Donald Trump
The Trump team scaled back its federal lawsuit over Pennsylvania’s vote certification in the 2020 presidential election. An amended complaint was filed Sunday. The move raised eyebrows. After all, this change follows shortly after attorneys from the law firm Porter Wright withdrew from representing the Trump campaign, and electors Lawrence Roberts and David John Henry.
To clarify, Trump’s lawyers filed this redlined document — allowing us to see what they’re abandoning. Link here. You’ll notice the Porter Wright firm withdrew altogether. https://t.co/W8fQ7IAD3b
— Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) November 16, 2020
The new complaint notably struck out the previous claim that poll watchers from the Trump campaign “reported numerous instances of election workers failing to follow the statutory mandates.”
From the amended lawsuit [omitting the strikeout format]:
10. On Election Day, when the Trump Campaign’s poll watchers were present and allowed to observe in various polling locations throughout the Commonwealth, they observed and reported numerous instances of election workers failing to follow the statutory mandates relating to two critical requirements, among other issues: (1) a voter’s right to spoil their mail-in ballot at their polling place on election day and to then vote in-person, and (2) the ability for voters to vote provisionally on election day when a mail-in ballot has already been received for them, but when they did not cast those mail-in ballots.
The new complaint continues to say that “Democratic-heavy” counties reached out to mail-in voters to help them cure deficiencies (eg. lacking a signature on the outer declaration envelope). Cures were either to cancel the previously mailed ballot and issue a replacement, or to vote provisionally on Election Day. Meanwhile, “Republican-heavy counties, such as Snyder County, followed the law and did not provide a notice and cure process, disenfranchising those that themselves complied with the Election Code to case legal votesmany.” [Edits included for better comparison between the original complaint and the new one.]
[Image via MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images]
