The Trump campaign has sued Arizona’s Maricopa County alleging that poll workers may have disenfranchised thousands of in-person voters on election day by incorrectly handling some ballots.
The campaign announced its lawsuit in a press release on Saturday, claiming that some ballots cast on election day were marked as “overvotes” by the machines processing them, meaning the machine found that more votes were marked on the ballot than is allowed. Many overvote ballots were then canceled instead of being taken by a poll worker and counted by hand, the lawsuit says.
“When a machine detects an overvote on a ballot, poll workers should inform in-person voters of the error and give them an opportunity to correct the issue. Instead, poll workers in Maricopa County pressed, and told voters to press, a green button to override the error,” the press release said. “As a result, the machines disregarded the voter’s choices in the overvoted races. The campaign has collected declarations from voters who witnessed the problem and alleges that the problem occurred on a large scale in Maricopa County.”
Trump campaign general counsel Matt Morgan issued a statement blaming poll workers for improperly directing voters on how to use new voting machines.
“Poll workers struggled to operate the new voting machines in Maricopa County, and improperly pressed and told voters to press a green button to override significant errors,” Morgan. “The result is that the voting machines disregarded votes cast by voters in person on Election Day in Maricopa County.”
As outstanding ballots in the state continue to be tabulated after election day, with thousands left in Maricopa County, Trump continues to cut into Biden’s lead in the state. Biden now leads Trump in the state by just over half a point at .56%. Data Orbital, a Phoenix-based data analytics and survey research firm, projected Trump winning the state early last week based on outstanding votes still to be counted.
“There are ~108k ballots left, of which ~45k are provisional. Current statewide margin for Biden is 18,610 and .56%. We expect the margin to continue to tighten as additional ballots are counted. We expect Maricopa this afternoon and others likely, as well,” Data Orbital posted on Twitter late Sunday morning.
There are ~108k ballots left, of which ~45k are provisional. Current statewide margin for Biden is 18,610 and .56%. We expect the margin to continue to tighten as additional ballots are counted. We expect Maricopa this afternoon and others likely, as well. #Election2020 #AZ
— Data Orbital (@Data_Orbital) November 8, 2020
News outlets called the presidential race for former Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday, most after projecting that the Democratic presidential nominee would win Pennsylvania, a key battleground state. The calls may be premature, however, as the Trump campaign pursues legal action against allegations of fraud and improper access to vote canvassing operations across several battleground states, including Arizona.
The Trump campaign issued a statement on Saturday after most outlets called the race for Biden refusing to concede the election while its lawsuits were being litigated through the courts.
“The simple fact is this election is far from over,” the statement said. “Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor.”