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Biden kicks off ‘largest ever’ Fight Fund to combat Trump’s calls to stop vote count

Thu 05 Nov 2020    
EcoBalance
| 2 min read

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday kickstarted the “Biden Fight Fund,” touting it as the “largest election protection effort ever assembled” after President Donald Trump’s camp filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, calling for a halt to vote counting.

“To make sure every vote is counted, we’re setting up the largest election protection effort ever assembled,” Biden tweeted. “Because Donald Trump doesn’t get to decide the outcome of this election—the American people do.”

The POTUS has steadily slipped behind Biden in his hunt for the 270 Electoral College votes, as the latter takes the lead 264-214 after his win in states Michigan and Wisconsin, both key contributors to Trump’s 2016 victory.

The lawsuits demand better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted, and raise absentee ballot concerns, the Trump’s campaign said.

The incumbent also sought a recount in Wisconsin and moved to intervene in a Pennsylvania case at the Supreme Court that deals with whether ballots received up to three days after the election can be counted. The president is ahead in Pennsylvania but his margin is shrinking as more mailed ballots are counted.

The actions reveal an emerging legal strategy that the president had signaled for weeks, namely that he would attack the integrity of the voting process in states where the result could mean his defeat.

Biden said Wednesday the count should continue in all states, adding, “No one’s going to take our democracy away from us — not now, not ever.”

His campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said legal challenges were not the behaviour of a winning campaign.

“What makes these charades especially pathetic is that while Trump is demanding recounts in places he has already lost, he’s simultaneously engaged in fruitless attempts to halt the counting of votes in other states in which he’s on the road to defeat,” Bates said in a statement.

At least 103 million people voted early, either by mail or in-person this year, widely overwhelming the number of total votes cast in the 2016 presidential election.

Every election, results reported on election night are unofficial and the counting of ballots extends past Election Day. Mail ballots normally take more time to verify and count. This year, because of the large numbers of mail ballots and a close race, results are expected to take longer.

Despite the Republican accusations, there have been no reports of fraud or any type of ballot concerns. The state had 3.1 million mail-in ballots that take time to count and an order allows them to be received and counted up until Friday if they are postmarked by Nov 3.

Poll watchers from both sides were plentiful Wednesday at one major polling place in question — the TCF Center in Detroit. Uniformed Detroit police officers were also on hand to make sure everyone was behaving.

“This is the best absentee ballot counting operation that Detroit has ever had,” said Mark Brewer, a former state Democratic chairman. “They are counting ballots very efficiently, despite the obstructing tactics of the Republicans.”

[Sourced from Agencies]