Since the 2020 election results were announced on Nov. 7, President Donald J. Trump has taken to courts all over the country with several complaints. President Trump has not yet conceded the election and several of his supporters still believe he should have rightfully won. So far the Trump campaign and its Republican allies have officially lost or withdrawn 50 post-election lawsuits and emerged victorious in only one. The courts have continued to resolve the campaign’s claims that their poll watchers were not able to properly view the vote counting process. An overview of several important lawsuits is below.
Georgia
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a conservative attorney, Sidney Powell, that sought to overturn President Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in Georgia. A similar case filed by Powell was overturned in Michigan.
In another case, four Republicans sued over the process of counting absentee ballots in several counties, seeking to remove all absentee votes from the state total. The plaintiffs claimed there were several incidents of fraud. This included people voting twice and, in some counties, more people voting than the interpreted number the plaintiffs determined from census data. This case was dismissed on Nov. 11.
Michigan
During vote counting, President Trump filed several lawsuits in Michigan to stop the count once it began to favor his challenger, Joe Biden. In Michigan, two poll challengers from the Republican Party served as plaintiffs in the Costantino v. Detroit case. According to The New York Times, these plaintiffs claimed election workers were instructed “to not verify signatures on absentee ballots, to backdate absentee ballots and to process such ballots regardless of their validity.” This was important because, had the plaintiffs been able to back up their claims, this would have been an example of undeniable election fraud. The plaintiff’s petition was denied, with the judge stating the “plaintiffs’ interpretation of events is incorrect and not credible.”
Pennsylvania
President Trump has lost all of his cases filed in Pennsylvania. While one Pennsylvania court granted the campaign a win and ordered that poll watchers could move closer to election workers, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court later overturned the ruling. On Tuesday, Dec. 8, the United States Supreme Court refused to overturn the decisions made in President Trump’s Pennsylvania lawsuits. All nine Supreme Court justices, including President Trump’s three appointments, voted unanimously to uphold the decisions in the Pennsylvania cases, meaning that the lawsuits remained lost.
Arizona
In Arizona, President Trump’s campaign filed a case, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. v. Hobbs. According to the previously cited New York Times article, “poll watchers claimed that some ballots in Maricopa County were filled out with Sharpie pens. A handful of voters and a poll observer said they saw bleeding ink on these ballots, causing an overvote on the other side, and that the poll workers were instructed to press a green button on the scanner to accept the votes despite the error.” The Trump campaign ultimately dropped this suit that was only relevant to 191 votes for President Trump.
Nevada
In the state of Nevada, President Trump’s campaign and its supporters have filed a variety of cases. However, one case has garnered significant media attention and involves the number of votes for each presidential candidate based on the count. President Trump’s team believes that he should have won Nevada because Biden only won two counties in the entire state and Trump won the other 14. However, according to the election results, Biden won by 33,596 votes. This case was overturned.
On Tuesday, Dec. 8, the Nevada Supreme Court rejected an appeal from President Trump’s campaign to overturn the election results in the state, affirming President-Elect Joe Biden’s win in Nevada.
Wisconsin
In Wisconsin, the Langenhorst v. Pecore case aimed to exclude all of the votes cast in three counties from Wisconsin’s total based on differences in absentee voting rules among the counties. This case, along with three similar ones, was dropped.
By Rachel Van Horne, News Editor