MADISON, Wis. -- President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn Wisconsin's election results by tossing out ballots from the state's two most heavily Democratic counties is an "assault on democracy," attorneys for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said in filings with the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The filings, made late Tuesday, come as the state's highest court is weighing Trump's request to disqualify more than 221,000 ballots in Milwaukee and Dane counties. President-elect Joe Biden defeated Trump by a 2-to-1 margin in those counties on his way to a 20,682-vote win statewide.
Trump is not challenging any ballots in the state's other 70 counties, the majority of which Trump won. Trump's legal challenges in other states to overturn election results have failed.
On Wednesday, Trump posted a 46-minute address on social media in which he challenged the election results that produced a win for Biden.
Trump called his address perhaps "the most important speech" of his presidency. But it was largely a recycling of the same allegations of voter fraud that he has been making for the past month.
"This is not just about honoring the votes of 74 million Americans who voted for me," Trump said. "It's about ensuring that Americans can have faith in this election. And in all future elections."
Separately, several GOP senators, including Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., dismissed a possible challenge in Congress to Biden's victory.
In Wisconsin, Trump wants to skip lower courts, saying in his lawsuit that there isn't time to go through the normal process because of the looming Dec. 14 date when electors will gather to cast the state's 10 Electoral College votes.
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The state Supreme Court could deny Trump's request to hear the case, forcing it to lower courts. Or it could accept the case and issue a decision later. It could also just render a decision based on the written arguments, although that would be unusual.
Attorneys for Evers, as well as lawyers from the state Department of Justice representing the Wisconsin Elections Commission, urged the court not to accept original jurisdiction of the case, saying it must start in lower courts.
"President Trump's [lawsuit] seeks nothing less than to overturn the will of nearly 3.3 million Wisconsin voters," Evers' attorneys said. "It is a shocking and outrageous assault on our democracy. ... He is simply trying to seize Wisconsin's electoral votes, even though he lost the statewide election."
Trump's lawsuit repeats many claims he made during a recount of votes in Milwaukee and Dane counties. He seeks to disqualify 170,140 absentee ballots that were cast early, in-person, saying there wasn't a proper written request made for the ballots; 28,395 absentee ballots cast by those who claimed "indefinitely confined" status; 17,271 absentee ballots collected by poll workers at Madison parks; and 5,517 absentee ballots where clerks filled in missing information on the envelope the ballots were placed in.
None of the ballots Trump challenged during the recount were discounted by elections officials in Dane and Milwaukee counties. Evers argues in his filings that there is no legal basis for the ballots not to be counted.
For example, Evers notes that the Wisconsin Elections Commission agreed more than four years ago to allow election clerks to fill in missing information on envelopes containing absentee ballots. And the commission at least since 2011 said the envelope doubles as a written request, something Trump is contesting.
Evers' attorneys say Trump's arguments related to the accepting of ballots in Madison's parks and challenges to those who identified as "indefinitely confined" should have been raised before the election.
The state Justice Department also faulted Trump for seeking to invalidate only ballots in two counties "presumably for partisan reasons," even though each category of vote they are trying to disqualify relies on statewide guidance and ballots "surely" were cast in other counties.
Attorneys for Evers and the elections commission also argued that it would be wrong to throw out ballots cast by people who relied on guidance from elections officials.
"Widespread disenfranchisement for following the rules does not comport with due process or a healthy democracy," Justice Department attorneys said.
The Democratic National Committee and Biden's electors are also attempting to intervene in the lawsuit.
CONTESTING STANCE
Meanwhile, several Republican senators Wednesday rejected efforts by members of the House to contest Biden's victory.
Under federal law, Congress will meet in a Jan. 6 joint session to accept the votes of the Electoral College, which formally votes Dec. 14. Any lawmaker can join with a companion from the other chamber to raise an objection to any state's votes, prompting a debate and votes in each chamber on whether to accept the challenge.
Amid Trump's claims of voter fraud in key swing states, several Trump supporters in the House have said they are exploring a challenge.
Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., told Politico that he intended to make such a challenge, and several other members, including Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Mike Kelly, R-Pa., have joined efforts to question Biden's victory.
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But no senator has publicly entertained joining the effort, and on Wednesday several key Republican senators dismissed the possibility that the Senate would reject electoral votes or join a House member's challenge.
"I haven't heard anybody in the Senate talking about that," said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the No. 3 GOP leader.
Asked about the possibility of a Senate challenge, Thune, the Senate Majority Whip, said to a Politico reporter, "I can't imagine that would ever happen."
And if a senator does join in an objection, Thune added in comments confirmed by an aide, "I doubt that it goes anywhere... . I suspect that will be a fairly routine process."
Should a senator join a House member's objection, thus prompting a debate and vote, there appears to be little chance that the Senate would vote to sustain the objection.
In the House, Democrats are poised to hold the majority and would vote down the challenge.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters Wednesday that she was not hearing concerns about the election results from her constituents, and she noted Tuesday remarks from Attorney General William Barr confirming that the federal investigators have yet to find credible evidence of election fraud that could have reversed the result.
"I think that the attorney general's statement was helpful in reassuring people of the validity of the election results," said Collins, who was the first Republican senator to acknowledge Biden's victory.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has supported some of Trump's efforts to seek court intervention in the resolution of the election, declined to address whether he would join an effort to question the Electoral College vote.
"I think the litigation needs to conclude," he said. "There's an appeal at the Supreme Court right now. I think the court should take the case."
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., another outspoken Trump backer, also pointed to the courts: "Pennsylvania has a suit up before the Supreme Court as of last night. And I think that the Supreme Court ought to grant and hear that case on emergency basis. ... I don't know what they'll do, I don't know what the right outcome is, but they've got to hear the case."
Members of the party that lost the presidential election have raised objections after nearly every election since 2000.
In 2005, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., joined a group of House Democrats to protest George W. Bush's reelection, citing concerns with voting machines in Ohio. That prompted a two-hour debate before both chambers voted to reject the challenge. Boxer in the Senate and 31 of 199 House Democrats voted to support the challenge.
The process last played out in 2017, when several House Democrats raised objections to Trump's victory without securing Senate support. Presiding over the proceedings was then-Vice President Joe Biden.
"It is over," Biden said, as he rejected a challenge from Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and gaveled the Democrats into silence.
Information for this article was contributed by Scott Bauer, Ahmer Madhani, Kevin Freking, Amanda Seitz and Ali Swenson of The Associated Press; and by Mike DeBonis, Rachael Bade and Paul Kane of The Washington Post.
