Trump’s bid to stop vote counts will make this election even harder for America to heal from

Editorial: The conspiracy theories and the festering sense of injustice felt by many of his supporters may last longer than the litigation

The recourse to the lawyers is standard Trump practice, and sometimes served him well in business. On this occasion it looks desperate (Getty)

It might be more useful, for the courts and the people, if Donald Trump’s guerrilla legal squads could identify who precisely is behind the supposed conspiracy to “steal” the presidential election. Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudi Giuliani, claims it is “the Democrats”, which is at least more specific than the president’s “they” or the Trump campaign’s “the left”. If Mr Trump really wants his various inconsistent suits to end up at the Supreme Court he will have to do better than that.  

Some other questions also arise. Where is the evidence of anyone “dumping” thousands of votes anywhere? The more obvious reason why the voting tallies fluctuate is because of the size of mail-in and absentee ballots, and in which order they are counted. In some places, such as Ohio, they were counted earlier than in other states, such as Pennsylvania. The counting rooms are full of media and party observers. There are cameras in the room. The officials are working their hardest, and they are not so very different people to the ones who totted up Mr Trump’s victory in 2016. There has not been a single claim of illegal or forged ballots. It is, as the president might say, a hoax. He will look especially foolish if late-counted ballots, maybe from military personnel abroad, finally tip the balance his way in a swing state. Presumably, the lawsuits will be quietly dropped.