A judge in Pennsylvania has just give Team Trump a victory and ordered the state of Pennsylvania not to count ballots that she'd previously ordered segregated:
Here's more:
FOX NEWS - A Pennsylvania judge ruled in favor of the Trump campaign Thursday, ordering that the state may not count ballots where the voters needed to provide proof of identification and failed to do so by Nov. 9.
State law said that voters have until six days after the election โ this year that was Nov. 9 โ to cure problems regarding a lack of proof of identification. After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots could be accepted three days after Election Day, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar submitted guidance that said proof of identification could be provided up until Nov. 12, which is six days from the ballot acceptance deadline. That guidance was issued two days before Election Day.
"[T]he Court concludes that Respondent Kathy Boockvar, in her official capacity as Secretary of the Commonwealth, lacked statutory authority to issue the November 1, 2020, guidance to Respondents County Boards of Elections insofar as that guidance purported to change the deadline ... for certain electors to verify proof of identification," Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt said in a court order.
This was in line with the Trump campaign's argument, which was that there was no basis in the state's law to extend the identification deadline, and that Boockvar did not have the power to unilaterally change it.
The court had previously ordered that all ballots where voters provided proof of identification between Nov. 10 and 12 should be segregated until a ruling was issued determining what should be done with them.
On Thursday, Leavitt ruled that those ballots shall not be counted.
This is one of several legal challenges the Trump campaign is bringing in Pennsylvania. On Friday they are scheduled to have a hearing over thousands of ballots that they claim were improperly counted despite lacking required information.
Additionally, the campaign awaits action from the Supreme Court regarding whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court acted properly in granting the three-day extension for accepting mail-in ballots.
It's important to note that these are NOT the same ballots that the Supreme Court ordered segregated last week. This judge ordered different ballots to be segregated based on the unlawful actions of the Secretary of State in extending the deadline for voters to fix ballots that lacked of proof of identification.
Note, the article says
"The court had previously ordered that all ballots where voters provided proof of identification between Nov. 10 and 12 should be segregated until a ruling was issued determining what should be done with them." So any ballots where voters fixed their ballots before the 10th and not part of this ruling.
How many ballots her ruling pertains to, I do not know. But it was enough that Trump's legal team filed a lawsuit over them and they appear to have won this ruling.
Comment: Regarding what appears to be the second legal challenge mentioned above, the Trump campaign is "
appealing after the Philadelphia County Board of Elections denied its objection to the counting of thousands of ballots that the campaign said should have been rejected under state law."
"There is no authority in the Pennsylvania Election Code for a 'secondary review' of absentee and mail-in ballots after those ballots are rejected during the canvass," the campaign claimed.
In a series of filings, the campaign pointed to a total of more than 8,000 ballots that were incomplete for various reasons, such as missing printed names, dates or addresses.
The Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia County will be holding a hearing on all of the appeals Friday at 10 a.m. local time.
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh has called the PA election
unconstitutional:
"What they did in Pennsylvania was conduct, basically, an unconstitutional election," Murtaugh said. "Depending on where you were in the state and when you voted, you were treated differently."
Murtaugh claimed Tuesday that Democrat voters in Philadelphia who had problems with their submitted mail-in ballots were contacted by election officials and told to "come in and cast a provisional vote before Election Day."
"That is not allowed," Murtaugh said, adding that Republican voters "were not given that same opportunity."
"You cannot have an election and treat different voters differently within the same state," Murtaugh said. "That is a violation of the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and it's a very, very, serious offense."
"And absolutely, we believe they are going to prevail on that suit, otherwise we wouldn't have filed it," he added.
The Trump campaign on Monday filed a lawsuit (pdf) against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and seven county boards of election โ Allegheny, Centre, Chester, Delaware, Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Northampton, claiming that "almost every critical aspect" of the state's election was "effectively shrouded in secrecy."
It alleges that the Pennsylvania election process violated the Constitution by creating different standards of verification and transparency for mail-in and in-person voters, as well as disparate treatment of Republican and Democrat voters and poll watchers.
Trump campaign legal counsel Matt Morgan told reporters Monday that in Philadelphia and Allegheny, there were over 682,000 ballots that were tabulated outside the view of GOP observers who were entitled by law to review them.
He also said the razor thin margin in Pennsylvania is "very close" to the state's automatic recount rules, and that the lawsuit could "swing that."
Comment: Regarding what appears to be the second legal challenge mentioned above, the Trump campaign is "appealing after the Philadelphia County Board of Elections denied its objection to the counting of thousands of ballots that the campaign said should have been rejected under state law." Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh has called the PA election unconstitutional: