Pennsylvania Court Sides with Team Trump: Late Ballots Not Counted

On Thursday (November 5), a Pennsylvania federal court ruled in the President’s favor – Pennsylvania’s Democratic Secretary of State, Kathy Boockvar, was ordered to stop counting overdue ballots. The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) have scored an initial victory in their legal battle.

In a lawsuit filed late Wednesday, the Trump campaign and the RNC accused Boockvar of violating the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) by improperly extending the deadline for absentee and mail-in voters to provide identification from Nov. 9 to Nov. 12.

“While HAVA requires states to ensure that certain primary voters provide identification in order to vote, three days ago, Secretary of State Bockvar abused his unilateral executive order to rewrite the Pennsylvania Election Code to allow absentee and mail-in voters to provide missing identification far beyond the time limit of Deadline.” Justin Clark, Trump 2020 deputy campaign manager, said.

HAVA has revamped the voting system and voter balloting established after the 2000 election, requiring voters to go through an identification process.

On Thursday, a Pennsylvania federal court ruled in favor of the Trump campaign and is now enforcing the appropriate statutory deadline to order late ballots to be sorted out and not counted.

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said in a statement, “The RNC does everything in its power to ensure that these types of issues are resolved and the letter of the law is followed.” “We will not stand idly by as Democrats will use shameful and illegal tactics to upset the balance out of self-interest, which is against the will of the American people. We will continue to fight for the integrity of the election until the final vote results are finalized.”

The RNC and its Republican allies are pushing back against Democratic efforts to move the finish line posts and count illegal votes, and the RNC and the Trump campaign have more than 500 volunteer attorneys and multiple law firms in Pennsylvania and are fully prepared to file lawsuits as needed to ensure the integrity of the process.

Meanwhile, state Senate Republican President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and Majority Leader Jake Corman called for Bockvar’s resignation in a statement released Nov. 3.

State senators say the Secretary of State has fundamentally changed the way Pennsylvania’s general election has been conducted over the past two days. One state senator said, “She has provided ever-changing guidance to counties that not only directly contradicts the content of the Election Code to which she swore allegiance, but also contradicts the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court’s own litigation statements and decisions.”