President Trump isn’t conceding the November election and is getting ready to unleash a number of lawsuits this week alleging voter fraud and irregularities, as his legal team has already filed disputes in five battleground states.
The increase in litigation comes as Mr. Trump trails President-elect Joseph R. Biden in a handful of swing states by less than 1% as mail-in ballots continue to be counted.
Several news outlets, however, called the race for Mr. Biden on Saturday.
“Since when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be? We have all learned a lot in the last two weeks!” Mr. Trump tweeted on Sunday.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, noted three of the broader legal issues they’re raising in court challenges include backdating of late mail-in ballots, allegations of dead people casting votes and Republican poll watchers denied access to observe tabulations at various locations.
“I think we have enough to change Pennsylvania,” Mr. Giuliani said. “It would be wrong for [Mr. Trump] to concede.”
Mr. Giuliani plans to file more lawsuits Monday, saying they could target between four to 10 different states.
There’s a number of other pending legal battles that have already been launched since Tuesday night’s election.
Two of the battleground states have since seen judges toss the complaints and in Nevada, a judge rejected an emergency petition on Friday. But in Pennsylvania, the president’s filings remain alive as ballots continue to be tabulated.
Poll-watcher complaints: Trump’s team claims some counties in Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania have not allowed Republican poll watchers to observe ballot counting, which is required under state laws. Officials say observers have been inside the polling places, but the dispute — specifically in Pennsylvania — has been over how close they can be to review the ballots.
The Michigan case was dismissed, but Mr. Trump’s legal team was successful with the legal battle in Pennsylvania, though, Democrats in the state went to court to appeal the order allowing members of the president’s campaign to observe the ballot count in the Philadelphia area — a region where Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden made up a large share of mail-in votes, catching up to the president’s more than 600,000 vote lead after election night.
Nevada lawsuits focus on Clark County: Lawyers appeared before a judge in Nevada on Friday evening on an emergency petition, but the judge rejected their argument. The GOP-led lawsuit on behalf of two Republican candidates for Congress claimed they have thousands of voters who were ineligible who cast ballots in the state including dead people and that poll watchers weren’t able to observe tabulation.
Mr. Trump’s campaign has argued Clark County officials have not allowed Republican poll observers into the buildings where ballots are being counted. There was a settlement between the two to allow poll watchers access, according to KLAS.
The Trump focus is Pennsylvania: Mr. Trump moved to intervene in a Supreme Court challenge brought by Pennsylvania Republicans, arguing the state’s Democratic leaders and the state’s Democratic secretary of State violated the law by extending the time for counting mail-in ballots to Nov. 6 at 5 p.m., despite the state Legislature setting the deadline for Election Day.
The lawsuit takes issue with postmarked ballots — if smeared — being presumed to have been mailed before Nov. 3. The legal issue returns to the Supreme Court after the justices refused to get involved in the matter last week. But on Friday, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. ordered the late-arriving ballots — after Nov. 3 at 8 p.m. — to be segregated from the others.
Rejected ballots in Arizona: President Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee sued Arizona on Saturday, claiming voting machines in Maricopa County rejected votes that were cast in person on Election Day. The lawsuit alleges poll workers inaccurately instructed voters on how to correct balloting errors and that the campaign has witnesses who saw the problem.
Georgia lawsuit tossed: A judge tossed out one of Mr. Trump’s legal challenges Thursday that had been filed in one county earlier this week over roughly 50 late-arriving absentee ballots being placed next to on-time ballots.
— Gabriella Muñoz contributed to this report.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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