A person holds a sign as people rally the day after the 2020 U.S. presidential election while votes continue to be counted, outside the TCF Center in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., November 4, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Michigan judge dismisses Trump campaign lawsuit over absentee ballots

Politics

A Michigan judge has dismissed a lawsuit by President Donald Trump's campaign in a dispute over whether Republican challengers had access to the handling of absentee ballots.

WATCH: Michigan's secretary of state on the process of counting votes

Judge Cynthia Stephens noted that the lawsuit was filed late Wednesday afternoon, just hours before the last ballots were counted. She also said the defendant, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, was the wrong person to sue because she doesn't control the logistics of local ballot counting, even if she is the state's chief election officer.

The Associated Press called the Michigan presidential election for Democrat Joe Biden on Wednesday evening. Trump won the state in 2016.

The lawsuit claimed Benson, a Democrat, was allowing absentee ballots to be counted without teams of bipartisan observers as well as challengers. She was accused of undermining the "constitutional right of all Michigan voters … to participate in fair and lawful elections."

Benson, through state attorneys, denied the allegations. Much of the dispute centered on the TCF Center in Detroit where pro-Trump protesters gathered while absentee ballots were being counted.

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Michigan judge dismisses Trump campaign lawsuit over absentee ballots first appeared on the PBS News website.

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