Martins Ifijeh in New Jersey, USA
A Michigan judge, Cynthia Stephens has dismissed a lawsuit by President Donald Trump’s campaign asking that vote count in the state be halted.
Trump had told the court that the Republican Party did not have access to the handling of absentee ballots and that ‘surprising’ votes were being credited to the Democratic Party.
The judge Thursday said the lawsuit was filed late Wednesday afternoon – just hours before the last ballots were counted – and that the defendant, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, was the wrong person to sue because she didn’t control the logistics of local ballot counting, even if she is the state’s chief election officer.
Democrat Joe Biden has won in Michigan, a state Trump won in 2016. The state has 16 Electoral College votes.
The lawsuit claimed Benson, a Democrat, was allowing absentee ballots to be counted without teams of bipartisan observers as well as challengers. She was accused of undermining the constitutional right of all Michigan voters to participate in fair and lawful elections.
Benson, through state attorneys, denied the allegations.
