An emphatic Bill Stepien condemned Fox News’ determination that the campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden has won the state of Arizona in the 2020 presidential election.
In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday morning, Stepien, President Donald J. Trump’s reelection campaign manager, said that the projections are simply wrong, arguing that Arizona is counting the votes cast on Election Day, which broke heavily for the President. By their projections, they say they’ve won Arizona by 30,000 votes and that will be revealed if only the legitimately cast ballots are counted. The Trump campaign again aired it’s concern that states may count ballots cast after the polls closed to alter the actual election outcome.
If true, that’s good news for Republican US Senator Martha McSally whose Democratic opponent Mark Kelly has been declared the winner. Both candidate’s votes have closely tracked the top of their respective tickets. That would be a big boost for the GOP in the Senate which, despite McSally’s predicted loss, will maintain control of the Senate.
Stepien also predicted President Trump will win Pennsylvania, which is still counting mail and early vote ballots. While they expect significant erosion of the significant 700,000 vote lead they had when the voting stopped last night, they expect that margin was wide enough to ensure victory, assuming all legitimately cast ballots are counted. Changes made by the state and allowed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, regarding the eligibility of ballots cast after Election Day have raised serious concerns. Ballots cast after the election will be counted for 9 days. Expect that to be challenged by the Trump campaign in federal court, including the US Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, the Trump Campaign has officially called for a recount. Trump saw a more than 120,000 vote lead evaporate when Milwaukee County, which had been reported as 96% counted as late as 4 AM on Wednesday morning, saw a huge surge of votes counted for Biden. Trump now trails Biden in the state by about 20,000 votes or .8%. In a statement released this morning, Stepien wrote:
“Despite ridiculous public polling used as a voter suppression tactic, Wisconsin has been a razor thin race as we always knew that it would be. There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results. The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so.”
Among the irregularities raising red flags is that there was 3.23 million votes cast in a state that only has 3.1 million registered voters. Critics say this is evidence of voter fraud questioning how the number of votes cast could exceed, by over 120,000, the number of voters who cast them.
In Michigan, Trump’s lead evaporated after election officials discovered over 136,000 uncounted mail in ballots at 4:00 AM after taking a break. Interestingly, every one of them were Biden votes, according to news reports. Expect a challenge there if Trump loses the state, in which he now trials by 45,000 votes, or less than 1%, with votes still being counted in eight counties, including Wayne County, which is home to Detroit and some of its suburbs.
The campaign has similar concerns in Georgia, where Trump holds about a 100,000 vote lead with precincts in Fulton County, home to Atlanta, still uncounted. Ballot counting there was delayed due to a mysterious pipe burst that affected ballots. Counting was stopped last night and resumed this morning. According to publicly available information, all other ballots in Georgia have been counted. The remaining precincts within the county have not been identified.
Stepien also expects the President’s 80,000 vote margin, 1.5%, in North Carolina to hold as well. That margin hasn’t changed since about 11:00 o’clock last night. Publicly available information shows both that all ballots have been counted and 94% of precincts having reported, with some observers having said “we don’t know where the missing votes are.”