The wave of hasty lawsuits by President Trump and his Republican allies to stop counting votes and disqualify postal votes has so far failed to make much headway, unlike to the disinformation they are spreading to discredit the 2020 elections
Trump’s propaganda, as one might expect, has garnered widespread attention Whether tweets falsely claiming he won and Democrats stealing the election (which Twitter tagged with notices content warning), or the video made by her son Eric showing burnt ballots (these were sample ballots, not real ones), or false statements by White House officials, these antics have been noted and debunked
Unlike that bombing, Trump’s election day lawsuits in states where presidential results are not yet known have had limited success, but, more importantly, they don’t appear to be a game-changer. Lawsuits target small facets of the postal voting process Although court rulings may delay the announcement of results and certification of winners, lawsuits are not about to disqualify enough ballots to alter the outcome of the race – not where it is late by tens of thousands of votes Instead, many of Trump’s lawsuits were filed late, and some are full of errors
« None of Trump’s petty trials have been able to stop the count, and of course there is no basis for doing so, » ElectionLawBlog’s Rick Hasen wrote on Thursday. « He and his supporters have promoted unsubstantiated and dangerous conspiracy theories that Democrat politicians somehow ‘steal’ the vote while they are just counting the ballots »
Consider two of Trump’s lawsuits from Michigan The first lawsuit, against Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, was filed Wednesday afternoon and aimed to stop the counting of votes statewide – some hours before the countdown The campaign brief was filed by Mark « Thor » Hearne, a Missouri-based attorney who in 2005 was one of the first Republicans to promote the false allegation of widespread voter fraud The lawsuit claimed that Republicans did not have an observer « present at the counting office for absent voters » in all jurisdictions and that these observers were not allowed to « observe the video of the ballot boxes in which these ballots [ absent] are placed »On this basis, Trump wanted to stop Michigan’s vote count
Michigan Claims Court Judge Cynthia Stephens dismissed the lawsuit on Thursday, saying it was filed after the last ballots had been counted – too late – rendering procedural claims without Subject Defendant Benson was not the right person to sue, judge said, because Benson does not directly oversee how local state election officials handle mail-in votes
It was a complicated case Chris Sautter, an electoral recount lawyer who worked for Democratic candidates for decades, said a serious complaint should have been filed on Tuesday, when the processing of postal votes has begun If there were issues with access for campaign representatives to observe the process, the remedy was to grant access, not stop counting statewide, he said. And although the lawsuit says Benson had a duty to educate local officials, it never made it clear that she failed to do so, he noted. In other words, the Trump trial was too general, too late, and targeted the wrong accused
The Trump campaign filed a similar complaint Wednesday night in Detroit in an attempt to stop the city’s processing of a subset of missing ballots – those that had to be duplicated because they were torn or stained – and seeking to stop certifying the results of the city’s presidential election Like the lawsuit against Benson, this action came as the tally was coming to an end and also named the wrong defendant Thursday morning, the Trump campaign filed documents to add Wayne County as a defendant, as it is the county – not the city of Detroit – which certifies election results
On details, the lawsuit said some mail-in ballots were duplicated by election officials without a Republican observer present. Duplication should cease and all duplicate ballots should be « separated » or set aside, he said, where presumably these ballots could be considered further and possibly challenged Such a delay would slow down the certification of Detroit’s results
What Trump’s Detroit-centric trial failed to say was that the Michigan Republican Party had observers in the cavernous room where the city processed and counted ballots He didn’t say that Republicans had raised issues surrounding the handling of ballots that were being ignored And it was filed after the tally was completed, but he was still seeking a restraining order to stop the process
Trump campaign litigation in response to non-victory in landslide on Tuesday seems complicated and belated A similar lawsuit was filed in Nevada after election day seeking to stop that state’s counting swing The lawsuit also claimed that Trump watchers were stuck It was unanimously dismissed by the state Supreme Court It did not look like the Trump campaign planned to continue in Michigan or Nevada, Sautter said, despite Trump’s threat to launch a wave of lawsuits
