HARRISBURG – The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has assumed oversight of a case brought by President Donald Trump’s campaign which seeks to overturn a decision made by the Philadelphia County Board of Elections, which permitted the counting of more than 8,300 mail-in ballots which were allegedly incomplete.
Donald J. Trump For President, Inc. initially filed five petitions in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on Nov. 10 versus the Philadelphia County Board of Elections, Philadelphia County Commissioners Al Schmidt, Omar Sabir, Lisa Deeley and Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Judge James Crumlish III.
The petitions seek “to reverse the decision of the Philadelphia County Board of Elections in denying petitioners’ objection to the counting of statutorily-prohibited absentee and mail-in ballots cast by voters of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, in the Nov. 3, 2020 General Election.”
In total, the five petitions seek the court to declare as invalid 8,329 mail-in ballots cast in the City of Philadelphia, due to those ballots allegedly being defective and containing missing information.
After an initial move to the Commonwealth Court, on Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania announced it would be assuming oversight of the action – to examine if “the state’s Election Code requires county boards of elections to disqualify mail-in or absentee ballots submitted by qualified electors who signed their ballot’s outer envelopes but did not handwrite their name, their address, and/or a date, where no fraud or irregularity has been alleged.”
Justices Thomas G. Saylor and Sallie Updyke Mundy dissented from the ruling.
Despite being the projected loser of Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes on Nov. 7, the Trump campaign asserts in a number of lawsuits statewide that the granting of its requested actions by the Court could lead to the president winning the state.
“We will not stop fighting for transparency and integrity in our electoral process and ensuring all Americans can trust in the results of a free and fair election,” said Matt Morgan, general counsel for the Trump campaign.
The Trump campaign is already embroiled in a number of lawsuits concerning the ballot submission and counting process in Pennsylvania, with one arguing that “meaningful observers” were not allowed closely enough to the counting process of mail-in ballots at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
Though Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Judge Stella Tsai first threw out the Trump campaign’s claims in this regard, an appeal of the matter to the Commonwealth Court was successful on Nov. 5 – with Judge P. Kevin Brobson agreeing that observers should be allowed within six feet of the counting process, as long as safety protocols for COVID-19 were being followed.
The state Supreme Court has since overruled the Commonwealth Court in that other action.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania cases 89-93 EM 2020
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas cases 201100874-201100878
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com