In another major legal blow,
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court has dismissed a complaint by Donald Trump’s
campaign that observers weren’t allowed close enough to observe the electoral
count in the state.
The 5-2 decision ruled that
Pennsylvania counties could determine the particulars of election observers,
and that state law only required they be ‘in the room’ when votes are counted.
The court ruled that the
elections board in Philadelphia, the state’s largest city, acted reasonably in
keeping Trump campaign observers behind barricades and 15 feet (4.5 meters)
away from counting tables, rejecting an appeal from Trump’s campaign.
The court found that restrictions
that Philadelphia election officials put in place ‘were reasonable in that they
allowed candidate representatives to observe the Board conducting its
activities as prescribed under the Election Code.’
Among the evidence cited were
claims made in the campaign’s own witness statements, including by a lawyer who
served as an observer and shared observations from inside a vote canvassing
facility.
The court’s opinion, which
reversed a lower court ruling which was the Trump camp’s only significant
victory, noted that the campaign’s ‘own witness’ provided testimony which
contradicted the claim.
It said the restrictions ‘did not
deprive’ the observer of the ability to observe what went on with the
canvassing process in a meaningful way.
The legal setback snatched away
the Trump camp’s lone win after filing a series of state lawsuits challenging
actions by county election officials in states that went to Democrat Joe Biden.
The ruling is expected to hobble
another case filed by the Trump campaign in a Federal court, where Rudy
Giuliani appeared for Trump.
In the Federal court in
Williamsport, Trump lawyer Giuliani alleged a nationwide conspiracy of
widespread voter fraud, before District Judge Matthew Brann.
Giuliani, rumoured to be paid
$20,000 a day for leading Trump’s legal charge, argued that the president was
the victim of a nationwide conspiracy.
‘You’d have to be a fool to think
this was an accident,’ Giuliani said in federal district court in Williamsport,
Pennsylvania.
‘It’s a widespread nationwide
voter fraud of which this is a part.’ Trump and his lawyers have yet to provide
evidence of such a nationwide conspiracy – although they have increasingly
pointed to voting machines that the president claims ‘deleted’ votes from him
and ‘switched’ them to Joe Biden.
Giuliani did not raise complaints
about voting machines in court, instead claiming Democratic-controlled counties
didn’t allow Republicans to see ‘a single absentee ballot’ during counting.
‘I used to vote by absentee
ballot a lot, because I traveled a lot,’ Giuliani acknowledged during his
argument.
A loss in the case would likely
doom Trump’s already-remote prospects of altering the election’s outcome.
Mark Aronchick, a lawyer
representing several Pennsylvania counties, sounded exasperated with Giuliani’s
claims and said that the former New York mayor was “living in a fantasy world.”
“Dismiss this case so we can move
on to the real business of this country,” Aronchick told Brann. “Let’s end
this.”
The case initially included
claims that Republican observers were denied access to ballot-counting. But
Trump’s campaign on Sunday narrowed it to focus on a claim that some voters
were improperly allowed to fix ballots that had been rejected due to technical
errors such as missing an inner “secrecy envelope.”
During the hearing, Giuliani, a
former senior federal prosecutor who has not been a courtroom regular for
decades, made sweeping claims despite the campaign’s earlier narrowing of the
case.
Giuliani said election officials
in the state only let “their little mafia” look at the ballots, but provided no
evidence to back up that claim.
Trump, the first U.S. president
to lose a re-election bid since 1992, has called the election “rigged” and has
falsely claimed victory.
State election officials around
the country have said they have found no evidence of the widespread fraud that
Trump claims.
Daniel Donovan, a lawyer for
Pennsylvania’s top election official, called the state’s handling of the
election during the coronavirus pandemic a success.
Donovan argued that Trump’s
campaign was asking a federal court to “micromanage” routine differences in
county practices.
Pennsylvania officials have said
a small number of ballots were allowed to be fixed.
Trump’s campaign, however, asked
Brann to halt certification of Biden’s victory in the state.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State
Kathy Boockvar is due to certify the election results next Monday, meaning
Brann is expected to rule quickly.
Biden, due to take office on Jan.
20, is projected to have won Pennsylvania by more than 70,000 votes, giving him
49.9% of the state’s votes to 48.8% for Trump.
Trump’s campaign said
Democratic-leaning counties unlawfully identified mail-in ballots before
Election Day that had defects so that voters could fix, or “cure,” them.
Pennsylvania officials said all
of the state’s counties were permitted to inform residents if their mail-in
ballots were deficient, even if it was not mandatory for them to do so. The
pandemic led to a surge in mail-in voting.
Biden clinched the U.S. election
by winning Pennsylvania to put him over the 270 state-by-state electoral votes
needed. Biden, a Democrat, won 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232.
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