Team Trump drops Arizona legal challenge, shutters voter fraud hotline



When the Associated Press and Fox News called Arizona for former Vice President Joe Biden, President Donald Trump's staff and re-election campaign criticized the prediction, saying it was too early for such a call and guaranteeing the the president would ultimately win the Grand Canyon state and its 11 Electoral College votes.

The campaign and its supporters alleged voter irregularities, including the improper rejection of in-person votes in Maricopa County, and sought a court remedy.

But Friday morning, the Wall Street Journal reported the campaign has conceded that Arizona will never be flipped to the president's column.

The Journal reported that Trump campaign attorneys said they are no longer asking a court to intervene in the presidential race in Arizona. Trump's campaign realized and admitted that the few number of ballots at stake — approximately 200 — would have no impact on the results of the election. Biden currently leads Trump by 11,000 votes.

From the Journal:

At a daylong hearing Thursday, Kory Langhofer, an attorney for the Trump campaign, made clear the campaign wasn't alleging any voter fraud but instead claimed some poll workers submitted ballots that had errors that voters weren't given the opportunity to fix. The number of votes at issue was less than 200, and Mr. Langhofer said at the close of the hearing that they wouldn't ask election officials to recount those ballots if they had no ability to affect the outcome of the race.

Langhofer told the court, "Since the close of yesterday's hearing, the tabulation of votes statewide has rendered unnecessary a judicial ruling as to the presidential electors," the paper reported.

Voter fraud hotline closing up shop

Team Trump is reportedly shutting its voter fraud hotline. ABC News' Ben Siegal reported that the campaign is making the move after getting inundated with prank and spam calls.

"The Trump campaign is discontinuing its voter fraud hotline — the one flooded with pranks calls — and planning to downsize its staff beginning next week," Siegal tweeted.

The decision comes following a slew of prank calls to the hotline, CNN said, adding that the voter fraud alert system has been changed to a website where people can submit allegations of fraud using a web form.

Gerald Rivera: Trump a 'realist'

Fox News personality and longtime Trump friend said that he and the president had a "heartfelt" conversation Friday during which the president vowed to "do the 'right thing'" when all of the election fallout is over should he lose.

According to Rivera, the president wants to see "what states do in terms of certification" and remains "committed to fighting for every vote."

Just had heartfelt phone call w friend @realDonaldTrump who said he's a "realist" who'll do the"right thing" But he… https://t.co/OozzpXovMp
— Geraldo Rivera (@Geraldo Rivera)1605282454.0

Vote counting continues, even though Biden declared winner: New Maricopa County vote dump shows Trump eating into Biden's Arizona lead by another 7,000 votes



Despite multiple networks calling the election for former Vice President Joe Biden, the vote counting continues in a number states where the results are extremely narrow. One of those close states is Arizona.

A new batch of votes just released from Maricopa County in Arizona shows President Donald Trump again eating into former Vice President Joe Biden's lead in the state.

Biden led the president by about 28,000 votes as of Saturday morning.

A new vote dump in Maricopa County, the Grand Canyon state's most populous county, showed President Trump narrowing the statewide gap by about 7,000 votes to 20,573 votes.

The former vice president's lead in Arizona is now 1,626,943 to 1,606,370.

With 95% of the votes from Maricopa County in so far, Biden leads Trump 1,023,516 to 977,495.

Arizona remains a state too close to call for most outlets — though Fox News and the Associated Press both controversially called Arizona for Biden early, which led to repeated criticism from Trump allies all day Wednesday.

The president's vote numbers continue to improve in Arizona. Before narrowing the gap in Arizona Saturday, Trump saw a net gain of about 7,000 votes on Friday night, with 173,000 votes remaining to be counted, including 47,000 provisional ballots.

Saturday morning and still no victor declared in presidential race. Here's where things stand now.



It's Saturday, four days after the what has been called by many "the biggest election of our lifetimes." As of right now, the race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden is still too close to call. Here's where things stand at the moment in the six states yet to be called.

Pennsylvania — 20 electoral votes


● Biden leads by 29,000 votes.

● There are about 89,000 ballots left to count statewide according to the state's voting website, votespa.com. Allegheny County in Pennsylvania has about 30,000 ballots remaining to be counted, and Philadelphia has about 20,000, the state's site reported. Those results are expected to be posted by Saturday afternoon. County Executive Rich Fitzgerald told CNN that there are another 17,000 provisional ballots that will be counted by next week.

