Trump campaign drops Arizona lawsuit requesting review of ballots

A lawsuit seeking a review of all ballots cast on Election Day in Arizona state of the United States, has been dropped by lawyers for the Trump campaign. 

CNN reported that Trump’s lawyers dropped the lawsuit after finding that the margin of victory for the presidential contest in Arizona could not be overcome.

The Trump campaign had filed the lawsuit alleging some voters were confused on Election Day and feared that their ballots were not counted if the vote tabulation machines classified their ballots as overvotes. They were seeking a hand review of any ballots flagged by the machine as overvotes alleging it could result in thousands of votes for President Donald Trump.

A state judge in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, held a six-hour evidentiary hearing on the case. Kory Langhofer, a lawyer for the Trump campaign wrote; 

“Since the close of yesterday’s hearing, the tabulation of votes statewide has rendered unnecessary a judicial ruling as to the presidential electors.”

Lawyers for Maricopa County and Secretary of State filed papers on Friday November 13, noting that the difference in votes between Biden and Trump is 11,414 with 10,315 ballots left to be counted. The county also said there were 191 votes classified as overvotes in the presidential race, a number they said was “consistent” with previous contests. The latest ballot counts “moots” the Trump campaign’s claim. 

Langhofer however averred that he did want the judge to rule on their requests to review votes for two down-ballot races, but added that he would only seek a review of vote counts if the number of so-called overvotes exceeded the margin of victory.

Earlier, the judge threw out paper and electronic affidavits the Trump campaign collected from voters after Langhofer acknowledged that some of the forms were “spam” and not legitimate voters.

Judge Daniel Kiley who granted the county’s request to exclude the evidence, told Trump’s attorney; 

“Let me just clarify. Your solicitation of witnesses yielded some sworn affidavits that you yourself clearly determined are false and spam, as you phrased it?

“The ones that you couldn’t prove are false you submitted to the court?”