Even before the vote-counting in last week’s election is completed in Arizona, the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and and state GOP leaders have filed a lawsuit alleging mistakes by poll workers in Maricopa County.
But if the suit is intended as part of a march toward a Trump victory, it amounts to baby steps, at best.
That’s because only 180 votes for president are at issue, out of nearly 160,000 cast on Election Day alone in the county, which includes Phoenix. Biden currently leads Trump by about 15,000 votes in the state.
“(I)t appears unlikely the case would affect the outcome of the presidential vote,” the Arizona Republic observed, with dry sarcasm.
The GOP suit focuses on “overvotes,” in which voters mark more options than allowed in a particular race. It claims that county poll workers “disregarded procedures designed to give voters a chance to correct ballot mistakes, possibly affecting final vote counts,” the Republic says.
At a preliminary hearing on Monday, a lawyer representing the Arizona Secretary of State described the lawsuit as ‘an effort to find a problem when one does not exist,’” the Republic says.
State Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, called for “an independent expert to evaluate all data related to the tabulation of votes” in the county, but said she was not alleging fraud.
“I am not claiming fraud was involved in Arizona’s election, but we must do everything we can to satisfy Arizonans that the count was lawfully done,” Fann said in a statement.
Arizona remains one of three states that have still not finished counting votes in the election of one week ago. The others are North Carolina and Georgia.
