Donald Trump’s Campaign Files Lawsuit Attempting to Halt Michigan’s Vote Count

In several states across the country, ballots are still getting counted due to increased early voting and absentee voting. However, on Wednesday, President Donald Trump and his campaign have filed a lawsuit in Michigan in an attempt to stop the vote count, per CBS 4 News Indiana. As of right now, the count in Michigan gives Trump’s opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, a marginal lead. However, the race is still too early to call at the moment.

Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, released a statement in which he claimed that the president’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.” He said that the campaign filed a suit on Wednesday in the Michigan Court of Claims “to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted.”

Stepien’s statement expressed that they were aware that the race in Michigan would be a close one. He added, “We also demand to review those ballots which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access. President Trump is committed to ensuring that all legal votes are counted in Michigan and everywhere else.”

Michigan is one of the key battleground states that could help Trump deliver a win. At the moment, Biden is leading in the state, but it is still too early to call and many votes are yet to be counted. Michigan is one of the many battleground states that helped Trump win the presidency in 2016, along with states such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. While the races in those states are also very close, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday afternoon that Biden won the state of Wisconsin, flipping it from 2016. Trump’s campaign has already requested a recount in the state.

The president and his campaign’s latest action comes after Trump gave a speech from the White House early Wednesday morning regarding the election. In his remarks, he falsely claimed that he had won the election. He also said that he wants voting to stop in many of these battleground states, despite the fact that those states are simply counting legally cast votes. (It should be noted that voting has stopped and states are dealing with an increased number of early and absentee ballots, which has led to delays in counting those votes).

“Frankly, we did win this election. So our goal now is to ensure the integrity, for the good of this nation — this is a very big moment, this is a major fraud on our nation,” the president erroneously claimed. “We want the law to be used in a proper manner, so we’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list. It’s a very sad moment.”