With his legal challenges to Democrat Joe Biden’s Nov. 3 presidential election victory foundering, President Donald Trump's campaign and his Republican allies have stepped up efforts to prevent local officials from certifying election results in key battleground states.

But the effort aimed at halting the ballot certification process, an obscure but critical part of electing the president, has failed thus far as judges have thrown out several lawsuits brought by the Republicans in recent days. The latest dismissal came in the state of Georgia on Thursday.

The lawsuits seeking to halt vote certification are part of the Trump campaign's broader strategy of goading Republican-controlled state legislatures in battleground states into awarding their electoral votes to the president, even though he lost both the popular and electoral vote to Biden, according to legal and political experts.

The presidential election is won by whichever candidate can amass a 270-vote majority or more in the 538-member Electoral College. That is determined by the popular vote showing in every state and the District of Columbia. Biden won the balloting in Michigan by more than 150,000 votes and appears to be headed to collecting 16 electoral votes in the state.

In a long-shot bid to undo Biden’s electoral victory in Michigan – and potentially in several other states — Trump met with the Republican leadership of the Michigan state legislature on Friday afternoon — presumably to explore ways to supersede the popular vote in choosing electors.

After the White House meeting Friday, the Michigan lawmakers issued a joint statement. (VOA)

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