Trump said his campaign would go to court to “make sure election laws are fully respected.” (File)
Washington:
Minutes after U.S. media declared Democrat Joe Biden the winner of the tight U.S. presidential race on Saturday, President Donald Trump rejected that conclusion, saying he would prove in court that he was the winner.
“The simple fact is, this election is far from over,” Trump said in a statement.
“Legal votes decide who the president is, not the media.”
But pundits say Trump is unlikely to overturn Biden’s victory, without providing evidence of widespread electoral fraud needed to overturn the results in several states.
“Trump’s litigation strategy is not going anywhere. It will not make any difference to the outcome of the election,” said Richard Hasen, an electoral law expert at the University of California at Irvine.
Trump said his campaign would be taken to court on Monday to “ensure election laws are fully respected and the legitimate winner is seated.”
He pointed to expected recounts in states where Biden has only a few thousand votes ahead.
And he referred to Pennsylvania, where Republicans allege fraud and say thousands of late ballots were illegally counted.
“Networks fail to decide elections. Courts do. Courts overturn elections when they are illegal,” Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said Saturday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s largest city.
Echoes of Florida?
Trump is right: the election isn’t really over until each state formally certifies its vote, which will take place in the coming weeks.
But with nearly every 150 million votes counted, he just doesn’t have enough votes in the Electoral College that officially chooses the president, the US media collectively concluded on Saturday.
There is a precedent for going to court. In 2000, as the electoral battle between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore hinged on the outcome in Florida – where Bush led with just over 500 votes – the two sides fought in the Supreme Court for a statewide recount.
The High Court narrowly rejected a recount, deferring the election to Bush.
In Trump’s case, he not only has to overcome a deficit of nearly 40,000 votes in Pennsylvania, but he’s also down several thousand votes each in Nevada, Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin.
It is highly unlikely that the Supreme Court will decide to overturn election results from these margins in several states.
Vote recount
Recounts are expected in Wisconsin and Georgia, and are possible in other states.
But rarely tells of reversed verdicts. A recount in Wisconsin in 2016 garnered 131 votes ahead of Trump over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
“In modern American elections, the recount of the results hardly ever changed by more than two hundred votes,” said Steven Huefner, an electoral law expert at Ohio State University.
The Trump campaign’s greatest hope has been to overturn a decision by Pennsylvania months ago to accept mail-in ballots received up to three days after election day.
Republicans appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court in October, which split four-four leaving it in place, but saying it could reconsider the issue after the election.
Now he has a full bank of nine judges after Trump appointed conservative Amy Coney Barrett, and Republicans are seeking a new hearing.
But Pennsylvania officials say the number of late ballots at risk of disqualification is only in the thousands, far less than needed to overcome Biden’s lead.
It is “difficult to see how the ballots in question will have any relevance to the outcome of the election,” Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said on Saturday in a Supreme Court filing.
Fraud?
Trump also claims fraud. Again, to overcome Biden’s lead, this would have to be proven in multiple states and nullify tens of thousands of votes for his rival.
So far, they have not provided the evidence.
Giuliani said on Saturday that the largely Democratic city of Philadelphia “has a sad history of voter fraud,” claiming dead people submitted ballots.
“There is certainly enough evidence to disqualify a number of the ballots,” he said. “And that could affect the election.”
But Republican claims remain “vague,” Huefner said.
“You must have facts to back up what you are claiming,” he said.
And even with evidence, he added, Republicans must show that this is enough to change the results.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
