Pennsylvania Court sides with the Trump campaign; some votes may not be counted
In a win for the Trump campaign, a judge ruled that the state can not count ballots where the voters needed to provide proof of identification and failed to do so by Nov. 9.
State law said that voters have until six days after the election, this year, that was Nov. 9, to cure problems regarding a lack of proof of identification. After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots could be accepted three days after Election Day, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar submitted guidance that said proof of identification could be provided up until Nov. 12, six days from the ballot acceptance deadline. That guidance was issued two days before Election Day on November 1st.
“The Court concludes that Respondent Kathy Boockvar, in her official capacity as Secretary of the Commonwealth, lacked statutory authority to issue the November 1, 2020, guidance to Respondents County Boards of Elections insofar as that guidance purported to change the deadline … for certain electors to verify proof of identification,” Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt said in a court order.
This ruling affirms the Trump Campaigns’ position that there was no basis in Pennsylvania state law to extend the identification deadline. They also believed that Boockvar, as the Secretary of State, did not have the power to change the law.
The court had previously ordered that all ballots where voters provided proof of identification between Nov. 10 and 12 should be segregated until a ruling was issued determining what should be done with them.
