Following the projection by multiple media outlets that Joe Biden would win the 2020 election, Republicans began a series of challenges to the results in various swing states in a bid to overturn then-President Donald Trump‘s loss.
Some of the most spirited challenges by the GOP came in the once-reliably Republican states of Arizona and Georgia. Trump lost to Biden in those two states by less than a combined 23,000 votes. A fight that Trump hasn’t set down, though some of his highest-profile supporters appear to have abandoned him, continues to animate the front-runner for the GOP nomination and hasn’t deterred supporters loyal to the former president.
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It’s likely that, should Trump suffer another defeat in 2024, he will set off on a similar campaign to convince the country Democrats and his other opponents snatched his victory out from under him with the help of nefarious foes. Looking back on how the strongest efforts to overturn the 2020 election were resolved might help create a map for how a 2024 challenge could play out.
Arizona
In the Grand Canyon State, Trump lost to Biden by fewer than 11,000 votes, but Republicans in the state contended that proper election procedures were not followed in Maricopa County, leading to an extended legal battle.
Among the several legal challenges pursued in the state, the Arizona GOP had argued there was an unusually high number of duplicated ballots in some suburbs of the most populous county. The challenge was rejected by the Arizona Supreme Court in December 2020.
A lawsuit filed by the Arizona Republican Party attempted to halt the certification of the election by demanding a hand count of the ballots in Maricopa County, alleging fraud. Superior Court Judge John Hannah dismissed the lawsuit and branded it “meritless.”
“In this lawsuit, the plaintiff Arizona Republican Party asked for a court order directing the defendant Maricopa County officials to redo the hand count audit using different batches of ballots. The plaintiff baldly asserted that this relief was necessary to maintain ‘confidence in the integrity of our elections,’ without alleging any facts to show that the machines might have miscounted the votes,” Hannah said in the ruling. “The plaintiff could not explain why the suit had not been filed before the election, or what purpose another audit would serve.”
The court later ordered that Arizona GOP had to pay roughly $18,000 in attorney fees to then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs while accusing the party of “groundless” claims.
“Arizona law gives political parties a privileged position in the electoral process on which our self-government depends,” Hannah wrote in a March 2021 order. “The public has a right to expect the Arizona Republican Party to conduct itself respectfully when it participates in that process. It has failed to do so in this case.”
The Arizona GOP appealed the ruling on paying legal fees, but the order was upheld by a state appellate court in April. The state Republican Party appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court in September to avoid paying the legal fees for the secretary of state. The appeal is still pending.
Republicans in the state Senate also conducted an audit of the results in Maricopa County, which involved several subpoenas and court battles between GOP lawmakers and county officials. The results of the audit, conducted by the outside firm Cyber Ninjas, found irregularities but confirmed Biden’s win in the state.
Georgia
Trump lost to Biden in the Peach State by fewer than 12,000 votes. Some of the legal fights in Georgia have led to indictments in Fulton County for alleged racketeering, with all the outstanding challenges ending in dismissal or being dropped.
Trump and his allies had accused the state of widespread voter fraud, which they claim affected the end result of the presidential election in the state. All the suits were unsuccessful.
Lawsuits filed by attorneys Lin Wood and Sidney Powell were dismissed by courts in the Peach State, while the Trump campaign continued its efforts to halt the certification of the results in Georgia. One of the legal challenges attempted to get the Georgia Supreme Court to intervene ahead of the Electoral College meeting to cast its votes, but this effort was dismissed by the high court in the Peach State.
The Trump campaign dropped all challenges in Georgia on Jan. 7, 2021, after the Capitol riot and certification of the 2020 election by Congress. After the Trump campaign challenges were dropped, a lawsuit seeking a review of roughly 147,000 absentee ballots in Fulton County continued before eventually being dismissed.
The lawsuit seeking a review of the absentee ballots was filed by nine Georgia voters and was finally dismissed in October 2021 after a court ruled that plaintiffs had “failed to allege a particularized injury,” according to the Associated Press. The lawsuit also was dismissed due to “substantive and detailed response” by the secretary of state’s office in Georgia.
The case was resurrected in May 2023 after an appellate court had ruled the plaintiffs had standing, but the Georgia Supreme Court denied the writ of certiorari in September 2023.
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The Supreme Court also rejected election challenges in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in February 2021, after Biden’s inauguration and Trump had left the White House.
After the 2020 election challenges, Trump and others, such as Arizona GOP senate candidate Kari Lake, have peddled unfounded accusations of a stolen election due to fraud. As the message has not resonated with general election voters, some of the candidates pushing stolen elections claims have adjusted their tones on the matter.
