As of early 5 November 2020, the states of North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada, and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania were still to be called in the 2020 US presidential race.

According to Newsmax, the President’s campaign has filed suit in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, joining existing legal actions on behalf of the Republican party in Pennsylvania and Nevada.

On Twitter, President Trump stated in the afternoon of 4 November 2020:

We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead. Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact …..there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported!

Joe Biden meanwhile encouraged voters to have trust in the electoral process, tweeting out “Keep faith in the process and in each other”.

Kamala Harris stated on Twitter that “Americans should have faith in the voting process” and made the point that they “have the constitutional right to have their lawfully cast ballots counted.”

Meanwhile, The Hill is predicting that the 2020 election will have had the highest voter turnout in a presidential election since 1900.

Michigan

The Office of the Inspector General has contacted Project Veritas after it was approached by a postal worker in Michigan, who claimed that he was being asked to lay aside postal ballots to be backdated, a practice that would be in contravention of Michigan law, and which would allow a higher number of postal ballots to be added to the final count.

The Trump campaign had already raised concerns over the integrity of the Michigan vote with Bill Stepien, Trump’s 2020 Campaign Manager alleging a lack of meaningful access:

“As votes in Michigan continue to be counted, the presidential race in the state remains extremely tight as we always knew it would be. President Trump’s campaign has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law. We have filed suit today in the Michigan Court of Claims to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted. We also demand to review those ballots which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access. President Trump is committed to ensuring that all legal votes are counted in Michigan and everywhere else.”

Contrary to reports that the action had not actually been filed, the Emergency Motion for Declaratory Judgement was posted on 4 November with the Michigan Court of Claims, and the fee paid. (Oddly however, in the filing, Eric Ostergren who is believed to be one of the claimants is listed as a defendant.)

Reaction

Given the opportunities for abuse, commentator Matt Walsh is among those arguing for early voting and mail-in ballots to be abolished, and also raised concerns about sending ballot counters home. “Mail-in voting and early voting create more opportunities for things to go wrong, either through intentional subterfuge, human error, or other circumstances.”

Likewise, James Wood raised the point that pollworkers should stay at the job, asking “Since when do they just stop counting votes on election day in America?”

Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald opined that “The richest and most powerful country on earth … has no ability to perform the simple task of counting votes in a minimally efficient or confidence-inspiring manner. As a result, the credibility of the voting process is severely impaired…”