U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at the Arizona Grand Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona U.S., September 14, 2020.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
The campaign of President Donald Trump on Friday dropped a legal challenge of a number of ballots in Maricopa County, Arizona, saying that President-elect Joe Biden’s lead in the case is to big for the disputed ballots to make a difference.
In a filing Friday in county court, the campaign, which has said that numerous voters had their ballots invalidated, said that “the tabulation of votes statewide has rendered unncessary a judicial ruling as to the presidential electors.”
NBC News projected Thursday evening that Biden will win the popular vote in Arizona, and hence win all of the state’s 11 votes in the Electoral College.
Biden already had been projected to win the presidential race as of last Saturday.
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told CNBC, “All parties acknowledge that in-person voters, who were likely predominately Trump voters, were disenfranchised by having their votes kicked out by the machines in Maricopa County, so for Democrats to celebrate that fact is shameful. We continue to explore President Trump’s options in Arizona.”
Trump has refused to concede the race, as his campaign conducts a series of legal challenges in a half-dozen battleground states in an effort to reverse Biden’s lead. The president has falsely claimed that he won the race.
The Arizona complaint, which was filed Saturday in Maricopa County Superior Court, alleged that numerous voters filing ballots in person on Election Day had been tricked into having their votes disqualified by the electronic tabulation machines.
The Trump campaign had originally argued if the disqualified ballots were added to the vote tally, it “will prove determinative of the outcome of the election for President of the United States in Arizona and/or other contested offices in Maricopa County.”
“Numerous voters were alerted by these devices to a facial irregularity in their ballot … but were induced by poll workers to override the tabulator’s rejection of the ballot in the good faith belief that their vote would be duly registered and tabulated,” the complaint alleged.
“In actuality, overriding the electronic tabulator’s alert automatically disqualifies the putative ‘overvotes’ without additional review or adjudication.”
This is breaking news. Check back for updates.
