President Donald Trump's legal team has filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Michigan aimed at halting vote counting until courts can enforce rules that permit campaign observers to watch the ballots being opened and counted.
"They're not letting our poll watchers watch the polls, not letting them inside," said Eric Trump, one of the president's sons, at a press conference Wednesday afternoon referring to the Pennsylvania case. "They're trying to cheat."
The Trump campaign has not produced any evidence of cheating, but has alleged that poll watchers were being denied close-up access to observe vote counting at locations in Philadelphia and Detroit.
The legal action would not impact the vote tallies in either state -- where elections officials are still counting ballots. Myrna Perez, the director of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Program, called the suit a "nuisance" saying it is "designed to distract Americans from the counting process. The courts are unlikely to take this seriously."
The Biden campaign responded to the lawsuits, slamming them as "pathetic," with one campaign official alleging Republican observers had been disruptive and "aren't bringing challenges. They're just kicking up dust."
Officials in both states pushed back on the allegations -- which they said stem from social distancing requirements imposed in vote-counting facilities to protect poll workers from coronavirus.
"In Philadelphia, officials are administering the election with the highest degree of transparency," said Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. "There has been a livestream of the ballot-counting process available throughout the count, and all parties have canvass observers. Pennsylvania will fight every attempt to undermine the election. We will count every vote."
A spokesman for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel issued a similar statement, saying their elections "have been conducted transparently, with access provided for both political parties and the public, and using a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that all ballots are counted fairly and accurately."
In Pennsylvania, a commonwealth court scheduled an initial hearing for Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Republicans peppered social media with similar allegations Wednesday in Georgia, and in Detroit, concerns about crowding caused a skirmish outside a ballot processing center that was captured on video and circulated on social media. The episodes highlight the challenges of conducting an election in the midst of a global pandemic.