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Forbes
Forbes
Business
Alison Durkee, Forbes Staff

Trump Goes To Supreme Court, Files Lawsuits To Stop Vote Counting In Pennsylvania

Topline

The Trump campaign is filing multiple lawsuits in Pennsylvania targeting the state’s rules for election observers and mail-in ballots, as well as intervening in an ongoing U.S. Supreme Court case regarding the state’s mail-in ballot deadline, the campaign said Wednesday, ramping up the GOP’s legal efforts in the battleground state as the race between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden narrows.


Key Facts

The Trump campaign said in a statement Wednesday that it is suing Pennsylvania to stop the state from “hiding the ballot counting and processing from our Republican poll observers,” specifically mentioning a policy that requires poll watchers to stand 25 feet from where the counting process is taking place.

The campaign is appealing a case that previously failed in a lower court in Philadelphia to the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, which alleged an election observer could not “observe the writing on the outside of the ballots.”

The Trump campaign and Republican National Committee sued state and local officials over a practice in which mail-in voters are allowed to provide proof of identification after the ballot deadline if it was initially missing, which Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar recently extended by an additional three days to November 12.

Republicans claim allowing voters to provide identification through that date will “create a high risk of jeopardizing the integrity” of the election by delaying election results, and are calling for the court to throw out any ballots where the voter’s identification isn’t received by the original deadline of Nov. 9.

The Trump campaign also filed a motion to intervene in an ongoing U.S. Supreme Court case regarding the state’s mail-in ballot deadline, which allows mail-in ballots to be counted if they’re delivered up to three days after Election Day.

The Supreme Court previously declined to overturn the extended deadline before Election Day—in a 4-4 ruling before Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court—but several conservative justices said the court could still revisit the ruling and invalidate the deadline, which would result in any late-arriving ballots being rejected.

Crucial Quote

“Given last night’s results, the vote in Pennsylvania may well determine the next President of the United States,” the Trump campaign wrote in its motion to intervene in the Supreme Court case. “And this Court, not the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, should have the final say on the relevant and dispositive legal questions.”

Chief Critic

In a press conference Wednesday evening, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf called Trump’s lawsuits “simply wrong” and said the legal challenge “goes against the most basic principles of our democracy.” “We’re going to fight every single effort to disenfranchise voters, we will continue to administer free and fair elections in Pennsylvania,” Wolf said, promising to “fight like hell” against Trump’s efforts. Boockvar expressed confidence in the state’s legal position against the Trump challenge at the press conference, telling reporters the state doesn’t “have any anticipation that the vote count is going to stop.”

Key Background

Pennsylvania has been a major battleground for legal challenges in the general election, and the Trump campaign’s lawsuits come after other GOP candidates filed two lawsuits Tuesday challenging “cured” mail-in ballots that were fixed or cast provisionally after initially having deficiencies. The Trump campaign has also challenged policies around observing the mail-in ballot count in Clark County, Nevada, and said Wednesday it would file a lawsuit in Michigan to stop vote counting in the battleground state due to issues with poll watcher access as well. The GOP has also challenged the extended mail-in ballot deadline in Minnesota, which, as in Pennsylvania, could still be overturned. The Trump campaign’s legal actions come after Trump has repeatedly railed against the Supreme Court ruling that upheld Pennsylvania’s extended mail-in ballot deadline, and said in a speech Tuesday night that his campaign would be “going to the U.S. Supreme Court” because he wants “all voting to stop.”

What To Watch For

Trump has a six-point lead in Pennsylvania, according to Pennsylvania’s Department of State, but there are still more than one million mail-in ballots left to be counted, many of which are from Democratic areas like Philadelphia and are expected to heavily favor Biden. Biden is currently leading Trump in Electoral College votes, holding 248 votes to Trump’s 214, and Trump would likely need to win Pennsylvania to have a shot at winning the presidency.

Further Reading

Votes Left To Count In Pennsylvania Could Be Good News For Biden (Forbes)

Here’s Why Pennsylvania Is Taking So Long To Count—And How The GOP Is Challenging The Vote (Forbes)

Republicans Sue Pennsylvania To Throw Out Provisional Ballots (Forbes)

GOP Sues To Throw Out Corrected Mail-In Ballots In Pennsylvania (Forbes)

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