Election results continue to be tallied, Trump claims fraud without evidence

The 2020 presidential election remains undecided for a second day as key states continue to count the high volume of mail-in ballots. 

No new states have been called by the Associated Press (AP) since Wednesday, meaning former Vice President Joe Biden still has 264 electoral votes and President Donald J. Trump has 214 electoral votes as of 11 p.m. yesterday.

Nevada continued its vote-counting efforts today, with Biden in the lead by a small margin as of yesterday evening, according to AP. Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske said yesterday approximately 190,150 ballots remain in addition to an unknown number that has been mailed but has yet to arrive, according to an official statement. Under Nevada law, any ballot postmarked by election day will be accepted up until Nov. 10. 

New data from Georgia shows that Trump’s lead over Biden shrank to less than 3,500 votes as of yesterday evening, according to AP. Georgia election officials said there are approximately 16,105 remaining ballots left to be counted as of 8:40 p.m. yesterday, according to an official statement. 

In North Carolina, approximately 116,000 mail-in ballots and 41,000 provisional ballots have yet to be counted, according to AP. Election officials have until Nov. 12 to count ballots postmarked by election day. Pennsylvania also has approximately 208,876 ballots left to be counted as of 11 p.m. yesterday, according to its official election dashboard.

Trump is leading in both North Carolina and Pennsylvania, but in both states, a majority of mail-in ballots so far have been in favor of Biden, according to AP. 

Biden said yesterday the public should be patient as the votes continue to be counted. 

“The process is working, the count is being completed and we’ll know very soon,” he said.

Trump continued to make false claims about winning the election and alleged voter fraud in a speech at the White House, according to The Washington Post. He challenged the integrity of mail-in ballots and the ballot counting process and made accusations of corruption against election officials, the media and technology companies without offering evidence.

Trump also said that the large number of mail-in ballots in favor of Biden is due to corruption. This comes after he told his own supporters to not vote by mail and go to the polls prior to the election.

"All of a sudden we have some mail-in ballots. It’s amazing how those mail-in ballots are so one-sided, too,” he said, according to the article.

Trump’s statements were repudiated by multiple media outlets for the number of falsehoods and baseless claims. 

The Trump campaign will enter numerous legal battles to challenge the results of the election, Trump said, according to The Washington Post.

The Daily Targum previously reported the Trump campaign already filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia regarding more access to ballot counting for campaign observers. The campaign is also seeking a recount in Wisconsin.

Yesterday, the Trump campaign lost the lawsuit in Georgia alleging approximately 50 ballots arrived after the 7 p.m. deadline on Election Day, which there was no evidence of, according to The Washington Post. 

The Trump campaign also lost an emergency request in Michigan to stop the vote count, which the judge denied because the votes were essentially done being counted, according to the article. 

A Pennsylvania judge did rule in favor of the Trump campaign to allow its observers closer to the election workers currently counting ballots in Philadelphia, according to AP. 

More legal action was announced yesterday, with the Trump campaign announcing its plans to sue Nevada in order to stop counting alleged illegal ballots. Campaign representatives would not answer questions regarding what evidence there was to support this claim, according to CNBC. 

The campaign also joined a lawsuit in Arizona, which alleges two Republican voters in Maricopa County used Sharpie markers on their ballots that prevented the machine from reading them, with one voter claiming they were denied a replacement, according to The Washington Post. 

Election officials in Arizona said there is no evidence that Sharpies interfere with ballot scanning, and that they generally prefer voters to use Sharpies, according to the article. Additionally, officials said it is standard procedure to give voters a new ballot in the event of a scanning issue, and that no ballots were denied at Maricopa County voting locations.

Biden’s campaign lawyer Bob Bauer said the Trump campaign’s lawsuits lack merit and are designed to confuse the public and prevent votes from being counted, according to the article.

“This is part of a broader misinformation campaign that involves some political theater,” he said, according to the article.