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Election counts underway in a handful of yet-to-declare states are being overseen by Republican officials, undermining claims by GOP leaders—including the president—that ballot fraud is being committed.
Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed since Election Day that the vote was "rigged" in his opponent's favor, suggesting without evidence that the Democrats were attempting to "steal" victory.
"All of the recent Biden claimed States will be legally challenged by us for Voter Fraud and State Election Fraud," he tweeted. "Plenty of proof - just check out the Media. WE WILL WIN! America First!"
Leading GOP voices have thrown their weight behind those claims, with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas suggesting election observers were being kept away from vote counting. He told Fox News host Sean Hannity: "I am angry, and I think the American people are angry. By clouding the vote-counting in a shroud of darkness, they are setting the stage to potentially steal an election."
However those claims, while notable by their lack of evidence, are also undercut by the partisan makeup of the administrations overseeing knife-edge counts.
Georgia, for example, which Joe Biden now leads by just over 1,000 votes (according to a Reuters tally at 8 a.m. ET), has a Republican governor, a Republican secretary of state, a Republican attorney general and the state's election process is being handled by a GOP-led local government.
That has not stopped efforts by the Trump campaign to disqualify around 50 ballots that a Republican observer claimed may have arrived after the 7 p.m. Election Day deadline and been mixed with on-time ballots. A Chatham County judge has since denied that legal challenge.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said yesterday that while it was "important to act quickly ... it is more important to get it right."
Officials in Arizona—a state where Biden was leading on Friday morning—were forced to downplay claims that voters who used Sharpie pens on their ballots wouldn't have their votes counted. The state has a Republican governor and a Republican attorney general, although the secretary of state, which serves as the chief election officer, is a Democrat.
Nevada, another state which has yet to declare, has a Republican secretary of state. There, Trump's campaign vowed to bring a new lawsuit challenging what it claimed were voting irregularities.
Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt held a news conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, warning without evidence of voting irregularities.
"We believe that there are dead voters that have been counted. We are also confident that there are thousands of people whose votes have been counted that have moved out of Clark County during the pandemic," Laxalt said.
However, Joe Gloria, an election official in Clark County, insisted there was no evidence to suggest that improper ballots had been processed.
