The Trump campaign's new lawsuit would invalidate 221,000 Wisconsin ballots — including votes cast by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic
The lawsuit would also invalidate the vote of Trump's top election lawyer in Wisconsin, who said he voted illegally.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
- President Donald Trump's campaign filed a new lawsuit in Wisconsin seeking to invalidate 221,000 votes.
- Wisconsin already confirmed its electoral votes, declaring President-elect Joe Biden the winner.
- The lawsuit would invalidate the vote of Jim Troupis, the campaign's top election lawyer in the state, who wrote the lawsuit.
- It also challenges votes cast by people who were concerned about leaving their home because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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President Donald Trump's campaign has filed yet another election lawsuit, this time trying to invalidate votes in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin already certified its votes Monday. President-elect Joe Biden increased his margin of victory in the state through a recount the Trump campaign requested, winning by more than 20,000 votes.
The lawsuit, filed to the Wisconsin state Supreme Court Tuesday, asks that the court force the state to exclude ballots it argues were out of compliance with election laws. It does not allege that any voter or election fraud took place in the state. It seeks to challenge the legality of the voting system that has been built over the course of eight years by the Republican-controlled government.
If it's successful, the lawsuit would disqualify 221,000 votes, the Trump campaign said in a statement.
That would include the vote of Jim Troupis, the Trump campaign's top election lawyer in Wisconsin, who filed the lawsuit.
"Wisconsin cannot allow the over three million legal ballots to be eroded by even a single illegal ballot," Troupis said in the statement.
Troupis told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in November that he voted using an "In-Person Absentee Ballot," which the lawsuit says should not be counted. Troupis's wife also voted with that method, according to a document he filed with the Dane County Board of Canvassers and obtained by the Journal Sentinel.
Trump's lawsuit would disqualify votes cast by people concerned about leaving their homes because of COVID-19
The lawsuit also takes aim at "Indefinitely Confined Absentee Ballots," used by nearly 250,000 voters in the November election.
The voting method has historically been used by people with disabilities, according to the Journal Sentinel. But it was widely adopted this year by voters concerned about leaving their homes because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 3,400 people in the state so far.
Trump's campaign argues that the "Indefinitely Confined" designation has been used to circumvent state laws about photo ID requirements.
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The Wisconsin Elections Commission said it's up to voters themselves to decide whether they wanted to use the "Indefinitely Confined" ballot option and provides extensive guidance for people using those ballots but who don't have a valid photo ID available. Meagan Wolfe, Wisconsin's top election official, told a local ABC News affiliate that voters could sign an absentee certificate and have a witness sign their absentee ballot instead of using a photo ID.
Senior citizens and other people who have used the ballot designation have objected to having their votes disqualified.
"We're beyond senior. We're really old. My husband just turned 80 and I'm 78. So there was no way we were going to vote in person," Wisconsin resident Tee Gee Levy told the Journal Sentinel. "It's not justified at all. I'm surprised there are attorneys still going after it. I wish more people would speak out."
In addition to disqualifying some "Indefinitely Confined" ballots and all "In-Person Absentee" ballots, the lawsuit would cancel all ballots where witnesses did not write down their addresses, as well as ballots given to election officials at "Democracy in the Park" events in September and October.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to hear the case, a spokesperson for the court told Reuters.
Trump and his allies have filed more than two dozen lawsuits challenging election results. None of them have succeeded.
- Read more:
- Trump and his allies have won zero out at least 26 lawsuits they've filed since Election Day
- A witness in Trump ally Sidney Powell's lawsuits says the voting results in 'Edison County' indicate fraud. No such place exists.
- Will Rudy Giuliani be disbarred? Probably not for Trump's election lawsuits, experts say.
- Trump's top election lawyer in Wisconsin says he and his wife voted illegally in the campaign's latest legal argument