HARRISBURG – The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled Thursday afternoon that Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar lacked authority to extend a deadline for mail-in voters to show proof of identification by three days, and those voters’ ballots would not be counted.
Commonwealth Court Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt said in granting the special injunction requested by the re-election campaign of President Donald Trump, Boockvar incorrectly applied state election law and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s decision in Pennsylvania Democratic Party v. Boockvar when she extended a deadline for voters to provide missing proof of identification to Nov. 12.
Per the ruling, the 20-electoral vote swing state that’s already been declared for President-Elect Joe Biden cannot tally ballots from voters who submitted missing identification between Nov. 10 and Nov. 12, however ballots with the same issued received before that and which were corrected up to Nov. 9 are not being challenged.
Last week in another action, the Commonwealth Court had ordered such ballots be segregated. However, state officials have indicated that litigation over contested ballots will not change the outcome of the race.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called the ruling a “huge victory” for election integrity and labeled Pennsylvania’s three-day extension for providing proper identification “a cut and dry brazen power grab by a Democrat official trying to tip the scales in Joe Biden’s favor.”
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) referred to the ruling as an “important legal victory.”
Democratic Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said the Commonwealth Court’s order was “a narrow ruling on very few ballots”, one which “doesn’t affect ballots received by Nov. 6, and none of this changes the election results.”
The Trump campaign is currently involved in several legal challenges pertaining to the election results in the Keystone State. Another related action is currently pending in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, regarding whether the Court acted properly in granting a three-day extension for submitting mail-in ballots.
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania case 602 MD 2020
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com