Election challenges live updates: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania judges toss Trump suits

President Donald Trump's reelection campaign has launched a multi-state legal battle in its efforts to secure a second White House term over Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Court actions have been brought in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. The campaign has also said it plans to seek a recount in Wisconsin. These battleground states, along with Arizona and North Carolina, are under intense scrutiny as former Vice President Joe Biden inches closer to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to secure the presidency. USA TODAY is tracking developments in the legal battle for the election. Keep refreshing this page for updates.

Nevada election officials sued

Several hours after President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Nevada Republican Party announced a lawsuit would be filed to stop the vote count in Clark County, a pair of Nevada election officials have been sued.

But neither the names of the president or the state GOP party appear on the federal complaint aimed at Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske and Clark County Registrar of Voters Joseph Gloria.

It was filed on behalf of Las Vegas voter Jill Stokke, Chris Prudhome – a “credentialed member of the media" – and the campaigns of Republican politicians Jim Marchant and Daniel Rodimer, according to the filing.

"Irregularities have plagued the election in Clark County, including lax procedures for authenticating mail ballots and over 3,000 instances of ineligible individuals casting ballots," the lawsuit reads. "Ballots have even been cast on behalf of deceased voters."

There has been no evidence to show the election has been stolen or fraudulent despite attacks on Nevada's voting system by the president and his campaign. During a brief media event Thursday morning, reporters asked members of the Trump campaign, who announced the lawsuit, if they could provide proof of such fraud. Instead of taking questions, they piled into a van and left.

The lawsuit aims to stop Clark County from using signature verification machines to check votes and require that all mail ballots be hand-checked before verification.

— James DeHaven and Ed Komenda, Reno Gazette Journal

With Michigan ballots counted, judge dismisses Trump campaign's lawsuit

A judge has denied the Trump campaign's lawsuit seeking to stop vote-counting in Michigan until the campaign's representatives could get what it called "meaningful access" to observe the process.

Ruling from the bench, the judge said the ballot counting is already finished, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has issued a directive about access for poll watchers in another recent court case, and there is no legal basis for Benson to provide access to surveillance video of drop-boxes.

Michigan law allows observers from opposing campaigns to monitor vote counting. This is a normal part of the election process, intended to give both parties the opportunity to ensure the law is followed when people vote and ballots are tabulated.

A lawyer who worked Tuesday's election as a Republican poll challenger also alleged ballot counting misconduct in Detroit, based on an interaction she said she had with an election worker at TCF Center, where absentee ballots were counted. The judge dismissed that claim, too, calling it hearsay.

— Dave Boucher and Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press

Rhetoric heats up on legal battles

The president took to his favorite medium Thursday morning to hail his campaign's legal onslaught.

"All of the recent Biden claimed States will be legally challenged by us for Voter Fraud and State Election Fraud," Trump tweeted, claiming "plenty of proof." But as with his prior claims of widespread voter fraud, he provided no evidence.

Biden campaign attorney Bob Bauer, meanwhile, told reporters that Trump's lawsuits will fail. He said they are only designed to “create an opportunity for them to message falsely what is happening in the election process.”

Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Elections Research Center, said there doesn't appear to be “a coherent theme” to the Trump legal strategy.

“In one place they are asking for the count to be stopped; in another they are asking for the counting to continue,” he said. “But the burden is on the plaintiff (Trump) to prove that they have been harmed in some way. Now that all of the voting is done, I don’t know what the harm is.

“Maybe they can find an argument, but right now it’s still nebulous.”

A former Trump administration official asserted the lawsuits are intended to sow doubts about the integrity of the election.

"This is consistent with what Trump has been saying for months, planting the seeds to delegitimize the election if he lost," said David Lapan, who served as a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security early in the Trump administration.

— David Jackson and Kevin Johnson

Judge dismisses Georgia suit claiming late ballots were mixed with others

A Georgia Court on Thursday dismissed a Trump campaign lawsuit that accused the Chatham County Board of Elections of improperly intermingling ineligible ballots with valid ones.

Justin Clark, Trump's deputy campaign manager, had said that a Republican poll observer saw 53 late absentee ballots "illegally added to a stack of on-time absentee ballots in Chatham County."

