Saturday, 5 December 2020

Donald Trump loses legal battle to overturn election results in Wisconsin as Georgia tallies second recount.

 Extract from ABC News

A woman wearing a face mask and sunglasses holds up a sign that says the voters have spoken
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has refused to hear US President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.(AP: Morry Gash)

US President Donald Trump has lost another legal challenge to overturn the 2020 election results in Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, Georgia has finished a second recount where president-elect Joe Biden won a majority once more.

Several states have already certified their results.

Here's the latest on the recounts and lawsuits taking place regarding the November 3 presidential election results.

Wisconsin

Mr Trump filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin on Tuesday (local time) seeking to disqualify more than 221,000 ballots in the state's two most Democratic counties.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court later declined to take up a case by Mr Trump's campaign challenging the election results in the state, the latest in a string of losses the campaign has suffered.

Mr Biden won the majority of votes in Wisconsin, edging Mr Trump out by about 20,000 votes, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

The state certified Mr Biden as the winner on Monday.

Mr Trump's petition alleged Wisconsin election officials were directed to fill in missing information on ballot envelopes, issued absentee ballots without receiving applications and allowed people to improperly claim a "confined" absentee voting status.

The petition also alleged that events held by election officials in the city of Madison, where officials collected and checked ballots in city parks, not polling stations, were against state law.

Wisconsin's top court, in denying the petition, said the parties could pursue a case in a lower court.

Mr Trump's lawyer Jim Troupis said he would immediately file the case in circuit court.

"It was clear from their writings that the court recognises the seriousness of these issues, and we look forward to taking the next step," he said in a statement.

Two other lawsuits filed by conservatives are still pending with the Wisconsin Supreme Court seeking to invalidate ballots.

In asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take the case directly, Mr Trump had argued that there wasn't enough time to wage the legal battle by starting with a lower court, given the looming December 14 date when presidential electors cast their votes.

Swing Justice Brian Hagedorn joined three liberal justices in denying the petition without weighing in on Mr Trump's allegations.

Mr Hagedorn said the law was clear that Mr Trump must start his lawsuit in lower courts where factual disputes can be worked out.

Mr Trump filed a similar lawsuit in a federal court on Wednesday.

In addition to Mr Trump's federal lawsuit, there is another one in federal court with similar claims from Sidney Powell, a conservative attorney who was removed from Mr Trump's legal team.

Georgia

Georgia has completed its second recount — that's three counts in total since the original number of votes were released.

Mr Biden is headed toward victory in Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said on Wednesday, rejecting false claims of fraud in the race.

Mr Biden had beat Mr Trump by just over 12,500 votes in Georgia, with Mr Biden receiving nearly twice as many of the record number of absentee ballots as the Republican president, according to the secretary of state's office.

After weathering criticism for certifying Mr Trump's narrow election loss to Mr Biden, Republican officials in Georgia are proposing additional requirements for the state's vote-by-mail process, despite no evidence of systemic fraud or irregularities.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger looks up towards the ceiling as he speaks during a news conference

Mr Raffensperger has repeatedly said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the November election.(AP: Brynn Anderson)

Pennsylvania

Fresh off another rejection in Pennsylvania's courts, Republicans again asked the US Supreme Court to block Mr Biden's victory in the battleground state.

Meanwhile, the state's lawyers say fatal flaws in the original case mean justices are highly unlikely to grant it.

Republican US congressman Mike Kelly, of north-western Pennsylvania, and the other plaintiffs are asking the high court to prevent the state from certifying any contests from the November 3 election, and undo any certifications already made, such as Mr Biden's victory, while its lawsuit is considered.

They maintain that Pennsylvania's expansive vote-by-mail law is unconstitutional because it required a constitutional amendment to authorise its provisions.

Mr Biden beat Mr Trump by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, a state Mr Trump had won in 2016.

Most mail-in ballots were submitted by Democrats.

The state's justices refused Thursday, and Mr Kelly's lawyers promptly refiled the case in the US Supreme Court.

In the underlying lawsuit, Mr Kelly and the other Republican plaintiffs had sought to either throw out the 2.5 million mail-in ballots submitted under the law or to wipe out the election results and direct the state's Republican-controlled legislature to pick Pennsylvania's presidential electors.

What happens next?

The states have until December 8 to resolve election disputes.

After that, each state's electors have a further six days to vote by paper ballot before Congress meets to count the electoral votes on January 6.Once a candidate has received 270 or more electoral votes, the President of the Senate will officially announce the results on December 14.

The winning candidate will then be officially sworn in as president on inauguration day — January 20.

Mr Trump said last week he would leave the White House if, as expected, the electoral college confirms Mr Biden has won the 2020 election.

It is the nearest Mr Trump has come to a concession.

Some US states are still yet to certify results but are expected to do so in coming days.

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