Capitol News

President Donald Trump’s campaign filed another lawsuit in Pennsylvania this week alleging that the campaign’s constitutional rights were violated when its observers were not allowed to observe during vote counts.

The lawsuit alleges that American elections have been founded on transparency, but that the 2020 General Election in Pennsylvania has been “shrouded in secrecy.” It alleges that the Trump campaign was not given the opportunity or means to review or assess mail-in ballots during pre-canvassing.

“Allegheny and Philadelphia Counties alone received and processed 682,479 mail-in and absentee ballots without review by the political parties and candidates,” the lawsuit states. “These are unprecedented numbers in Pennsylvania’s elections history. Rather than engaging in an open and transparent process to give credibility to Pennsylvania’s brand-new voting system, the processes were hidden during the receipt, review, opening, and tabulation of those 682,479 votes in direct contravention of the Election Code.” 

The suit claims that Philadelphia County even failed to comply with an emergency order that was issued to require it to provide access. The suit claims that the nature of the irregularities throughout the state have impacted the election.

The Trump campaign argues that it and Republican poll watchers witnessed and reported election workers who weren’t following statutory mandates regarding allowing a voter to relinquish their mail in ballot in order to vote in person on Election Day and the ability to fill out a provisional ballot when a mail-in ballot was received but the voter had not cast the mail-in ballot.

“The right to vote includes not just the right to cast a ballot, but also the right to have it fairly counted if it is legally cast,” the lawsuit states. “The right to vote is infringed if a vote is cancelled or diluted by a fraudulent or illegal vote, including without limitation when a single person votes multiple times. The Supreme Court of the United States has made this clear in case after case.”

The lawsuit is seeking an order prohibiting the certification of the results and that the court rule that the defendants violated the U.S. Constitution, as well as other state and federal laws.