Trump supporters file legal challenges to vote recounts in three states
Corrected: Donald Trump supporters are seeking to halt vote recounts in the presidential election in the states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Among those seeking to block the recounts is Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, report Reuters, Politico, the Detroit Free Press and the New York Times. The recount requests were initiated by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who received only about 1 percent of the vote.
Schuette’s suit (PDF) argues that Green Party candidate Jill Stein is not an “aggrieved” candidate who is entitled to a recount. The suit also says a manual recount could disenfranchise Michigan voters because it can’t be completed by the federal deadline. If a recount is allowed to proceed, it should be electronic, the suit says.
In Wisconsin, PACs that supported Trump sued in federal court on Thursday. The suit (PDF) also says the recount could extend past the deadline, and says Wisconsin laws lacks adequate protections to give similar treatment to ballots completed across the state. The Wisconsin Republican Party says it has also filed a complaint, according to Reuters.
The Pennsylvania suit (PDF), filed in state court on Thursday by a team of Trump lawyers, says Stein is “no more than a blip on the electoral radar,” yet her recount effort could force the state to miss the deadline, at risk of disenfranchising Pennsylvania voters.
First paragraph corrected on Dec. 5 to state that the recount lawsuits were filed in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
