Election workers in Georgia will soon be recounting votes in the state’s presidential election. President Donald Trump’s campaign Saturday requested a recount, a day after state officials certified results showing Democrat Joe Biden won.
Georgia’s results show Biden beat Trump by 12,670 votes out of nearly 5 million cast. Biden claimed 49.51% of the vote to Trump’s 49.25% – Libertarian Jo Jorgensen received 1.24% of the vote in Georgia’s presidential race.
State law allows a candidate to request a recount if the margin between them and the winner is less than half a percentage point.
The Trump campaign sent a hand-delivered letter to the secretary of state’s office requesting the recount in an election fraught with unfounded accusations of fraud by Trump and his supporters.
Lawsuits dismissed for lack of evidence
Judges have thrown out at least two election lawsuits in Georgia and dozens more nationwide over lack of evidence.
Last week, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Georgia rejected a legal challenge by conservative lawyer L. Lin Wood Jr. who sought to stop state election officials from certifying the votes. Wood claimed systemic issues with the election process had marred the results.
In a hearing on Thursday, Judge Steven Grimberg pushed back against claims of voter fraud.
“I understand that is your argument, sir. What is your evidence?” Judge Grimberg asked after listening to Wood’s lawyer Ray Smith III, WSB-TV reports.
In dismissing the lawsuit, Grimberg wrote, “To halt the certification at literally the 11th hour would breed confusion and disenfranchisement that I find have no basis in fact and law.”
Earlier, a judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign and the Georgia Republican Party alleging that Chatham County elections officials improperly counted absentee ballots received after the state’s deadline.
In order to win the electoral vote, Trump would have to successfully overturn the results in at least three key swing states that flipped to Biden in this election. In a move many consider a legal death blow to that effort, a federal judge in Pennsylvania on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to block vote certification in that state.
U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Brann, a longtime and well-known Pennsylvania Republican, issued a scathing rebuke in his order writing that Trump had asked the court to disenfranchise almost 7 million voters.
“One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption, such that this Court would have no option but to regrettably grant the proposed injunctive relief despite the impact it would have on such a large group of citizens. That has not happened,” Brann wrote. “Instead, this Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence.”
Judge Brann added, “It is not in the power of this Court to violate the Constitution.”
Brann’s ruling paves the way for Pennsylvania officials to certify election results that currently show Biden winning the state by more than 80,000 votes.