But more importantly, the target of Trump’s lawsuits – disqualifying a subset of missing ballots, halting the counting process, and delaying certification of results – was not going to add to the tens of thousands of votes. which Trump needs to win key states On Thursday, Trump followed Joe Biden to Michigan by 147,000 votes, where his lawyers seek to challenge spoiled ballots that were duplicated
The same assessment is likely in Pennsylvania, where Trump’s lawyers were positioning themselves to challenge mail-in ballots that had been postmarked on election day, but which can still arrive by mail until Friday, November 6. The Trump campaign on Wednesday filed a motion in the US Supreme Court joins lawsuit over these late mail-in votes in Pennsylvania Late Thursday, The Washington Post reported the Postal Service said there was only 3439 postmarked postal ballots for delivery in Pennsylvania
The big picture that emerges is that Trump’s post-election litigation strategy did not stop the counting process and was not close to involving enough votes to overturn the results in the swings states Thus, if Trump cannot win a second term in the courts of legal opinion, he seeks to discredit the process in the court of public opinion – where propaganda and disinformation makes impressions quicker than points of view. real rights
Trump’s rambling, grievance-filled statement Thursday night accusing Democrats of attempting to ‘steal’ the election appeared to be the latest assertion of this strategy
« They are holding on to the straw, » Sautter said, speaking of Trump’s litigation strategy ahead of his speech. « They are trying to discredit the process by trying to say you cannot trust the outcome because ‘there were too many flaws «
“They waited too long to complain,” he continued. “If they hadn’t had enough spectators [in Detroit] they should have taken care of it starting with the day of the poll This lawsuit was filed late yesterday [Wednesday] afternoon Now the count’s done There’s no evidence that any of this stuff adds up anywhere near the margin «
There may be « some truth » in Republicans’ claim they lacked sufficient election observers, Sautter said But this mistake was their mistake, not the fault of the officials who managed the mail-count tables – a process that has been in place for years.
Steven Rosenfeld is editor and correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute He has reported for National Public Radio, Marketplace and Christian Science Monitor Radio, as well as a wide range of publications progressives, including Salon, AlterNet, The American Prospect and many more
The wave of hasty lawsuits launched by President Trump and his Republican allies to stop counting votes and disqualify postal votes has so far failed to make much headway – unlike to the disinformation they are spreading to discredit the 2020 election
Trump’s propaganda, as one might expect, has garnered widespread attention Whether tweets falsely claiming he won and Democrats stealing the election (which Twitter tagged with notices content warning), or the video made by her son Eric showing burnt ballots (these were sample ballots, not real ones), or false statements by White House officials, these antics have been noted and debunked
Unlike that bombing, Trump’s election day lawsuits in states where presidential results are not yet known have had limited success, but, more importantly, they don’t appear to be a game-changer. Lawsuits target small facets of the postal voting process Although court rulings may delay the announcement of results and certification of winners, lawsuits are not about to disqualify enough ballots to alter the outcome of the race – not where it is late by tens of thousands of votes Instead, many of Trump’s lawsuits were filed late, and some are full of errors
« None of Trump’s petty trials have been able to stop the count, and of course there is no basis for doing so, » ElectionLawBlog’s Rick Hasen wrote on Thursday. « He and his supporters have promoted unsubstantiated and dangerous conspiracy theories that Democrat politicians somehow ‘steal’ the vote while they are just counting the ballots »
Consider two of Trump’s lawsuits from Michigan The first lawsuit, against Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, was filed Wednesday afternoon and aimed to stop the counting of votes statewide – some hours before the countdown The campaign brief was filed by Mark « Thor » Hearne, a Missouri-based attorney who in 2005 was one of the first Republicans to promote the false allegation of widespread voter fraud The lawsuit claimed that Republicans did not have an observer « present at the counting office for absent voters » in all jurisdictions and that these observers were not allowed to « observe the video of the ballot boxes in which these ballots [ absent] are placed »On this basis, Trump wanted to stop Michigan’s vote count
Michigan Claims Court Judge Cynthia Stephens dismissed the lawsuit on Thursday, saying it was filed after the last ballots had been counted – too late – rendering procedural claims without Subject Defendant Benson was not the right person to sue, judge said, because Benson does not directly oversee how local state election officials handle mail-in votes