Supreme Court Justice on Friday evening issued an order that ballots received after 8 p.m. ET on Election Day be segregated, Fox News reported. The segregation was already supposed to be happening statewide per an agreement state officials had made previously. Alito's order was to ensure that "all boards are complying" with the statewide guidance on vote segregation.

Georgia — 16 electoral votes


● Biden leads by 7,000 votes.

● As of Friday night, Georgia was reporting 8,400 outstanding military ballots that could be received by the end of the day to be counted, as long as the were postmarked by Nov. 4. This does not mean there are 8,400 military ballots to be counted — just that there could be up to that many if hey were all sent in by Friday night and had the correct postmark.

The state also said it had 14,200 provisional ballots outstanding as of Friday night.

With as close things are in the Peach State now, the Georgia secretary of state said Friday that there will be a statewide recount.

Nevada — 6 electoral votes


● Biden leads by 23,000 votes.

● State officials told CNN the the Silver State still had 124,500 outstanding ballots and that there are approximately 60,000 provisional ballots. According to officials, 90% of the ballots remaining to be counted are from Clark County, the home of Las Vegas where Democrats have performed well.

The state is expecting to release more vote counts Saturday afternoon.

Many observers are asking what's taking so long in Nevada. But according to KABC-TV, "government officials say they are emphasizing accuracy over speed in a year when processing an unprecedented flood of mail-in ballots under extended deadlines is taking more time."

Secretary of State spokeswoman Jennifer A. Russell said in an email to KABC, "We told everyone early on that results would take at least ten days."

Arizona — 11 electoral votes


● Biden leads by 30,000 votes

● Trump ate into Biden's lead when the state updated its totals Friday evening. There are still 173,000 ballots remaining to be counted, including 47,000 provisional ballots.

Officials expect to put out another batch of vote counts by 11 a.m. ET.

North Carolina — 15 electoral votes


● Trump leads by 76,000 votes.

● Though it seems unlikely that Biden can overtake Trump's significant lead in North Carolina, the state remains too close to call because, according to WSOC-TV, the state is still receiving ballots. In fact, the state has said it will process and count votes delivered by mail through Nov. 12, as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 4.

Counties have until Nov. 13 to finish counting.

Alaska — 3 electoral votes


● Trump leads by 54,000

● Here's another state where it seems unlikely Biden can make up the difference. But so far, only about 47% of the vote has been counted. The state's system does not allow officials to begin counting absentee ballots or in-person early votes until Nov. 10, Forbes said. The makes Alaska the last state in the union to county absentee ballots.

According to Forbes, "Mail-in ballots in Alaska must be postmarked by Election Day, but must be received by Nov. 13 for voters within the U.S., or by Nov. 18 for voters outside the U.S., and the vote count must be completed by Nov. 18."

Update in Arizona vote count shows Trump gaining on Biden, with 173k ballots left to be counted



An update to the vote tally in the key state of Arizona has President Donald Trump gaining on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, but still behind with only 173,000 ballots left to count.

The updated count from Maricopa County on Friday evening included 71,932 votes, with 31,433 going to Biden, and 38,388 going to Trump. The difference means that the president added a net gain of 6,955 votes.

That brings the total tally thus far to 1,004,003 vote for Biden and 950,503 votes for the president. This leaves Biden with an advantage of 29,861 votes over the president.

With 173,000 Arizona ballots left to be counted, the margin gets harder and harder for the president to bridge.

That includes about 47,000 provisional ballots, according to Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

As of Friday, Biden had already garnered about 253 electoral votes to the president's 214. The Trump campaign has said they expect to win Arizona, and without winning the state the president's pathway to 270 electoral votes becomes prohibitively difficult.

Officials expect to release the count from another tranche of early ballots on Saturday on 9 a.m. Protesters have gathered outside the Maricopa County Election Center since election day to demand a fair election ballot counting process.

Here's more about the election battle in Arizona:

New data released in Arizona vote countswww.youtube.com

Trump campaign responds to outfit that called Pennsylvania — and the election — for Biden: Not so fast



Decision Desk HQ called the Pennsylvania race for former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday at 8:50 a.m. ET. And with that, they declared Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

But the Trump campaign had a quick response: Not so fast; this thing's not over yet.

What happened?

Decision Desk HQ tweeted Friday morning, "Decision Desk HQ projects that @JoeBiden has won Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral college votes for a total of 273."

"Joe Biden has been elected the 46th President of the United States of America," the outfit continued. "Race called at 11-06 08:50 AM EST"

Decision Desk HQ projects that @JoeBiden has won Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral college votes for a total of 273… https://t.co/vIGWoADdse
— Decision Desk HQ (@Decision Desk HQ)1604670657.0

So far, Decision Desk is the only outlet to call Pennsylvania one way or the other. Everyone from Fox News to CNN and the New York Times still considers the Keystone State to be too close to call.

