[ad_1]
President-elect Joe Biden currently leads Keystone State with over 81,000 votes.
“Here we conclude that if the failure to include a name, address or handwritten date in the voter declaration on the back of the outer envelope, while constituting technical violations of the electoral code, does not justify the general withdrawal of the right to vote of thousands of Pennsylvanian voters, “wrote Judge Christine Donohue, who was joined in the opinion by two others in Monday’s order.
Decision upholds a lower court ruling allowing 8,329 mail and mail ballots to be counted that arrived at 8 p.m. on election day in Philadelphia County, but lacking handwritten names, addresses or dates.
The court also overturned a lower court ruling that rejected 2,349 signed ballots but containing undated statements, erasing one of the previous Trump campaign victories. The state Supreme Court restored an earlier ruling that allowed such ballots to be counted.
The judges concluded that in the absence of fraud or illegality, the defects did not justify invalidating the ballots.
The majority court ruling is another blow to President Donald Trump’s continued efforts to challenge election results in several states, including Pennsylvania, where presidential campaign court challenges have failed in recent weeks.
Since polling day, there had only been two court wins for Republicans, involving a very small number of votes, and more legal losses are likely on the horizon as the campaign continues its efforts.
Trump campaign seeks to block Pennsylvania certification
The Trump campaign on Monday asked a federal appeals court for a temporary restraining order to suspend Pennsylvania’s certification of the presidential election days after a lower court judge wrote a clearly worded opinion appearing the “Frankenstein Monster … Randomly Assembled” campaign trial.
In a court petition, a Trump campaign lawyer asserted that the campaign “ will suffer irreparable harm if the limited relief sought – a short suspension of certification (or its legal effect if certification has already taken place) – no. is not provided. since the relief will not interfere with the nomination of voters for the candidate who won the most legal votes before the Dec. 8 Safe Harbor. ”
“In short, it would be unacceptable to allow Pennsylvania to certify Biden’s voters and have Trump win the race,” wrote attorney Marc A. Scaringi, adding that allowing certification to continue would ratify “the results of an invalid and constitutionally invalid election process before this matter can be heard on the merits.”
He argued: “If the Pennsylvania vote tally – including the illegal ballots – is certified and not suspended for meaningful scrutiny, the electoral votes will be awarded to Biden. If the plaintiffs subsequently prove that the election was invalid, unjust and unequally administered, and including the total of illegal mail ballots, their victory will be Pyrrhic. “
In his motion, Trump’s campaign lawyer cited the Bush decision against Gore as saying “the right to vote as lawmakers have prescribed is fundamental,” writing that “the defendants have not only failed to administer the 2020 presidential election in accordance with the manner prescribed by the legislature, but the defendants violated the equal protection of claimants and due process rights in order to favor Biden over Trump. “
“Unless the legal effects of certification are suspended, applicants may be left with no recourse because Pennsylvania electoral votes for president and vice-president may be assigned to someone else,” it read. in the brief.
CNN’s Katelyn Polantz and Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link