But after hearing from the chairman of the county's board of registrars, a judge dismissed the case, ruling there was no evidence the law had been broken.

Chairman Colin McRae told the judge the 53 ballots were received before the 7 p.m. deadline on Election Day. “I looked at all 53, and all 53 were timely received,” he said.

McRae said 41 absentee ballots came in after the deadline and have been held in a secure location. Georgia law requires that late ballots be held, unopened, and eventually discarded with other ballots.

— Will Peebles and Kevin McCoy

Trump camp vows to 'keep fighting' in Pennsylvania

Trump's attorneys claimed in a Pennsylvania court that one of their observers in Philadelphia wasn't allowed close enough to ballot processing. They lost at the entry level court, but filed an appeal and a judge weighed in Thursday morning.

Trump lawyer Pam Bondi said on Fox Business Network that an appellate judge entered an order "saying that we are to be immediately let in that convention center with 6-foot distancing of all aspects of that vote counting effective immediately so we can observe these votes being counted.”

Trump's campaign aides claimed the ruling allows them to better observe the vote counting in Philadelphia, and they threatened to be on the watch for what they called improper ballots.

"It guarantees we're gonna be able to watch the ballots being counted," said Trump deputy campaign manager Justin Clark.

Elections officials have appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court, but they briefly paused counting in Philadelphia to reconfigure their space to comply with the order.

Later Thursday, the campaign filed a motion in federal court alleging the Philadelphia County Board of Elections was stalling on providing better access for observers while it continued to count. The campaign asked the court to order the county board not to count ballots unless Republican observers are present.

A federal judge denied that request, urging the two sides to instead forge an agreement.

In a conference call Thursday morning, Trump advisers said they had have not given up in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, all states Trump needs to win if he is to retain the presidency.

"We are going to keep fighting for this election," campaign manager Bill Stepien said.

— David Jackson, Kevin McCoy and Candy Woodall

Trump camp tries Supreme Court on balloting deadline

Trump's campaign is pursuing a few legal battles in Pennsylvania. It moved to intervene in last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision letting stand a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that upheld a three-day extension of the deadline to receive mail ballots. The extension was not part of voting regulations enacted by Pennsylvania lawmakers last year.

Absentee and mail ballots received after the polls closed in Pennsylvania on Tuesday were to be segregated from those received earlier to allow for court challenges.

Will the Supreme Court ride to Trump's rescue?Don't count on it.

In another Pennsylvania case, a Republican congressional candidate withdrew a claim filed on Election Day alleging officials with the Montgomery County Board of Elections, near Philadelphia, improperly opened and inspected mail ballots received before Tuesday.

The case had been filed on behalf of candidate Kathy Barnette, a U.S. military veteran and author. It claimed those officials gave some voters whose ballots had errors that would have invalidated their votes an opportunity to "cure" them and file provisional ballots on Election Day.

The suit sought a temporary restraining order against the county that could have spoiled about 93 ballots. But on Thursday, court documents filed on behalf of Barnette said a restraining order at this point "will be ineffective in addressing the matters covered."

—Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY, and Chris Ullery Bucks County Courier Times

Trump threatens recount in Wisconsin

Biden was projected as the winner in Wisconsin on Wednesday, hours after Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien announced plans to seek a recall. "There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results. The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so,” he said.

If the race stays within 1 percentage point, the losing candidate can force a recount. If the margin is larger than that, there's no chance for one.

However, Trump and his campaign have floated vague accusations and provided no evidence of election tampering.

Before any decision could be made on a recount, the official results need to be finalized, which could take a couple weeks, said Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Elections Research Center.

“I can’t imagine a recount modifying the result in any substantial way,” Burden said, even though the margin is slim.

In 2016, Wisconsin election officials conducted a statewide recount following Trump’s slim victory over Hillary Clinton. Of the more than 3 million votes cast, only 131 ballots were reassigned or disqualified, Burden said.

— Kevin Johnson

Contributing: Kevin McCoy, Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY; Dave Boucher, Clara Hendrickson, Detroit Free Press; Dylan Segelbaum, York Daily Record, Crissa Shoemaker DeBree, Bucks County Courier Times; Will Peebles, Savannah Morning News; The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Election legal challenges: Nevada election officials sued