It was a complicated case Chris Sautter, an electoral recount lawyer who worked for Democratic candidates for decades, said a serious complaint should have been filed on Tuesday, when the processing of postal votes has begun If there were issues with access for campaign representatives to observe the process, the remedy was to grant access, not stop counting statewide, he said. And although the lawsuit says Benson had a duty to educate local officials, it never made it clear that she failed to do so, he noted. In other words, the Trump trial was too general, too late, and targeted the wrong accused
The Trump campaign filed a similar complaint Wednesday night in Detroit in an attempt to stop the city’s processing of a subset of missing ballots – those that had to be duplicated because they were torn or stained – and seeking to stop certifying the results of the city’s presidential election Like the lawsuit against Benson, this action came as the tally was coming to an end and also named the wrong defendant Thursday morning, the Trump campaign filed documents to add Wayne County as a defendant, as it is the county – not the city of Detroit – which certifies election results
On details, the lawsuit said some mail-in ballots were duplicated by election officials without a Republican observer present. Duplication should cease and all duplicate ballots should be « separated » or set aside, he said, where presumably these ballots could be considered further and possibly challenged Such a delay would slow down the certification of Detroit’s results
What Trump’s Detroit-centric trial failed to say was that the Michigan Republican Party had observers in the cavernous room where the city processed and counted ballots He didn’t say that Republicans had raised issues surrounding the handling of ballots that were being ignored And it was filed after the tally was completed, but he was still seeking a restraining order to stop the process
Trump campaign litigation in response to non-victory in landslide on Tuesday seems complicated and belated A similar lawsuit was filed in Nevada after election day seeking to stop that state’s counting swing The lawsuit also claimed that Trump watchers were stuck It was unanimously dismissed by the state Supreme Court It did not look like the Trump campaign planned to continue in Michigan or Nevada, Sautter said, despite Trump’s threat to launch a wave of lawsuits
But more importantly, the target of Trump’s lawsuits – disqualifying a subset of missing ballots, halting the counting process, and delaying certification of results – was not going to add to the tens of thousands of votes. which Trump needs to win key states On Thursday, Trump followed Joe Biden to Michigan by 147,000 votes, where his lawyers seek to challenge spoiled ballots that were duplicated
The same assessment is likely in Pennsylvania, where Trump’s lawyers were positioning themselves to challenge mail-in ballots that had been postmarked on election day, but which can still arrive by mail until Friday, November 6. The Trump campaign on Wednesday filed a motion in the US Supreme Court joins lawsuit over these late mail-in votes in Pennsylvania Late Thursday, The Washington Post reported the Postal Service said there was only 3439 postmarked postal ballots for delivery in Pennsylvania
The big picture that emerges is that Trump’s post-election litigation strategy did not stop the counting process and was not close to involving enough votes to overturn the results in the swings states Thus, if Trump cannot win a second term in the courts of legal opinion, he seeks to discredit the process in the court of public opinion – where propaganda and disinformation makes impressions quicker than points of view. real rights
Trump’s rambling, grievance-filled statement Thursday night accusing Democrats of attempting to ‘steal’ the election appeared to be the latest assertion of this strategy
« They are holding on to the straw, » Sautter said, speaking of Trump’s litigation strategy ahead of his speech. « They are trying to discredit the process by trying to say you cannot trust the outcome because ‘there were too many flaws «
“They waited too long to complain,” he continued. “If they hadn’t had enough spectators [in Detroit] they should have taken care of it starting with the day of the poll This lawsuit was filed late yesterday [Wednesday] afternoon Now the count’s done There’s no evidence that any of this stuff adds up anywhere near the margin «
There may be « some truth » in Republicans’ claim they lacked sufficient election observers, Sautter said But this mistake was their mistake, not the fault of the officials who managed the mail-count tables – a process that has been in place for years.
Steven Rosenfeld is editor and correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute He has reported for National Public Radio, Marketplace and Christian Science Monitor Radio, as well as a wide range of publications progressives, including Salon, AlterNet, The American Prospect and many more
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