Trump, Republicans push forward with election lawsuit challenging mail-in ballots
President Trump and Republicans continue to fight the election results — as they went to the Supreme Court to challenge mail-in ballots, and backed the president’s effort to “look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options.”
Trump is refusing to concede to President-elect Joe Biden after Pennsylvania was called for the former vice president on Saturday — sparking celebrations across the country.
Trump and his surrogates have claimed “fake votes” and that Democrats are “stealing” the election, but so far there’s no evidence of voter irregularities or widespread fraud.
Despite the lack of evidence, Republicans kept pushing forward with lawsuits on Monday, including Republican state attorneys general supporting a challenge to Pennsylvania’s decision to count mail-in ballots that arrived through Friday.
The 10 AGs filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court, saying they must “ensure that every legal vote cast is counted, and that every illegal vote cast is not counted.”
The attorneys general argue that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had unconstitutionally “overstepped their bounds” when the court upheld the three-day mail-in ballot extension. The state Legislature should be deciding the timeline for elections, the AGs argue.
“The integrity of our elections are at stake,” Missouri AG Eric Schmitt said during a Monday press conference.
The Pennsylvania decision can lead to fraud and abuse, the AGs repeated several times. Oklahoma AG Mike Hunter brought up “whether someone is trying to dump ballots into Pennsylvania” after 8 p.m. on Election Day “in a nefarious way.” There has been no evidence for such a claim.
Courts have rejected Republican demands in Pennsylvania and other battleground states to throw out ballots or stop vote counting. It was unclear whether any of the legal challenges would make a difference to an eventual outcome.
Also on Monday, Trump tweeted, “Pennsylvania prevented us from watching much of the Ballot count. Unthinkable and illegal in this country.” Twitter flagged the tweet, writing that the claim about election fraud is disputed. State election officials say that poll watchers were certified in every county.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday did not congratulate Biden, nor say that Trump should concede.
Instead, McConnell said from the Senate floor, “President Trump is 100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options.”
He later added, “If Democrats feel confident they have not occurred, they should have no reason to fear any extra scrutiny. … The president has every right to look into allegations, and request recounts under the law.”
Herald wire services were used in this report.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2IoOm1M
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