(Headline USA) President Donald Trump’s campaign followed through on a threat to sue Philadelphia, filing papers in court Thursday night over city officials preventing campaign representatives from watching people registering to vote or filling out mail-in ballots in election offices there.
Trump poll watcher kicked out of election office in Philly.
The office just so happens to be run by the Center for Tech and Civic Life, which is funded by the Zuckerburg’s to the tune of $250 million.
Why do they fear transparency?
https://t.co/N5XqmtDBQX— Mary Vought (@MaryVought) October 1, 2020
The lawsuit comes amid widespread concern over Democrats brazen efforts to cheat, including evidence of suspiciously discarded ballots and an actual vote-fraud ring that was exposed in the city.
Despite having a Republican-led legislature, the state’s radical left Supreme Court has permitted Pennsylvania’s Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf to make outrageous non-legislative revisions to normal voting procedures under the auspices of the coronavirus pandemic.
Although Trump won the crucial battleground state in 2016, Democrats subsequently pressed for court-mandated redistricting changes that allowed Philadelphia to flip some of its congressional seats from red to blue.
The 14-page lawsuit, filed in a state court in Philadelphia, revolves around the question of what rights there are for campaign representatives to watch people in election offices where they can register to vote, apply for mail-in ballots, fill them out or turn them in.
“Bad things are happening in Philadelphia,” the campaign’s lawsuit said.
“While transparency and accountability are hallmarks of election integrity, the actions of Philadelphia election officials to date have undermined election integrity by shrouding the casting of ballots in secrecy,” it continued.
The campaign is asking to be able to assign representatives to observe inside satellite election offices that Philadelphia began opening Tuesday around the city to help collect what is expected to be an avalanche of mail-in ballots in the Nov. 3 presidential election.
But election lawyers, city officials and the state’s top elections official all say that there is no right under Pennsylvania law, even for a certified poll watcher, to watch people do things like register to vote or fill out a mail-in ballot.
Those rights, they say, are limited to certified campaign representatives to observe voting at a polling place on Election Day or the opening of absentee and mail-in ballots in an election office.
In May, a federal investigation exposed a corrupt ballot-stuffing ring led by a disgraced ex-congressman that had involved bribing election officials to brazenly commit fraud in the polling place.
A spokesperson for the city’s election board chairwoman said Thursday night that he had not reviewed the lawsuit, but the board generally does not comment on litigation. The Trump campaign originally threatened to sue Tuesday night.
Philadelphia on Tuesday opened the first seven of what is expected to be 17 satellite election offices.
The offices are a new creation, deemed to be legal under state law last month by the state Supreme Court in a lawsuit brought by the state Democratic Party.
Trump campaign employees promptly showed up, insisting they be allowed to go in and observe the activity inside.
City election officials—including a Republican member of a three-member city election board—prevented them, although they offered the campaign a tour of the facilities to let them see how they operate.
The fight could widen. A number of counties, including the state’s most heavily populated counties, are opening satellite election offices and putting out drop boxes for voters to drop off mail-in ballots.
Philadelphia is home to one in five registered Democratic voters in Pennsylvania, and its turnout is closely watched in presidential elections.
In 2016, Trump won Pennsylvania by about 44,000 votes, or less than 1 percentage point. But he lost Philadelphia to Democrat Hillary Clinton by 67 percentage points, or about 475,000 votes.
It is at least the second lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania by the Trump campaign, in an effort to expand poll watching rights and limit how counties can collect mail-in ballots and which mail-in ballots can be counted.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
