I have no idea how many ballots this affects; I would hope not a large enough number to affect the outcome in PA.
quote:
Pennsylvania election officials cannot count mail-in ballots that were not verified by Nov. 9, regardless of an instruction given to them by Commonwealth Secretary Kathy Boockvar, a Commonwealth Court judge ruled Thursday.
The decision by President Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt voids a Nov. 1 directive Boockvar issued to election officials in all 67 counties. In that directive Boockvar said those officials had until Nov. 12 to verify the identities of the voters who cast mail-in ballots.
In a petition filed with the court last week, President Donald Trump’s campaign challenged Boockvar’s directive, insisting that election laws barred the counting of any ballots which had not received identification verification by Nov. 9.
Leavitt agreed.
She found that Boockvar “lacked statutory authority” to extend a deadline that is set in the state Election Code.
Ballots not verified by Nov. 9 have been segregated and not counted under a temporary injunction Leavitt’s court issued last week.
Her decision could be appealed to the state Supreme Cour
Oh, and the law firm that was representing him in some Pennsylvania lawsuit has decided to withdraw. edit: A firm that was representing him in Arizona has also withdrawn.
A US District Court judge Saturday dismissed a lawsuit by the Trump campaign trying to invalidate millions of Pennsylvania mail-in votes in a significant loss for the campaign.
Though the case was always extremely unlikely to succeed, President Donald Trump's backers and legal team -- and particularly his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani -- had pinned their hopes on the federal judge in Pennsylvania giving some credibility to their suspicions of fraud and entertaining Trump's attempt to overturn the popular vote for President-elect Joe Biden.
But Judge Matthew Brann, a longtime and well-known Republican in Pennsylvania, refused.
quote:
"Plaintiffs ask this Court to disenfranchise almost seven million voters. This Court has been unable to find any case in which a plaintiff has sought such a drastic remedy in the contest of an election, in terms of the sheer volume of votes asked to be invalidated," US District Court Judge Matthew Brann wrote Saturday.
Brann went on to admonish the Trump campaign lawyers for not presenting factual proof for seeking to invalidate so many votes in the key battleground state.
"One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption, such that this Court would have no option but to regrettably grant the proposed injunctive relief despite the impact it would have on such a large group of citizens. That has not happened," Brann added. "Instead, this Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence."
"In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state. Our people, laws, and institutions demand more," the judge wrote." At bottom, Plaintiffs have failed to meet their burden to state a claim upon which relief may be granted."
The counties in the state are scheduled to certify their election results on Monday.
I can't keep all these cases straight. I'm just posting anything Pennsylvania-related here.
quote:
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday dealt President Donald Trump’s campaign yet another legal loss, ruling that mail-in ballots cast in the state’s presidential election can be counted even if a voter failed to completely fill out the envelope.
If I'm thinking of the same thing, the problem there is with all the recounts conducted at Trump's behest, the envelopes and the ballots have long been separated. If so, it's yet another idiot idea from Trump's team.
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Originally posted by Nina: If I'm thinking of the same thing, the problem there is with all the recounts conducted at Trump's behest, the envelopes and the ballots have long been separated. If so, it's yet another idiot idea from Trump's team.
That’s why they’re trying to say there has to be a new election.
President Donald Trump plans to travel to Pennsylvania on Wednesday for a meeting of state Republican lawmakers examining accusations of election impropriety, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Trump’s visit to Gettysburg for a hearing by the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee was not listed on the president’s public schedule. He is expected to appear alongside former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has been leading a longshot legal effort in several states to reverse the results of the Nov. 3 election, the people said.
quote:
Mr. Trump could also use the event as a launch pad for his political future, amid speculation that he could look to harness discontent over the election results to mount another presidential bid in 2024 or launch his own media network.
quote:
Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano said he had requested the public hearing because voters in his state “lost faith in the electoral system.”
“Over the past few weeks, I have heard from thousands of Pennsylvanians regarding issues experienced at the polls, irregularities with the mail-in voting system and concerns whether their vote was counted,” Mr. Mastriano said in a statement. “We need to correct these issues to restore faith in our republic.”
