The Trump campaign secured a legal victory on Thursday when a judge in Pennsylvania ruled that the state cannot count ballots by voters who failed to provide proof of identification by the November 9 deadline.
Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt’s court order said Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar “lacked statutory authority” when she attempted to extend the deadline for voters to provide proof of identification up until November 12 – three days passed the current deadline. Boockvar attempted to change the deadline just two days before Election Day.
Boockvar “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,” Leavitt’s order said.
The Trump campaign had argued that state law did not allow the deadline to be changed, and Boockvar did not have the power to make such a change on her own.
Trump campaign lawyer Matt Morgan said the ruling “supports our continued assertion that the Secretary continues to play fast and loose.”
The campaign has several other legal challenges ongoing in Pennsylvania alone. One legal challenge alleges thousands of ballots were counted even though they lacked required information. Another lawsuit challenged the state’s Supreme Court’s decision to extend the mail-in ballot deadline for three days. That case is currently awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh said both Trump and Biden voters “deserve to know that this election was free, fair, safe, and secure.”
“You simply cannot ignore the very real evidence of irregularities,” Murtaugh said, adding that that the lawsuits ensure “every legal vote to be counted and every illegal vote to be tossed out.”
