Legal experts weigh in on lawsuit spiraling around presidential election

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

As ballots continue to be counted in several key battleground states with razor-thin margins in the race for the White House, the president's campaign has filed several lawsuits in regards to the election.

In Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit on Wednesday claiming poll watchers were not allowed to "meaningful" watch the count.

A Pennsylvania judge on Thursday granted the Trump campaign's request to observe Philadelphia poll workers as they process the remaining mail-in ballots, but the city of Philadelphia filed an appeal to the state Supreme Court to overturn the decision.

The Trump campaign filed a federal lawsuit Thursday evening hoping to stop the Philadelphia vote count. That lawsuit alleged its poll watchers were not being allowed to properly observe the vote count after the previous suit was granted. A judge ultimately denied this request.

The campaign sought out a similar lawsuit in Michigan, asking the vote to stop being counted, alleging poll watchers there were being denied close up access at a location in Detroit. It was denied on Friday, specifically citing the lack of evidence and detail provided by the campaign.

Nevada is facing its own lawsuits as well. the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit in federal court in Clark County that alleges "lax procedures for authenticating mail-in ballots over 3,000 instances of ineligible individuals casting ballots," on Thursday.

The campaign wants all ballots to be checked manually, and for "meaningful access," to observe.

One county in Georgia faced a lawsuit, asking it to compile, store and account for all ballots received after the state's deadline of 7 p.m. on Election Day. It was dismissed Thursday by a local judge, citing a lack of evidence that the ballots referenced in the petition were received after the deadline.

Angela Gabel, a legal expert and lawyer in St. Louis, was in Michigan serving as general election council on Tuesday. She said many of these lawsuits are not about the results of the election, but the procedure in which the votes were cast.

She explained that many of the lawsuits filed would not change the results of the election, saying the campaign would have to find actual ballots cast in error and enough that would change the results.

"If the campaign can find enough votes that were cast in error, enough to meet the margin of victory, then they can have a substantive lawsuit," Gabel said. "That would be the only path forward."

But she said again, these lawsuits are largely about election procedure, not the actual results.

"You haven't seen any large scale allegations of voting irregularity, you've heard allegations, but courts rely on evidence, and you haven't seen any evidence of that," Gabel said.

She said she doesn't think that these lawsuits will affect the coming days of counting in the election, but there is time after the totals are in for the campaigns to contest results.

"When vote totals are finalized, then the campaign has a grace period to see if they can come up with some votes and facts to make a case," Gable said.

MU Law professor and legal expert Richard Rueben thinks these lawsuits are evidence the president is fearful he has lost the election.

"This is really just the last desperate gasps of a politician that knows he's about to lose his office," Reuben said.

He said many of these claims from the president are trying to stop election officials from counting votes that have already been legally cast.

"State laws are pretty clear about when votes need to be cast, how long the state has to count them, and as long as election officials are operating within those clear guidelines, I think these lawsuits will be recognized for what they are," Rueben said.

Watch ABC17 News at 9 and 10 for a full report.