HARRISBURG, Pa. — President Donald Trump’s campaign has filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania and Michigan to stop the counting of mail-in votes, demanding increased accessing to numerous locations where ballots are being tabulated.
The campaign said it is calling for a temporary halt in the counting in Michigan and Pennsylvania until it is given “meaningful” access in numerous locations and allowed to review ballots that already have been opened and processed.
“They won’t even let [our observers] watch as they count the ballots. They put them behind a fence 40, 50 yards away where they actually can’t see the counting happening. Guys, this is fraud. This is absolute fraud,” Eric Trump said at a Trump Campaign press conference in Philadelphia.
The campaign is also moving to intervene in a Pennsylvania case before the U.S. Supreme Court that allows mail ballots received by Friday to be counted in the election. It includes ballots that do not have a clear November 3 postmark and Republicans have fought against that ruling.
“In all good faith, we want to count every single vote. Every legitimate vote must be and should be counted, but there’s an issue of legitimacy,” said U.S. Representative Scott Perry, who is up for re-election in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District. “We can’t just diminish that and act like that doesn’t exist.”
Walter Cohen, who served as Pennsylvania Attorney General in the mid-90's, called the lawsuit unprecedented. Cohen has argued cases before the nation’s highest court and said calling for the Supreme Court to intervene now seemed rash.
“No, people don’t just go to the United States Supreme Court. There’s a process to do that,” Cohen added. “I am not aware of any other time when there has been a challenge to an election with the requirement to have the court stop the counting of the votes.”
The lawsuit is another step in a long pattern of voter suppression and an insult to the millions of Pennsylvanians who voted in person or by mail, State House Democratic leaders said in a joint statement.
“Our elections are decided by the people, not one man’s ego. We call on Republicans to join us to defend the integrity of our free, fair and open elections,” the statement read.
Frustrated voters are now concerned that their mail-in ballots will not be counted in the 2020 presidential election. As of Wednesday night, more than 763,000 mail-in ballots remained outstanding.
During a press briefing, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar made her stance clear—every vote will be counted, regardless of pending litigation.
“Every one of those ballots will be counted by the counties, but they will keep those results segregated and the ballots segregated. I can’t really speak yet for the timeframe. We haven’t been assigned a scheduling order, but once we do we can provide that information,” said Secretary Boockvar.
There have been no reports of fraud or ballot concerns out of Pennsylvania, according to the Department of State, and it’s unclear how many mail-in ballots are still en route to county elections offices.