Military Votes in Key States Remain Uncounted

In Nevada, Trump’s legal team claimed military votes are fraudulent.  

President Donald Trump may be loud-tweeting to “STOP THE COUNT” of ballots, but military voters may not be too pleased with that. Tens of thousands of military votes have yet to be counted in pivotal states, including Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. 

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“We won’t know the exact number of ballots outstanding, but past elections show the importance of counting these votes,” Jack Noland, research manager at Count Every Hero, an organization focused on ensuring military ballots are counted, told The Hill. 

Without knowing how military personnel will vote—though polls showed Trump was losing military support—the president’s legal team is targeting their ballots as fraudulent.

According to Jon Ralston, editor of The Nevada Independent, Trump’s lawyers told the Department of Justice in a lawsuit that thousands of ballots in Nevada were fraudulent because the ballots had different postal codes such as AE, AA, and AP. 

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However, those codes stand for Armed Forces Europe, Armed Forces Americas, and Armed Forces Pacific. Those ballots and codes have special clearance for the military who sent absentee votes nationwide, and overseas. 

“Why does Team Trump hate Nevada military personnel?” Ralston asked on Twitter.

In Georgia, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden inched past the incumbent in the tally Friday morning, leading by fewer than 1,600 votes of nearly 5 million ballots cast—a lead of about 0.03 percentage points. Under Georgia state law, a candidate can request a recount if the margin is within 0.5 percentage points.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s office said Friday morning that fewer than 8,200 absentee ballots remained to be tallied, and 8,900 ballots sent to military and overseas voters had yet to be returned. They must be received by 5 p.m. Friday in order to be counted.

Before Trump’s speech in the White House briefing room on Thursday, several Republicans challenged his attempts to halt vote-counting in Pennsylvania and other battleground states. Biden has since taken the lead in that state, and votes are still coming in, including military ballots. 

“I’ll also just remind everyone, military and overseas ballots are not due until a week after Election Day,” Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said at a news conference Wednesday. “We want to make sure that not only every civilian absentee mail-in valid voter is counted but also that every man and woman who are serving our country, that their votes are counted.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.