11/06/2020 18:01
Clarín.com
World
Updated 11/06/2020 18:01
Faced with the possibility of narrowly losing on multiple battlefields, Donald Trump could be faced with the possibility of having to
persuade the Supreme Court
to
nullify votes
in two or more states to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president.
This is a
substantially different
scenario
from the disputed presidential elections of 2000, which were effectively resolved by the Supreme Court.
So the whole fight was for
Florida's
electoral votes
, and it involved a request for a recount rather than trying to stop that very process.
The Trump campaign and the Republicans are already raising
legal challenges in several states
, although most are small-scale lawsuits that don't seem to affect many votes.
Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's attorney who spearheads the campaign's legal strategy.
Photo: AP
On Thursday, judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly dismissed the demands of the Trump campaign.
Thus he undermined a legal campaign strategy to
attack the integrity of the voting process
in states where the result could spell Trump's defeat.
The rulings came just as Biden seemed headed for the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House.
Trump and his campaign promised even more legal action, making
unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud
.
Claims and lawsuits without brake
In the White House meeting room on Thursday, the president launched into a
cataract of claims
, without evidence, about how Democrats were trying to unfairly deprive him of a second term.
"We think there will be a lot of litigation, because we cannot allow the election to be stolen from us in this way," Trump said, suggesting that the Supreme Court could eventually decide the election.
Bill Stepien, Donald Trump's campaign manager.
Photo: AP
Biden, for his part, said he hopes to win the election, but advised patience.
"Every vote must be counted," were his words.
Earlier on Thursday, a Biden campaign attorney called the
Trump campaign allegations baseless
, a political rather than legal strategy.
"I want to emphasize that, for what they are proposing, it is not necessary for these complaints to be founded. That is not the objective, but to create an opportunity for them to send false messages about what is happening in the electoral process," said the attorney Bob Bauer.
Bauer also accused the Trump campaign of "continually alleging that there are irregularities, system failures and fraud without any foundation."
Trump puts his chances in a legal strategy to get to re-election.
Photo: AFP
Trump is used to suing, and being sued.
An analysis by
USA Today
found that he and his businesses were involved in at least 3,500 state and federal court actions in the three decades before he became president.
In a case dismissed Thursday, a Michigan judge noted that the state's counting of votes had ended, and
dismissed the campaign's lawsuit
that asked to closely inspect local election officials as they process absentee votes.
In Georgia,
a state judge dismissed a case targeting 53 absentee votes in
Chatham County after Savannah County election officials declared that all of those ballots had been received on time.
Campaign officials said earlier they were considering similar challenges in a dozen other counties in the state.
In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, the Trump campaign won an appeal ruling that allowed party and campaign members
to closely follow poll workers
processing mail-in ballots in Philadelphia.
Scene from the debate between Al Gore and George Bush in 2000, the election that has an air of similarity to the current scenario.
Photo: AFP
But the order did not affect the vote counting being carried out in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, as election officials face a flood of mail-in ballots driven by fear of voting in person during a pandemic.
Trump campaign officials, meanwhile, accused Democrats of trying to steal the election, even though there is no evidence that any of that was happening.
Trump's campaign manager Bill Stepien, in a call to reporters Thursday morning, said that "every night the president goes to bed with a head start," and every night
new votes "are mysteriously found in a bag "
.
It is quite common in presidential elections for vote counting to continue after Election Day.
The Trump campaign also
announced that it will ask for a recount in Wisconsin
.
Stepien previously cited "irregularities in multiple Wisconsin counties," without giving details.
The Trump campaign filed a new lawsuit late Thursday in Nevada, alleging that ineligible votes were cast in the Las Vegas area, the largest Democratic stronghold in a predominantly Republican state.
On Wednesday, the AP agency stated that
Biden had taken Wisconsin and Michigan
.
It still hasn't done the same with Georgia, Nevada or Pennsylvania, although Biden had the lead in both Georgia and Pennsylvania on Friday.
The president's attorneys have asked to intervene in a pending Republican appeal in the Supreme Court over the three-day extension for the receipt and counting of vote-by-mail ballots ordered by Pennsylvania's superior court.
State Democrats told justices Thursday that they should postpone granting the petition, because "they may not need to decide" on
the Pennsylvania issue if it does not become critical to the bottom line
, or if ballots are late. they end up not making a difference.
v 1.5
The states that define
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Source:
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Infographics:
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Source: AP
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Look also
Elections in the United States: Donald Trump also doubts the result in Pennsylvania, where Biden is at the fore
Elections in the United States: Republicans back away from Trump on his accusations about the vote count