Naturally, the Trump campaign shot back a response quickly, attempting to quash any claims that the race is over.

"This election is not over. The false projection of Joe Biden as the winner is based on results in four states that are far from final," Trump 2020 campaign general counsel Matt Morgan said in a statement.

"Georgia is headed for a recount, where we are confident we will find ballots improperly harvested, and where President Trump will ultimately prevail," he added.

Georgia's secretary of state announced Friday morning that the state would be going to a recount and that there are nearly 9,000 outstanding military ballots.

Morgan went on to note that there have been multiple accusations of voting irregularities in Pennsylvania and that those issues should preclude any declarations of a victor there.

"There were many irregularities in Pennsylvania, including having election officials prevent our volunteer legal observers from having meaningful access to vote counting locations," Morgan said. "We prevailed in court on our challenge, but were deprived of valuable time and denied the transparency we are entitled to under state law."

Then there are the alleged problems in Nevada, Morgan continued, saying, "In Nevada, there appear to be thousands of individuals who improperly cast mail ballots."

And the Trump team is still optimistic when it comes to Arizona. Their team believes the president can still pull out a win there.

"Finally, the President is on course to win Arizona outright, despite the irresponsible and erroneous 'calling' of the state for Biden by Fox News and the Associated Press," Morgan said. "Biden is relying on these states for his phony claim on the White House, but once the election is final, President Trump will be re-elected."

The latest batch of votes counted in Arizona did show Trump cutting into Biden's lead. However, they might not be enough, considering that Trump needs 58% of remaining ballots to go his way. He garnered only 51% of the most recent batch.

Latest batch of Arizona votes cuts further into Joe Biden's lead​



The latest batch of reported Arizona vote totals has cut further into Democratic nominee Joe Biden's lead in the state, netting President Donald Trump an additional 31,768 votes, compared to 28,285 for Biden. Biden's lead now stands at just under 44,000 votes, with an expected 200,000 remaining to be counted.

Although the numbers were encouraging for the Trump team, they may not have been enough. As of Thursday night, Trump needed to win approximately 58% of the remaining ballots in order to take the lead in Arizona, and instead he only won about 51% of this batch (compared to 46% for Biden). So, although Trump narrowed the gap with this batch, he did not narrow it as much as his campaign would have hoped.

Arizona continues to count votes, and election officials hope that the Arizona count will be substantially completed by the night. However, there are a fairly large number of provisional ballots in Arizona that may not be counted until the weekend, or even next week.

NEW from #Tucson: Pima County says they will finish counting their remaining 9K early ballots this afternoon, and w… https://t.co/8Lykmjq77s
— Rafael Carranza (@Rafael Carranza)1604679300.0

Arizona is one of four states — along with Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Nevada — that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential race between Trump and Biden. The race was "called" by Fox News late on election night and then a few hours later by the Associated Press, but most media outlets have not officially called the race. The Trump campaign has repeatedly insisted that they expect to win Arizona by around 30,000 votes.

If Trump does not win Arizona, his path back to the White House becomes extremely complicated and would require him to win Nevada (which looks like an increasing longshot) or win legal challenges to the current tabulated totals in one of the states that has currently been called for Biden. Winning Arizona remains the Trump campaign's clearest and by far easiest path to victory.

Without evidence, CNN reports that Trump-backing protesters are a threat to vote-counters in Arizona, noting that it's 'an open-carry state'



CNN reporter Kyung Lah and host Chris Cuomo were scared about the situation in Maricopa County, Arizona, Wednesday night as the 2020 election vote counting there continued. They were scared because protesters supporting President Donald Trump had gathered outside the building where votes were being tabulated.

Lah was on the ground at the Maricopa County Elections Department Wednesday night, covering the ongoing vote-counting and giving her take during a hit with Cuomo.

She began by telling Cuomo that she and her team were coming up with an "exit plan" to leave the building as they were trying to escape what she called a "very big" crowd. Aerial footage of the protest showed a gathering of protesters in the facility's parking lot.

"There is an exit plan being formed, because what's happening beyond those doors right there," she said, adding, "Outside there is a very sizable protest."

"If you look at the aerial pictures from our affiliate, it's very big," she added.

As she spoke, CNN ran footage of the "sizable" protest standing around in the parking lot.

Image source: Twitter/CurtisHouck video screenshot

Lah went on to share how concerned she was for the vote-counters, pointing to the workers and saying, "Let's start here. These people parked in that parking lot. How are they going to get the cars out of there?"

