It has been three days since most major news networks called the presidential election in favor of Joe Biden, but President Donald Trump still has not conceded defeat. While votes continue to be counted across the country, the president has filed lawsuits in key battleground states regarding vote counting.
President Trump and his campaign staff have opened suits in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada and Arizona over vote counting. Georgia and North Carolina have not yet been called by most media networks, while Fox News and the Associated Press have called Arizona for Biden. Biden carries a .29% lead in Georgia and Trump holds a 1.3% lead in North Carolina.
Trump’s team has not filed any lawsuits in Wisconsin but has vowed to pursue a recount there.
In Pennsylvania, the president filed a motion to stop vote counting in Philadelphia, but a federal judge dismissed the request. The president also filed a lawsuit claiming that its observers were not allowed to observe vote counting in Philadelphia.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito also approved a request to ensure that the state separates mail-in-ballots received after election day from those received on or before Nov. 3. Trump filed another lawsuit yesterday in Pennsylvania to stop that state from certifying Biden as the winner on the ground that the state’s mail-in voting process lacks verifiability.
The president filed an additional lawsuit in Michigan claiming that campaign members were not able to observe ballot counting sufficiently there, which was dismissed last week.
In Georgia, the president filed a lawsuit to have 53 ballots in Chatham County disqualified, but the suit was dismissed by a superior court judge. In Arizona, the president filed a lawsuit claiming that votes had been wrongfully rejected. The next court hearing in the suit is set for Thursday.
Trump’s legal team filed two lawsuits in Nevada. The first similarly claims that campaign members were not allowed to observe ballot counting, and the second questions the legitimacy of ballot machines in Clark County.
A judge rejected the first lawsuit on the grounds that there was not sufficient evidence to support it. The campaign attempted to impose an injunction on the ballot counting machines used in Clark County, but it was rejected by a judge who said there was no evidence that the machines were used improperly.
While it is typical for vote counting to continue for days and weeks after presidential elections, it is unusual for a candidate to not concede after most media organizations have called the race in one candidate’s favor. President-elect Biden said it was an “embarrassment” that Trump has yet to concede while giving an address about the Affordable Care Act on Tuesday.
“I think it will not help the president’s legacy,” he said. “I think that — I know from my discussions with foreign leaders thus far — they are hopeful that the United States’ democratic institutions are once again being viewed as strong and endured, but at the end of the day, it’s all going to come to fruition on January 20.”
