC headquarters on Nov. 9.
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President Trump’s election campaign and its supporters pressed as-yet unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud in state and federal courts across the country this week, asking a judge in Pennsylvania to invalidate hundreds of thousands of mailed ballots and one in Michigan to declare last Tuesday’s election void in Wayne County, where Detroit is located.
The Michigan suit relies on the affidavits of four Republican poll watchers and one employee of the city of Detroit who alleged that she was instructed to backdate mailed ballots, not to require voters present identification before voting, and to not verify signatures on mailed ballots.
“This is the third lawsuit filed by Trump supporters and like the other belated lawsuit, this case raises baseless allegations,” David Find, the city of Detroit’s lead attorney on the case told MarketWatch, adding that there were more than 200 Republican ballot challengers watching the Detroit count, and only five have come forward to express concern.
Fink also said that the city worker, Jessy Jacobs, never raised her allegations with colleagues, supervisors or “any regulatory agency,” despite her allegations relating to events going back several weeks before Election Day.
Matthew Cross, an attorney with the Michigan law firm Plunkett Cooney told MarketWatch the suit in Michigan is different from previous a previous suit that was thrown out last week alleging misconduct, which “was based almost entirely on innuendo, rumor, and speculation,” because it offers some firsthand accounts of alleged irregularities.
He said, however, that “it’s entirely possible the affiants who are supporting this claim misinterpreted what was happening and there is a legitimate explanation.”
The Trump campaign lodged a separate suit in federal court in Pennsylvania on Monday asking the court to prohibit the state from tabulating more than 682,000 mailed ballots that it says were counted without it being able to “meaningfully” observe the process.
“A meaningful review of those ballots could discern whether there were ballots that were illegally counted,” Matt Morgan, general counsel for the Trump campaign said in a press conference Monday afternoon.
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, professor at Stetson University College of Law told MarketWatch that it is highly unlikely that either of these suits would lead to courts invalidating election results, because they have yet to produce proof of any specific ballots that have been illegally cast.
“If you can produce a ballot that looks like it has been backdated, if there’s a date crossed out, and then there’s another date, that would be one thing,” she said. “So far all we have are unsubstantiated allegations.”
Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s lead in Michigan of more than 146,000 votes, or a 2.7% margin, means that even if judges in the state took the unlikely step of forcing the Democratic stronghold of Wayne County to hold a new election, the ultimate result would not change.
“The underlying claims they are making is that the fraud is so vast and systemic ” that there would have to be many election officials involved with the process and that there would likely be documentary evidence of a vast conspiracy, said Doug Spencer, professor of public policy and UConn School of law. “Courts want real evidence. You need somebody else to confirm” these allegations, he said.
The federal case in Pennsylvania is also unlikely to be taken seriously, especially the request that hundreds of thousands of mailed ballots should be completely disregarded. “If there is a question about those ballots, a judge will just order you to recount them,” Spencer said. “That’s why you’re seeing legal observers say these lawsuits are borderline frivolous.”
The two cases are just the latest barrage of law suits the Trump campaign has filed since Election Day on Nov. 3. In Pennsylvania, Republicans have sought and won the right for poll watchers to get closer access to ballot counters, though Philadelphia election officials have appealed that decision, arguing that closer access will mean fewer vote counters and a slower tabulation of votes.
The GOP is also asking courts to throw out provisional ballots submitted by voters who were given the opportunity to fix or “cure” their ballots whose ballots were in danger of being invalidated. Republicans say this practice was contrary to state law, while the Pennsylvania Secretary of State argues that the practice was legal and all 67 counties in the state were encouraged to offer voters this opportunity.
Ten Republican states attorneys general filed an amicus brief Monday supporting a separate case in federal court, where the GOP is requesting courts invalidate ballots that were mailed before Election Day, but received by election boards before last Friday at 5 p.m. Pennsylvania officials say, however, that just 7,800 such ballots exist, while Joe Biden’s lead in the state sits above 46,000, meaning the decision in this case will not affect the results.
Judges have already rejected Trump campaign lawsuits seeking to prevent officials in Nevada from using signature verification machines, suits in Michigan to halt the counting of absentee ballots, and a case in Arizona alleging Trump votes had been rejected because they contained stray marks on the ballot.
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