Trump team drops part of lawsuit

WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump’s campaign yesterday dropped a major part of a lawsuit it brought seeking to halt Pennsylvania from certifying its results in the presidential election, narrowing the case to a small number of ballots.

In an amended complaint filed in federal court, the Trump campaign dropped a claim that election officials unlawfully blocked observers from watching the counting of mailin ballots in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The pareddown lawsuit now focuses on a claim that Democraticleaning counties unlawfully allowed voters to fix errors in their mailin ballots in violation of state law.

Officials have said the dispute affects a small number of ballots in the state, where Democrat Joe Biden is projected to win by more than 60,000 votes.

Pennsylvania officials have said election observers were allowed to assess the processing of mailin ballots and that all of the state’s counties were permitted to inform residents if their mailedin ballots were deficient, even if it was not mandatory for them to do so.

In Pennsylvania's populous Montgomery County, fewer than 100 voters fixed ballots with technical errors, a county official testified at a court hearing on November 4.

The Trump campaign continues to seek a court order blocking the Pennsylvania secretary of state from ratifying the result.

News media and Edison Research called Biden as the victor in Pennsylvania, putting him over the 270 electoral votes needed to win. Edison Research said Biden had won 306 Electoral College votes to Trump's 232.

Trump yesterday briefly appeared to acknowledge Biden’s victory, but then recanted and claimed he would soon file fresh challenges. His campaign has filed a string of longshot lawsuits in several battleground states.

On Twitter yesterday, Trump said many cases being filed were not from his campaign.

Later, also on Twitter, he wrote: ‘‘I WON THE ELECTION!’’.

Legal experts say the lawsuits have little chance of changing the outcome of the election.

A senior Biden legal adviser has dismissed the litigation as ‘‘theatrics, not really lawsuits’’.

Pennsylvania is due to certify the election results a week today. — Reuters