DETROIT (AP) – The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit in the Michigan Court of Claims seeking to halt the counting of ballots until it is given “meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process.”
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a statement Wednesday that the 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.”
He says a suit was filed Wednesday in the Michigan Court of Claims “to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted.”
Currently, Joe Biden leads Donald Trump in Michigan, by about 60,000 votes. Mail-in ballots are still being counted in the state.
There is no evidence of any nefarious activity in Michigan, as ballot counting delays were expected, given the massive increase in absentee voting.
The fate of the United States presidency hung in the balance Wednesday as President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden battled for three familiar battleground states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that could prove crucial in determining who wins the White House.
It was unclear when or how quickly a winner could be determined. The latest vote counts in Michigan and Wisconsin gave Biden a small lead in those states, but it was still too early to call the races.
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said the president would formally request a Wisconsin recount, citing “irregularities in several Wisconsin counties.” The state allows for an apparent losing candidate to request a recount if the margin is less than 1%.
After a statement issued by President Trump's 2020 campaign manager hinting at the possibility of a lawsuit being filed in Michigan challenging the state's ballot-counting process, Attorney General Dana Nessel's Press Secretary Ryan Jarvi issued the following response: pic.twitter.com/qPANSEGynn
— Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (@MIAttyGen) November 4, 2020
Hundreds of thousands of votes were still to be counted in Pennsylvania.
Neither candidate cleared the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, and the margins were tight in several other battleground states. Top advisers for both Biden and Trump on Wednesday morning expressed confidence that they respectively had the likelier path to victory in the outstanding states.
The margins were exceedingly tight in states across the country, with the candidates trading wins in battlegrounds. Trump picked up Florida, the largest of the swing states, while Biden flipped Arizona, a state that has reliably voted Republican in recent elections.
You can review the official complaint filed Wednesday on behalf of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.
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