• Russian authorities seize explosives from group of Jehovah's Witnesses detained for organizing extremist activities
• Jehovah's Witnesses banned as 'extremist' in Russia, property to be seized - Supreme court decision
• Jehovah's Witnesses ban is a common sense move for Russia. The West should take note

Poll observers Justin Qweder and Kim Peterson — the first two witnesses at the Pennsylvania hearing — testified that they could not properly observe anything at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

Qweder said he was a certified observer on the day of the election and returned as a volunteer observer for the next 10 days where he estimated he spent around 85 hours at the center. He said what he saw was "problematic to say the least."

"The Philadelphia board of elections processed hundreds of thousands of mail in ballots with zero civilian oversight or observation," Qweder said.

"The board of elections erected a fence about 50 feet into the hall that ran the length of the room, all observers were corralled behind the fence. More than a hundred board workers processed and opened mail in ballots on the other side of fence."

Qweder said the workers were arranged about "10 feet to more than 200 feet away from us." He said the room was approximately 350 feet by 350 feet.

"Due to the distance of the workers from the erected fences it was impossible for me or any observer to see what the workers were doing with any type of specificity," he said. "The observers were not able to challenge any decision or determination being made about the processing of these mail in ballots."

The second issue Qweder said he found to be irregular was the board's duplication process. As the days progressed, observers were informed that the board was going to be duplicating damaged mail in ballots that could not be read by their scanners. He was told there were more than 5,000 of these damaged ballots and that the actual number was unknown and could be higher.

The process for counting these duplicated ballots involved 2 workers, one reading aloud what was marked by the damaged ballot, and the second worker using a pink highlighter to mark the choice on a blank ballot. The board's plan, he said, was to run the pink highlighted ballots through the scanners and workers did this over a course of days.

On Nov. 12 the observers were informed that the pink highlighters could not be read by the scanners and that the board had to redo all of them.

"The board of elections solution was to give the workers stacks of hundreds of what amounted to blank mail in ballots, "Qweder said. "The workers, individually, were to fill in the corrected highlighted ovals with dark pen. No observation."

"They were marking thousands of blank mail in ballots," he said. "The workers did this double recreation work for hours before the observers realized what was going on, because we weren't told what was going on."

"Only when the observers confronted the deputy commissioner about this irregularity was a system set up where the workers would show the observers each double recreated mail in ballot by flashing it at them for a second from a distance of 6 to 20 feet away ... Thousands were ultimately counted in this way."

Qweder said he found this to be an issue and that it was irregular.

Commonwealth Judge Patricia McCullough ordered the state to not take any further steps to complete the certification of the presidential race, which the state announced on Nov. 24. She also blocked the certification of all the other election results.

"To the extent that there remains any further action to perfect the certification of the results of the 2020 General Election for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States of America, respondents are preliminarily enjoined from doing so, pending an evidentiary hearing to be held on Friday," the judge wrote in her order (pdf).

"Respondents are preliminarily enjoined from certifying the remaining results of the election, pending the evidentiary hearing."

McCullough is presiding over a lawsuit brought by Republican lawmakers and candidates against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, and the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

The plaintiffs allege that Pennsylvania's vote-by-mail statute — Act 77 — is in violation of the state's constitution.

"Act 77 is the most expansive and fundamental change to the Pennsylvania voting code, implemented illegally, to date," the lawsuit, filed in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, states.

"As with prior historical attempts to illegally expand mail-in voting by statute, which have been struck down going as far back as the Military Absentee Ballot Act of 1839, Act 77 is another illegal attempt to override the limitations on absentee voting prescribed in the Pennsylvania Constitution, without first following the necessary procedure to amend the constitution to allow for the expansion."

• UK's lockdown could cause extra 35,000 extra cancer deaths due to delayed diagnosis and treatment
• Nearly 50% of US working age adults unemployed - and it's going to get worse
• UK's grim economic forecast: Lockdown to depress GDP till 2024, unemployment to double

• OAN: Dominion-izing the Vote
• The Dominion software story keeps getting worse
• PA GOP House members hold presser after Dominion Voting Systems refuses to testify before House Committee

• Maxwell lawyers complain about prison conditions as prison officials seek to keep her alive
• Former warden from Ghislaine Maxwell's NYC jail says she should be on suicide watch: It would be 'unimaginable' for her to escape justice
• Something to hide: Defense lawyers look to keep any videos of Ghislaine Maxwell from going public - 'highly confidential' evidence
• Protecting the network? Lawyers for pedo-madam Ghislaine Maxwell seek redaction of 100s of names in Epstein docs
• Ghislaine Maxwell loses court fight: Deposition about sex life will be made public