President Trump has vowed to take some vote counts to court if he loses the election, which would result in a prolonged election period. The Trump campaign has already demanded a recount in Wisconsin, where Biden has 49.4% of the vote and Trump got 48.8% (>98% reported). As Biden pulled ahead in Michigan, Trump called for votes to stop being counted on the basis that his representatives were not given “meaningful access” to watch them being counted.
Trump and his supporters have been supporting vote counts in states where he is behind, and are asking them to stop vote count where he is ahead. However, vice-president Pence and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R) have not made any statements suggesting they support Trump’s demand of stopping vote count.
Joe Biden’s campaign has geared up teams of lawyers in swing states Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan as they are preparing for court battles, and has also asked for donations to fund their court cases.
On Wednesday, in a Zoom call, aides of the Biden campaign told donors that Biden was on track to reach the 270 threshold, and that they should remain confident as patient as results are rolling in.
At the same time, Trump was telling his supporters that as far as he’s concerned, this election has been a success and that they’ve won it, though millions of votes were still to be counted in battleground states.
It is reported that on Wednesday, Trump advisors had lost hope in winning Michigan and Wisconsin, but still had some confidence in Arizona and Pennsylvania voting their way. Georgia is also a state they have their eye on.
Similar to the Biden campaign, on Wednesday, Ronna McDaniel Republican National Committee Chairwoman asked donations from Trump supporters to help fund their upcoming legal battles.
The reason industrial Midwest states still don’t have all their votes counted is because Republican law makers didn’t allow ballots to be counted earlier, which these states had requested prior to the election.
The Biden campaign had prepared for court battles before the election, when Trump refused to directly commit to a peaceful transition of power. They created a “boiler room” which consisted of hundreds of lawyers, led by Obama’s White House counsel Bob Bauer and Dana Remu. On Wednesday, Bauer said, “As far as our own planning, we’re winning the election. We’ve won the election… we’re going to defend that election, so we don’t have to do anything but protect the rights of voters, and to stand up for the democratic process.”
As more absentee ballots are being counted, the Biden campaign is confident that a win in either Pennsylvania or Georgia will cement their victory, and will make Trump’s court battles futile.
