WILLIAMSPORT – The Trump campaign has renewed its legal fight to prevent Commonwealth Secretary Kathy Boockvar from certifying the results of the Nov. 3 election.
Donald J. Trump for President Inc. and two individuals Sunday filed an amended complaint in U.S. Middle District Court that alleges disparate treatment of absentee and mail-in ballots across the state in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.
They also claim a violation of the Electors and Elections clauses in that Boockvar and the election boards in seven counties had no authority to provide an opportunity to cure deficient mail-in ballots.
“In a rush to count mail ballots and ensure Democrat Joe Biden is elected,” Pennsylvania created an illegal voting system that devaluated certain votes, they say.
They point out officials in some counties notified voters whose mail-in ballots were deficient and gave them the opportunity to cast a provisional ballot while others did not.
The state Election Code does not provide for such a procedure and only the Legislature can change the law, the Trump people say.
The new complaint cites Snyder County’s decision not to provide a notice and cure process after Republican Commissioner Joe Kantz checked with the county solicitor.
The two individual plaintiffs, David John Henry of Lancaster County and Lawrence Roberts of Uniontown, say they learned after the election their ballots had been canceled so they did not have the opportunity to “cure” them.
The Trump campaign claims it was denied lawful votes in heavily Republican counties that “followed the law” and did not use the notice and cure process.
As with the original complaint, the new one claims the Trump campaign had no meaningful opportunity to review and assess mail-in ballots. Philadelphia and Allegheny counties were cited as examples.
The Trump campaign claims it has numerous sworn statements of misconduct related to mail-in ballots that accounted for more than 2.6 million of the approximately 6.75 million votes cast in Pennsylvania.
The relief sought by the amended complaint is basically the same as the original one.
It wants Judge Matthew W. Brann to order or issue an injunction that prohibits Boockvar and election boards in Allegheny, Centre, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Northampton and Philadelphia counties from certifying the results of the election.
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In the alternative, it asks the judge not to allow the defendants from certifying results that include the tabulation of votes permitted to be cured.
Defense motions to dismiss the original complaint are moot because they target a document that is no longer operative, the Trump campaign says.
The amended complaint acknowledges part of the original one could no longer be pursued because of an opinion issued Friday by a panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
Written by Chief Judge D. Brooks Smith, it upheld a Pennsylvania Supreme Court directive that allowed election officials to count mail-in ballots that were received up to three days after the close of polls.
Trump campaign says it disagrees with Smith’s opinion but eliminated its due process claims from the amended complaint.
Also pending before Brann is a suit brought by four individuals who claim their right to vote was infringed by vote dilution because illegal ballots were cast and counted.
LaMarr Pirkle, Theodore Dannerth and Lauren Danks, who live in Centre County, and Casey Flynn, a Montour County resident, sued Gov. Tom Wolf and Boockvar to try to stop certification of the results.
They initially sought to consolidate their complaint with Trump’s case but later withdrew that request
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November 16, 2020 at 04:07AM
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Trump campaign renews legal effort to block certification of election results in Pa. - PennLive
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