Trump campaign drops parts of Pennsylvania election lawsuit

The campaign of US President Donald Trump has dropped a major part of a lawsuit challenging the election results in Pennsylvania.

In an amended complaint filed in federal court on Sunday, Trump’s attorneys lodged a revised version of the lawsuit, scrapping a claim that election officials violated his campaign’s constitutional rights by unlawfully blocking observers from watching the counting of mail-in ballots in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The Republican president and his personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani have repeatedly said over 600,000 votes in the two cities should be invalidated because of this issue.

The pared-down suit now focuses on an allegation that Democratic-leaning counties unlawfully allowed voters to fix errors in their mail-in ballots in violation of state law.

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

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Cliff Levine, an attorney representing the Democratic Party in the case, said Sunday that the move by the Trump campaign meant his lawsuit could not possibly change the result.

“Now you’re only talking about a handful of ballots,” Levine said. “They would have absolutely no impact on the total count or on Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump.”

In its revised lawsuit, the Trump campaign again requested that Judge Michael Brann block the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results. However, a secondary request to block the certification of all votes where observer access was reportedly limited was deleted in the amended suit.

Pennsylvania is due to certify the election results on Nov. 23.

The president’s campaign said late Sunday night that the new suit still contains assertions about the lack of access for observers in an introductory section.

In Pennsylvania's populated Montgomery County, less than 100 voters fixed ballots with technical errors, according to a county official’s testimony at a court hearing on Nov. 4.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign continues to seek a court order to block the Pennsylvania secretary of state from ratifying the result.

Biden won the election after news media and Edison Research called him as the victor in Pennsylvania, putting him over the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

On Sunday, Trump briefly appeared to acknowledge Biden's victory, but then he said on Twitter that he would soon file "big cases" challenging the results of the disputed November 3 election.

Trump: Biden 'won because the election was rigged'

Trump seems to have implicitly conceded defeat to Joe Biden while claims the election was rigged.

Many of the court cases being filed all over the Country are not ours, but rather those of people that have seen horrible abuses. Our big cases showing the unconstitutionality of the 2020 Election, & the outrage of things that were done to change the outcome, will soon be filed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020

Legal experts argue the lawsuits stand little chance of changing the outcome of the election.

In other tweets, Trump said he had won the election, adding, "I concede nothing." 

I WON THE ELECTION!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020

He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020

The incumbent also criticized "Radical Left-owned Dominion Voting Systems," calling the results "Fake".

....owned Dominion Voting Systems, turned down by Texas and many others because it was not good or secure, those responsible for the safeguarding of our Constitution cannot allow the Fake results of the 2020 Mail-In Election to stand. The World is watching!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020

Trump, who has been a vocal critic of the media, also asked on Twitter why "the Fake News Media" assume that the former vice president will take the presidency.

Why does the Fake News Media continuously assume that Joe Biden will ascend to the Presidency, not even allowing our side to show, which we are just getting ready to do, how badly shattered and violated our great Constitution has been in the 2020 Election. It was attacked,..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020

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