Michigan state legislature closes offices due to 'credible threats of violence'

Pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell has just lost her third straight case in her conspiracy-fueled bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, this time in Arizona.

As in the earlier cases, the judge did not look kindly on the unfounded claims that filled Powell's lawsuit. Judge Diane Humetewa, an Obama appointee, wrote in her dismissal Wednesday night that Powell's allegations might "find favor in the public sphere of gossip and innuendo," but they "cannot be substitute for earnest pleadings and procedure in federal court."

"They most certainly cannot be the basis for upending Arizona's 2020 General Election," Humetewa wrote. 

Powell saw swift defeat in two cases Monday, with federal judges in Michigan and Georgia dismissing or denying her efforts there within hours of each other. Both of those rulings have since been appealed. Only Powell's Wisconsin case remains. A ruling is expected soon. 

-ABC News' Olivia Rubin and Matthew Mosk

Less than 24 hours after the news broke that Biden would nominate Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, to serve as his secretary of Housing and Urban Development, a high-profile figure within the progressive left appears poised to launch a bid for her House seat.

On Wednesday, candidacy paperwork bearing the name of former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner was filed with the FEC for Fudge's 11th Congressional District seat. Sources close to Turner told ABC News to expect an announcement from Turner herself "soon."

While far from a national name, Turner is immensely popular within the Sen. Bernie Sanders-led progressive left after serving as a campaign surrogate and adviser during Sanders' 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. In between, she served as president of Our Revolution, the political action organization founded in the wake of Sanders' first campaign.

A Turner run would be noteworthy for the amount of money she could potentially raise. Given their close relationship, it's likely Turner would be granted access to Sanders' massive email list, of which many subscribers are already familiar with Turner via her charismatic stump work on the senator's behalf.

Already a resident of the 11th Congressional District, Turner served on the Cleveland City Council prior to being appointed to the state Senate in 2008. She was the Democratic nominee for Ohio secretary of state in 2014, but was defeated by nearly 25 points. Such a defeat would be unlikely in the heavily blue 11th district where the Democratic primary is tantamount to election.

-ABC News' Adam Kelsey

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office announced Wednesday it has opened an investigation into Coffee County's handling of the election recount.

Raffensperger re-certified the statewide election results on Monday afternoon, after reporters had been told the re-certification would be done the prior Friday. Coffee County was the reason the certification had to be pushed.

While the county's hand audit was off by one vote compared to the county's original results, the machine recount was off by 51 votes. It was possible that the same batch of 50 ballots was inadvertently scanned twice, but the county's election director, Misty Martin, could not say for sure, according to Raffensperger's office. 

The county issued a letter that "blamed the voting system for the 51-vote discrepancy, but Ms. Martin could not specify what machine problems were encountered."

The secretary of state's office told Martin she needed to figure out the issue, resolve it, and, if necessary, re-certify the results, but Martin said she wanted to use the election night results, which was not the protocol. 

On Friday afternoon, Chris Harvey, the elections director in Raffensperger's office, called Martin, who told him she was experiencing an issue with the scanners. Harvey dispatched a Dominion tech. 

Later, when Harvey tried to call Martin back to check on the progress, he couldn't get a hold of her, and later learned from Dominion that the county Board of Elections told Martin to go home and resume working Monday. 

On Monday, Raffensperger's office told Martin and the county they needed to resume counting as soon as possible -- not noon as they planned -- because the state needed to re-certify. Martin did that. 

"Every other county was able to complete this task within the given time limits," the press release said. "In some cases, counties realized they made mistakes in scanning ballots and had to rescan, or realized they neglected to scan some ballots and had to correct that error. But nonetheless, those counties completed the recount on time." 

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan

Trump filed a motion with the Supreme Court Wednesday night asking to formally join Texas' lawsuit against four battleground states in a bid to overturn the 2020 election. 

"The number of ballots affected by illegal conduct of state elections officials greatly exceeds the current margin between Plaintiff in Intervention (Trump) and his opponent in the election for the Office of President (Biden) in each of the respective Defendant States, and the four Defendant States collectively have a sufficient number of electoral votes to affect the result of the vote in the Electoral College for the Office of President," Trump attorney John Eastman wrote in the filing. "Proposed Plaintiff in Intervention therefore clearly has a stake in the outcome of this litigation." 

The accompanying complaint offers a distorted portrayal of Trump's electoral performance, repeating an array of unfounded claims and innuendo. 

2:22

Supreme Court rejects Republican election challenge

But now the Texas attorney general is suing four states, claiming their voting procedures were "unlawful." ABC's Alex Presha reports.

ABCNews.com

"It is not necessary for (Trump) to prove that fraud occurred," Eastman argued in the filing, "it is only necessary to demonstrate that the elections in the defendant States materially deviated from the 'manner' of choosing electors established by their respective state Legislatures." 

"By failing to follow the rule of law, these officials put our nation's belief in elected self-government at risk," he added. 

This is not the first time that Trump has tried to join an election case before the court. In November, he asked the justices to intervene in the Pennsylvania Republican Party's case challenging tabulation of late-arriving mail ballots. The court ignored his request.

-ABC News Senior Washington Reporter Devin Dwyer