Politics

Trump Campaign Files Lawsuit In Georgia, Race Still Not Called

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Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and the Georgia Republican Party announced Wednesday they are suing the state of Georgia to “ensure election integrity.”

“President Trump and his team are fighting for the good of the nation to uphold the rule of law, and Georgia’s law is very clear: to legally count, mail ballots must be received by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day,” Justin Clark, Deputy Campaign Manager and Senior Counsel said in a statement to the Daily Caller. “That’s still the law, even after Democrats sued earlier this year to extend the deadline and delay Election Day – President Trump and Republicans fought to uphold Georgia law, and we won.”

Clark said a Republican poll observer “witnessed 53 late absentee ballots illegally added to a stack of on-time absentee ballots in Chatham County.” (RELATED: Why Did Georgia, Pennsylvania Centers Pause Vote Counting?)

“We will not allow Democrat election officials to steal this election from President Trump with late, illegal ballots,” Clark continued.

The campaign is asking the court to issue an order requiring the Chatham County Board of Elections to separate all absentee ballots received after 7:00 p.m. and create a record of how many late ballots were received, the name of the voter, and the time the ballots were received.

Georgia state law stipulates that late absentee ballots “shall be safely kept unopened by the board or absentee ballot clerk” and then sent to an appropriate clerk for further storage. The ballots, which remain unopened, are eventually destroyed.

A federal judge ordered Georgia to extend its deadline for counting absentee ballots back in August, but a federal appeals court later reinstated Georgia’s Election Day deadline in October, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Georgia’s presidential election results have still not been called, with Joe Biden trailing Trump by less than 2 percentage points, according to The New York Times.