By Makini Brice
(Reuters) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday declined to take up a case by U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign challenging the Nov. 3 presidential election results in the state, the latest in a string of losses the campaign has suffered.
Trump’s team filed the petition, which challenged Wisconsin’s election results and sought to invalidate 221,323 absentee ballots, directly to the state’s top court on Tuesday.
President-Elect Joe Biden won the majority of votes in Wisconsin, edging Trump out by about 20,000 votes, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The state certified Biden as the winner on Monday.
Trump has refused to concede the election and has repeatedly continued to pursue unsuccessful court challenges. He has claimed, without any evidence, that the election was rigged and marred by widespread fraud.
Wisconsin’s top court, in denying the petition, said the parties could pursue a case in a lower court. It was not immediately clear whether the Trump campaign would do so.
The petition alleged Wisconsin election officials were directed to fill in missing information on ballot envelopes, issued absentee ballots without receiving applications and allowed people to improperly claim a “confined” absentee voting status.
The petition also alleged that events held by election officials in the city of Madison where officials collected and checked ballots in city parks, not polling stations, were against state law.
(Reporting by Makini Brice in Washington; Additional reporting by Maria Caspani in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Alistair Bell)
