President Trump sues Wisconsin over election

This morning the Trump campaign sued Governor Evers and a large assortment of election officials over the outcome of the Nov. 3 presidential election.  The suit was filed with the Wisconsin State Supreme Court.

The time frame for this suit is very short, as the results from the state election will be respected if the issues with the election are resolved by Dec. 8, the "safe harbor" date for the electoral college. The President is requesting that over 230,000 ballots in Wisconsin be declared illegal. 

State law requires that this suit should be filed with the circuit court, but it was filed directly with the state Supreme Court. The court has not responded immediately as to whether they will hear the suit.

The suit raises a number of confusing issues. It for example challenges the votes that were placed by early voting and declarations of indefinite confinement. in Dane and Milwaukee Counties. It also asks that counts of ballots be rendered invalid if local clerks added missing information to absentee ballots, which is allowed by a rule passed by the Wisconsin Elections Commimssion.

These votes were cast in the same manner as they have for years, and the issue of legality of those votes was never raised previously. The fact that they are only objecting to votes in two counties is also difficult as it would mean treating ballots in two Wisconsin counties differently than in the rest of the state, raising issues on whether this is motivated simply to discount ballots in the two most liberal counties in the state, and which also have a high preponderance of people of color.

Update - The Wisconsin Supreme Court has given the governor and other named officials in the suit until 8:30 today to respond to the lawsuit - this is clearly going to move very quickly. Note that the court has not yet said that it will accept the case.

This is a breaking story. We will have more information after we've had a chance to read the suit (attached below).