Pennsylvania officials urged a US federal appeals court to deny a request from US President Donald Trump’s campaign for an emergency injunction that would undo the state’s certification of presidential electors.
Granting the motion “would sow chaos and confusion across the nation while inflaming baseless conspiracies about widespread fraud,” Pennsylvania elections chief Kathy Boockvar said in a filing on Tuesday in the US Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.
The Trump campaign has asked the court to issue the injunction, while it attempts to revive a lawsuit that was dismissed on Saturday by a federal judge who eviscerated its weak claims and lack of evidence.
The campaign has said it wants to block “the effects” of certification during the appeal process.
“Issuing an injunction pending appeal after Pennsylvania has already certified its election results would grievously undermine the public’s trust in the electoral system, contravene democratic principles and reward appellants for their procedural gamesmanship,” the state said.
Boockvar, a Democrat, earlier on Tuesday certified Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s victory in the state, but Trump’s campaign has argued in court filings that it could still “decertify” the result through litigation before Dec. 8, the safe harbor deadline for states to choose electors for the Electoral College vote on Dec. 14.
The campaign said Pennsylvania must throw out tens of thousands of mail-in ballots that it claims were “illegal,” because election officials allowed voters to fix minor errors before the Nov. 3 election day.
Lawyers for some of Pennsylvania’s most-populous counties, which are defendants in the suit, filed a separate brief on Tuesday in which they said the appeal “seeks to needlessly draw out this futile litigation” to undermine the election and “democracy itself.”
Meanwhile, Republicans on Tuesday filed a lawsuit asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to block certification of the presidential election results even as a recount of Biden’s win over Trump is ongoing.
The lawsuit echoes many of the same arguments Trump is making in trying to have tens of thousands of ballots discounted in the recount.
It also seeks to give the power to name presidential electors to the Republican-controlled legislature.
Wisconsin state law allows the political parties to pick electors, which was done last month.
Once the election results are certified, which is scheduled to be done on Tuesday next week, those pre-determined electors are to cast their ballots for the winner on Dec. 14.
“The litigation filed this afternoon seeks to disenfranchise every Wisconsinite who voted in this year’s presidential election,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said. “The Wisconsin Department of Justice will ensure that Wisconsin’s presidential electors are selected based on the will of the more than 3 million Wisconsin voters who cast a ballot.”
The lawsuit also rehashes a claim that a federal court rejected in September that Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg tried to “illegally circumvent Wisconsin absentee voting laws” through grants awarded by a nonprofit center he funds.
At least 10 cases have been filed across the country seeking to halt certification in parts or all of key battleground states, including lawsuits brought by the Trump campaign in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
The Wisconsin lawsuit was filed by attorney Erick Kaardal.
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