And then she made it serious, indicating the real threat was found in Arizona's gun laws.

"I should add, that this is a crowd that is armed," Lah said. "There are a number of people out there who have been seen with long guns, semi-automatic rifles, because this is an open-carry state."

Video: Here's CNN saying that the Maricopa County Elections Department building was CLOSING due to what was a genui… https://t.co/dfLNM6VCSk
— Curtis Houck (@Curtis Houck)1604553681.0

"So, there are a lot of security concerns," she added.

She noted that there were no problems in the building, but that all the "problems" were coming from the pro-Trump protesters outside.

"The problems are happening outside and just trying to keep things under control," she said.

"There's a lot chanting," she said, along with flag waving and singing "Y.M.C.A."

Cuomo went on to blame Trump for "chilling the democracy" in a way that would lead to such an allegedly dangerous protest.

Neither Cuomo nor Lah offered a single example of specific threats. They did not point to any actions even remotely like what the nation saw during multiple BLM riots, such as burning buildings, looting, firing weapons, threatening the media or bystanders, or breaking into government facilities.

Of course, Fredo Cuomo reacts to all this by blaming President Trump for having a "chilling" effect on our democrac… https://t.co/hk6o0s2ZsI
— Curtis Houck (@Curtis Houck)1604553915.0

What evidence did Lah have that there was a scary crowd outside?

Well, she did tweet footage of a good-sized crowd chanting, "Count the vote!" and waving flags, as she had breathlessly noted earlier.

But what might have put her over the edge was video evidence she captured of the people praying and then chanting "USA! USA! USA!"

Crowd outside Maricopa Co Elections Dept is larger now. Reminder— they’re protesting outside a vote counting center… https://t.co/6EnnaQGvG6
— Kyung Lah (@Kyung Lah)1604551444.0

Hundreds of Trump supporters chant 'four more years' at protest in Arizona Capitol as election count continues



Dozens of pro-Trump protesters marched outside the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix after tension arose over the results from the presidential election.

Reporter Justin Lum of KSAZ-TV posted video of the peaceful demonstration on Wednesday.

Trump supporters waved American flags and Trump campaign signs while chanting "four more years," in support of the re-election campaign.

Other video showed them chanting "shame on Fox!" which could have been in reference to controversy over the Fox News channel declaring Arizona a victory for Joe Biden.

Pro-Trump rally starting at Arizona Capitol in Phoenix. At least one guy wielding military-style rifle. Some chanti… https://t.co/EMCpdPWnQ1
— Simon Romero (@Simon Romero)1604543025.0

Protesters then marched to the Maricopa County Recorder's building where officials were still counting the ballots from the election.

About 200 people now gathering in front of the Maricopa County Elections Department. #AZ2020 https://t.co/HF8MAzdhKB
— Gadi Schwartz (@Gadi Schwartz)1604546695.0

Outside the building, speakers encouraged Trump supporters and mocked the media.

Image Source: YouTube screenshot

Police officers guarded the front of the building to keep protesters out.

CNN's senior national correspondent Kyung Lah said that some of the protesters were speaking about the "sharpiegate" controversy where Trump supporters were accusing poll workers of cancelling their votes.

Right wing activists are protesting outside the Maricopa County Elections Dept. Reminder— the county is counting th… https://t.co/zfIN08OA99
— Kyung Lah (@Kyung Lah)1604545915.0

Reporter Briana Whitney of KPHO-TV described the protesters as an "extremist group," without noting that at one point the entire group gathered in quiet prayer in order to seek after God's plan whether or not Trump won the presidency.

Just walked out of the Maricopa County Elections Office to this where a large extremist group has re-gathered, extr… https://t.co/xbrFkZZXta
— Briana Whitney (@Briana Whitney)1604546000.0

At about the same time of the protests, Arizona officials released updated numbers of the vote count showing that Trump had gained on the advantage reported for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The updated numbers showed Biden only had 79,173 votes above Trump, down from his previously reported gap of 92,817 votes.

Steve Cortes, a senior Trump campaign official, argued that of the outstanding 605,000 votes in Arizona, the president should only have to garner 58% of those votes to win over Biden.

The actual math points to a Trump triumph in Arizona, here are the numbers.Stay the course, patriots!#ChalkTalk https://t.co/wIFUSt4XKW
— Steve Cortes (@Steve Cortes)1604531860.0

Another update from Arizona's election was expected on Wednesday evening.

Here's a livestream media about the protest:

Phoenix, AZ Vote Fraud Protestwww.youtube.com