PITTSBURGH – The first of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign sued for their allegedly illegal system for submitting and counting mail-in ballots has declared the complaint to be devoid of facts.
Donald J. Trump For President, Inc. initially filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on June 29 versus Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and the Boards of Election of all 67 Pennsylvania counties.
In addition to the Trump campaign, plaintiffs in the case are the Republican National Committee, Republican U.S. Reps. Glenn Thompson, John Joyce, Mike Kelly and Guy Reschenthaler, plus voters Melanie Stringhill Patterson and Clayton David Show.
“To be free and fair, elections must be transparent and verifiable. Yet, defendants have inexplicably chosen a path that jeopardizes election security and will lead – and has already led – to the disenfranchisement of voters, questions about the accuracy of election results and ultimately chaos heading into the upcoming Nov. 3 General Election,” according to the lawsuit.
It is the view of the plaintiffs that such concerns are a by-product of Pennsylvania’s decision last year to provide voters with the option to vote by mail without a stated reason for doing so through Act 77.
When the coronavirus pandemic caused Pennsylvania to postpone its April primary election until June, more than 1.8 million voters applied for a mail-in or absentee ballot. State elections officials said more than 1.5 million ballots were returned.
The decision to expand mail-in voting, the plaintiffs said, led to voters submitting absentee and mail-in ballots during the June 2 Primary Election in places such as shopping centers, parking lots, fairgrounds, parks, retirement homes, college campuses, fire halls, municipal government buildings, and elected officials’ offices.
Moreover, the plaintiffs contend these voters took these actions with “the knowledge, consent and/or approval of the Secretary of the Commonwealth.”
“This is all a direct result of defendants’ hazardous, hurried, and illegal implementation of unmonitored mail-in voting which provides fraudsters an easy opportunity to engage in ballot harvesting, manipulate or destroy ballots, manufacture duplicitous votes, and sow chaos,” the suit stated.
“Contrary to the direction of Pennsylvania’s General Assembly, defendants have sacrificed the sanctity of in-person voting at the altar of unmonitored mail-in voting and have exponentially enhanced the threat that fraudulent or otherwise ineligible ballots will be cast and counted in the upcoming General Election.”
A spokesperson for Boockvar offered no comment on the litigation.
UPDATE
On July 18, the Potter County Board of Elections responded to the lawsuit with a motion to dismiss, arguing the Trump campaign put forth no facts in its charges.
“There are no factual allegations against Potter County and thus there is no ‘plausible claim for relief.’ Do the plaintiffs seek a declaration that Potter County should keep on doing what it is doing or change what it is doing? How could the Court know what to declare as there are no facts whatsoever alleged as to what Potter County has done? Do the plaintiffs seek to enjoin Potter County from some action it has done in the past? Again, how could the Court know what to enjoin as there are absolutely no facts pled as to any allegation of improper activities? Has Potter County violated the rights or disenfranchised any of its voters? Again, with no facts alleged, there is no possible way to state a plausible claim for relief,” the dismissal motion read, in part.
“Potter County takes no position with respect to actions or in-actions of the Secretary of State or of the 20 counties for which at least some factual allegations have been made. With respect to Potter County, with no facts alleged, plaintiffs might (at best and being most generous) have some vague speculation or some mere possibility of misconduct on the part of Potter County. This clearly not enough to survive a motion to dismiss. Accordingly, the Potter County Board of Elections prays that this Honorable Court dismiss the plaintiffs’ complaint against it.”
The filing added none of the named plaintiffs are residents of or citizens who vote in Potter County and in fact, Potter County was only named twice in the entire complaint, among the captioned list of defendants and among the county boards of election in Pennsylvania. The defendant adds this lack of specificity should contribute to dismissal.
For counts of federal constitutional and state law violations, the plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction that would enjoin Pennsylvania from permitting absentee and mail-in ballots to be returned to locations other than the offices of the county boards of elections.
They also want an injunction to prevent the same boards of elections from counting absentee and mail-in ballots that “lack a secrecy envelope” or have any text or symbols on envelopes revealing the elector’s identity, party affiliation or candidate preference – and want pollsters to not only be permitted to monitor the tallying of votes outside where they live, but also observe counting of all mail-in ballots.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case 2:20-cv-00966
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com