The clock is ticking on Trump's Wisconsin election lawsuits

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The clock is ticking on President Donald Trump to flip Wisconsin.

Federal law requires Electoral College votes to be cast on Dec. 14.

“If, for whatever reason, Wisconsin electors didn’t vote, and they didn’t send a slate, then Wisconsin essentially wouldn’t count in the election at all,” Marquette Political Science Department Chair Paul Nolette said.

A federal judge challenged the Trump campaign's assertion in court Friday, Dec. 4, that the election should be called invalid and the Republican state legislature should determine the fate of Wisconsin’s electoral votes instead of voters.

“The request to remand this case to the legislature also strikes me as really bizarre,” Federal Judge Bret Ludwig said.

The federal case is making it difficult for the Trump campaign to beat the clock in the state case.

Because the defendants are the same, the judge had to push back the state court hearing.

“This is a difficult spot for me given that I’m responding to both lawsuits, said attorney Andrew Jones, who is representing the Milwaukee clerk and board of canvassers. "It’s President Trump that has brought that second lawsuit into federal court.”

Nolette says the actual merits of Trump’s case are dubious.

He says the campaign could not find fraud, and are now arguing the election procedure makes the results invalid after the fact.

“It’s kind of like if after a football game, you say, well a field goal should count the same as a touchdown," Nolette said. "And our team kicked more field goals, so we should have won."

Even if Trump was able to flip Wisconsin, he would have to flip at least two additional states to win the White House.