Trump Campaign Says it is Suing to Stop Michigan and Pennsylvania Ballot Counts

WED, NOV 4 20202:00 PM EST

Dan Mangan

@_DANMANGAN

KEY POINTS

President Donald Trump’s campaign said Wednesday that it had filed suits to halt the counting of ballots in Michigan and Pennsylvania, as the campaign demanded increased access to observe the tallying process at numerous locations in those battleground states.

The Trump campaign also said that its lawsuit demands that the campaign be allowed to “review those ballots which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access.”

The announcement comes as the Republican incumbent faces an ultra-tight race against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the key battleground states and in Georgia and Nevada.

President Donald Trump’s campaign said Wednesday that it filed suits to halt the counting of ballots in Michigan and Pennsylvania, as the campaign demanded increased access to observe the tallying process at numerous locations in those battleground states.

The states have a combined 36 Electoral College voters at stake.

The Trump campaign said that its Michigan lawsuit demands that the campaign be allowed to “review those ballots” ... “which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access.”

In Pennsylvania, the campaign said it is moving to intervene in an existing Supreme Court case related to that state’s extension of its mail-in ballot receipt deadline.

Separately, the campaign is filing two legal actions: one aimed at stopping what the campaign called the “hiding” by Democratic officials of “ballot counting and processing from our Republican poll observers” and another that seeks to undo an order extending the deadline for absentee and mail-in voters to provide missing proof of identification.

As the actions were announced, Trump’s inner circle tried to prematurely and falsely claim victory for the president in Pennsylvania even as the count remained incomplete there.

The announcement comes as the Republican incumbent faces an ultra-tight race against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Michigan and Pennsylvania and in two other battlegrounds, Georgia and Nevada.

At the time the suits were announced, NBC News was reporting that Biden was leading Trump by 49.5% of the votes cast in Michigan, compared with 48.8% for Trump, a margin of fewer than 38,000 votes.

A total of 94% of the ballots in the state had been counted so far. There are 16 Electoral College votes up for grabs in Michigan.

In Pennsylvania, where 20 Electoral College votes are at stake, Trump was leading, with 3,099,477 votes, or 52.3%, compared with 2,745,468 votes, or 46.4%, for Biden. A total of 83% of the expected votes had been tallied in Pennsylvania, which does not expect to have a final result for days.

NBC News has the current Electoral College vote tally at 237 for Biden and 214 for Trump. To win the presidency, a candidate must reach at least 270 Electoral College votes.

Michigan becomes major battleground state between Biden and Trump as officials count ballots

The suits were announced as Trump suggested, without any evidence, that Michigan had “found” ballots to deny a victory to John James, the Republican nominee for the Senate race in Michigan.

“As votes in Michigan continue to be counted, the presidential race in the state remains extremely tight as we always knew it would be,” said Bill Stepien, Trump 2020 campaign manager.

“President Trump’s 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,” Stepien said.

“We have filed suit today in the Michigan Court of Claims to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted. We also demand to review those ballots which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access,” Stepien said.

“President Trump is committed to ensuring that all legal votes are counted in Michigan and everywhere else.”

Biden’s campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in response, “When Donald Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by roughly the same amount of votes that Joe Biden just did, or won Michigan with fewer votes than Joe Biden is winning it now, he bragged about a ‘landslide,’ and called recount efforts ‘sad.’”

“What makes these charades especially pathetic is that while Trump is demanding recounts in places he has already lost, he’s simultaneously engaged in fruitless attempts to halt the counting of votes in other states in which he’s on the road to defeat,” Bates said.

“This is not the behavior of a winning campaign. Plain and simple, Donald Trump has lost Wisconsin, he is losing Michigan, and he is losing the presidency. Put another way, ‘It is what it is.’”  

Jordan Acker, a Michigan lawyer and Democratic poll observer who has been watching the vote counting at the TCF Center in Detroit, scoffed at the Trump campaign’s claims of insufficient access to the tally sites.

“It’s quite frankly ridiculous,” Acker told CNBC in an interview.

He said that when he arrived at the center at about 7:15 a.m. Wednesday, there were Republican vote challengers in the counting room.

“There’s a Republican at every table,” Acker said.

“The people who are counting these ballots are incredibly professional. They’re doing everything they’re supposed to do,” he said.

Acker said the lawsuit is an act of “desperation” by Republicans.

“They’re trying to keep it close enough so they have a route to a recount,” Acker said.

He predicted that Biden will win Michigan, just as the Biden campaign has said.

A spokesman for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in response to the lawsuit, “Michigan’s elections have been conducted transparently, with access provided for both political parties and the public, and using a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that all ballots are counted fairly and accurately.”

“At this time our department has not been notified by the Court of Claims about this lawsuit and when we are served, we will review it and respond accordingly,” said the spokesman, Ryan Jarvi. “Michigan will always continue to protect the rights of all voters to have their ballots counted.”

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson earlier Wednesday said the state will finish counting ballots by Thursday morning.

Benson said Michigan is focused “on counting every single ballot.”

— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.