Donald Trump's challenge to election results flounders after allegations are dropped

Lawyers are focused on an alleged voting irregularity which would not effect the result

US President Donald Trump’s campaign is withdrawing a central part of its lawsuit seeking to stop the certification of the election results in Pennsylvania, where Democrat Joe Biden beat Mr Trump to capture the state, helping win the White House.

Before a Tuesday hearing in the case, Mr Trump’s campaign dropped the allegation that hundreds of thousands of mail-in and absentee ballots – 682,479, to be precise – were illegally processed without its representatives watching.

The campaign’s slimmed-down lawsuit, filed in federal court on Sunday, maintains the aim of blocking Pennsylvania from certifying a victory for Mr Biden in the state, and it maintains its claim that Democratic voters were treated more favourably than Republican voters.

The Associated Press on November 7 called the presidential contest for Mr Biden, after determining that the remaining ballots left to be counted in Pennsylvania would not allow Mr Trump to catch up. Mr Trump has refused to concede.

The remaining claim in the lawsuit centres on disqualifying ballots cast by voters who were given an opportunity to fix mail-in ballots that were going to be disqualified for a technicality.

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