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Trump campaign lawyers drop vote recount lawsuit in Arizona

Posted at 12:56 PM, Nov 13, 2020
and last updated 2020-11-13 14:56:50-05

The Trump campaign has dropped a lawsuit in Arizona in which they were requesting a review of ballots cast on Election Day.

The lawsuit was filed Saturday and claimed some voters were worried their ballots didn’t count correctly if the machines classified a race as “overvoted”, where more than one selection was made by mistake.

A judge in Phoenix held a six-hour evidentiary hearing Thursday in the case. Later that night, CNN reports, the lawyer for the Trump campaign revised their earlier request and said they would only seek a review of vote counts if the number of “overvotes” exceeded the margin of victory.

In paperwork filed with the court Friday morning, the secretary of state and officials with Maricopa County noted that the difference in votes between President-elect Joe Biden and President Donald Trump is 11,414 votes, with 10,315 ballots left to be counted.

They also said 191 votes classified as “overvotes” in the presidential race, and they said that number is consistent with previous elections.

Friday, lawyers for President Trump’s reelection campaign dropped the lawsuit, filing a notice of “partial mootness” with 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," wrote Kory Langhofer, a lawyer for the Trump campaign, in court papers. The lawyer said he did want the judge to rule on their requests to review votes for two down-ballot races.