President Donald Trump promised litigation if voting results do not show that he has won the presidential election. QUESTION: How many lawsuits have been filed by President Donald Trump’s campaign? ANSWER: The Trump campaign has filed at least six lawsuits in battleground states since Election Day. Activists from both parties have also filed lawsuits. Q: Has the Biden campaign filed any lawsuits yet? A: The Biden campaign has a legal team assembled but has not initiated litigation. Q: Has there been any action taken on lawsuits yet? A: In Georgia, a state judge dismissed a lawsuit over a claim that 53 mail-in ballots were not received on time. In Pennsylvania, a judge approved the campaign’s request for more oversight of the vote-counting process but did not stop the counting, as the campaign requested. A similar request was denied by a judge in Michigan. Q: What lawsuits are still pending? A: The Trump campaign is suing Pennsylvania’s top election official for improperly extending the deadline for voters to fix errors on their mail-in ballots. They are also suing Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, for notifying voters that their ballots were mailed with errors. Q: Is the Supreme Court involved in any cases? A: Before Election Day, the United States Supreme Court twice rejected claims that Pennsylvania wrongly decided to extend the deadline to receive ballots postmarked by Election Day. After the second rejection, the court noted it may hear a case after the vote count. Pennsylvania is counting but separating ballots that arrived after Election Day. Q: Should we expect more lawsuits? A: Probably. Steven Mulroy, law professor and election law expert at the University of Memphis, says, “If there’s any grounds for challenging the validity of a state certified total for Biden, [the Trump campaign] will do it.” He says lawsuits will likely focus on technical defects on mail ballots and the status of late-arriving ballots. Q: Is there a threshold to meet for a lawsuit to be successful? A: There must be enough votes in question to tip the balance of the election. Mulroy calls it a “litigation-proof margin of victory,” explaining: “If the number of votes by which Biden wins exceeds the number of votes which could potentially have been affected by the legal challenge, then it won’t really matter.” Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
…
About The Author
