President Donald Trump’s campaign has filed another lawsuit seeking to overturn United States election results, the campaign announced Friday, this time contesting more than 100,000 votes in the state of Georgia.
The new lawsuit, filed by the Trump campaign and Georgia’s Republican Party, alleges that “massive irregularities, mistakes, and potential fraud” took place in the state.
It is the latest in a long line of legal challenges Trump has filed since the November 3 contest resulted in a victory for Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, who secured a total of 306 Electoral College votes compared with 232 for Trump.
Biden won in Georgia, which has 16 electoral votes, by fewer than 15,000 votes, a margin of victory of 0.02 percentage points. It was the first time the state went to a Democratic presidential contender since 1992.
In a statement Friday, the Trump campaign said that its Georgia lawsuit would include sworn statements from local residents alleging fraud.
“What was filed today clearly documents that there are literally tens of thousands of illegal votes that were cast, counted, and included in the tabulations the Secretary of State is preparing to certify,” Ray S Smith III, lead counsel for the Trump campaign, said in the statement.
The campaign said the lawsuit would challenge more than 100,000 votes.
“The massive irregularities, mistakes, and potential fraud violate the Georgia Election Code, making it impossible to know with certainty the actual outcome of the presidential race in Georgia,” the lawyer said.
Georgia officials already have recounted the votes twice and local media outlets reported that they are nearly done with a third recount.
They have denied allegations of widespread voter fraud or irregularities – and have repeatedly said the recounts confirm that Biden won the state.
The Trump campaign’s challenge comes as Georgia Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler prepare for runoff elections for the US Senate. Republicans need to win both to maintain their Senate majority.
If Democrats win both contests, which will be decided in a January 5 vote, the 100-seat chamber will be split evenly between Republicans and Democrats. Any tie in an evenly divided Senate will then be decided by US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris after she comes into office.
Two Trump-supporting lawyers, Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, have expressed doubts in the integrity of the US election system.
“We are not going to allow ourselves to go back in the polling booth,” Wood said at a rally earlier this week in Atlanta, where he repeated a slew of debunked voter fraud allegations.
“They have not earned your vote … Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election?”