President Trump’s reelection campaign filed a lawsuit in Michigan to stop ballot counting on Wednesday amid an “extremely tight” race against former Vice President Joe Biden.
Edison Research, Fox News, CNN, ABC News, and other outlets projected on Wednesday afternoon that Biden would win Michigan.
“Trump’s campaign has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law,” Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a statement Wednesday and pointed to the “extremely tight” race.
The campaign “filed suit today in the Michigan Court of Claims to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted,” Stepien continued, adding a “demand to review” of all ballots, “which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access.”
“Trump is committed to ensuring that all legal votes are counted in Michigan and everywhere else,” Stepien said.
Trump’s campaign filed its nine-page complaint Wednesday afternoon against Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, with the plaintiffs listed as both Donald Trump for President and Eric Ostegren, described as a registered voter in Michigan who was “credentialed and trained as an election challenger” and was “excluded from the counting board during the absent voter ballot review process.”
“Donald J. Trump has a special and substantial interest in assuring that Michigan processes the ballots of Michigan citizens case according to Michigan law so that every lawful Michigan voter’s ballot is fairly and equally processed and counted. Eric Ostergren has a special and substantial interest under Michigan law as a credentialed election challenger to observe the processing of absent voter ballots,” the Trump campaign lawyers told the court, adding, “Local election jurisdictions locate ballot drop-off boxes without opportunities for challengers to observe the process, and as such Secretary Benson violates her constitutional and statutory authority and damages the integrity of Michigan elections.”
Benson seemed to respond to the Trump campaign lawsuit in a Wednesday afternoon tweet.
“Proud of all the election workers who are meticulously, securely, transparently, tirelessly continuing to #CountEveryVote in Michigan,” she said. “And let me abundantly clear: we are not going to let any campaign, candidate, or political party stop our work to ensure every voice is heard.”
