WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — President Donald Trump’s campaign lawyers continue to challenge the election results in court, even as President-Elect Joe Biden proceeds with the transition process to the White House.
“I think the goal of the lawsuits should be to make sure every legally cast ballot is counted,” said Zack Smith, legal expert with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank.
Smith said the campaign’s best chance lies in states like Pennsylvania, where voting deadlines were extended over the summer as a result of COVID-19. He said even the best-case scenario in many of the lawsuits still may not discount or change enough votes to overturn a result from Biden to Trump.
“They do face an uphill battle for a couple of reasons. One is that election fraud is hard to prove,” said Smith.
Of the nearly dozen lawsuits filed in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, the allegations made by the Trump Campaign range from election observers being denied access, to legitimate ballots rejected, to late or invalid ballots improperly counted, to poll workers coaching voters to vote Biden.
Some are still pending, however, many have been dismissed for lack of evidence.
“Unless the campaign is able to show really systemic fraud … Judges are going to be very hesitant to intervene in those situations,” said Smith.
However, Smith says that bar has yet to be met in court.
“There’s not a lot of there, there. There’s lots of allegations of fraud but courts have pretty well dispensed with most of them,” said Stephen Kaufman, a member of the Gore legal team after the 2000 presidential election.
Kaufman said the Trump campaign’s lack of evidence in their filings is telling.
“These lawsuits are being filed in bad faith with no real goal other than to delay the outcome of the election,” said Kaufman.
Despite any lack of evidence of systemic, widespread voter fraud the lawsuits and fraud allegations have led to planned protests.
“We just don’t want this fraud to take place, so we’re up here just to show support,” said Peter Simpson, who traveled to Washington D.C. from Missouri for the “Stop the Steal” protest.
A supporter of President Donald Trump, Simpson said many who plan to attend are unsure about the validity of the election results.
“I’d really like if the justice system could work through all this… present it to us in a way where we can believe what they’re saying,” said Simpson.
And those protests have sparked anti-Trump counter-protests.
“They’re not arguing legitimate, a legitimate case. What they’re trying to do is sow doubt on our democracy,” said Patrick Young, with Shutdown DC.
NewsNation reached out to the Trump campaign, however, a spokesperson said they could not provide anyone to comment for this story.