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Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Trump Campaign Sues Pa Over Mail-in Voting

President Donald Trump's re-election campaign sued Pennsylvania and most counties, including Northampton and Lehigh, over the administration of recent changes to state law that authorize mail-in voting. The 57-page polemic (you can read it here) condemns write-in voting, but the complaint itself addresses only how it's been administered. It's asking for injunctive relief from the United States District Court in Pittsburgh to address the following problems:

First, it asks the Court to limit the location at which mail-in ballots can be dropped off to the county elections office or a location that would meet the definition of a polling place. According to the complaint, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar allowed 20 counties to establish drop-off boxes at shopping centers, parking lots, fairgrounds, parks, retirement homes, college campuses, fire halls, municipal government buildings, and elected officials' offices. In Philadelphia, the Committee of Seventy was enlisted to implement a mobile mail-in ballot collection. This might be convenient, but no authority for it exists. Moreover, Boockvar and county elections boards are ministerial, and have no discretion to exceed what is permitted by statute.

Second, it insists that any drop-ff boxes that are legally sanctioned must be monitored and secured. At the most recent meeting of NorCo's Elections Comm'n, Registrar Amy Cozze resisted the notion of multiple drop-ff boxes for precisely that reason. The drop-off box at the county courthouse is both secure and monitored.

Third, the Trump campaign demands that elections officials must disregard all mail-in ballots received that are not inside the secrecy envelope provided with the ballot. Moreover, if a voter writes his name or address on the outside of the envelope, it must be discarded. The Elections Code does provide that a mail-in "shall" be enclosed in the "Official Election Ballot" secrecy envelope with no text, mark, or symbol which reveals the elector's identity, political affiliation or candidate preference, and then "shall" be mailed or personally delivered to only the county boards of
elections to ensure that the ballots are properly cast, kept secret, and not subject to fraud. But what possible fraud is committed when a voter unknowingly puts his name and address on the secrecy ballot, or forgets to place his ballot inside a secrecy envelope? It appears to me that the word "shall," in this context, is precatory, not mandatory. There is a strong public policy favoring the right to vote, and it's absurd to negate someone's efforts simply because he unthinkingly signed his name to a secrecy ballot. It nevertheless is a good idea for a judge to weigh in on this topic because different counties have different interpretations of what is, after all, a state law.

Fourth, the Complaint demands that non-resident poll watchers (persons selected by candidates and parties to ensure that votes are properly counted) should be permitted. Moreover,. elections officials should permit them to be present when mail-in ballots are received. The law already permits a "representative" of each candidate and party, so this seems like overkill.

What I think Trump is really doing is planting the seeds to explain a major defeat in a state he won in 2016. Moreover, while the compliant is highly critical of mail-in voting, it seeks no injunctive relief against it.

15 comments:

  1. You can't make this shot up! What will it take for people to see Trump is a Buffon with arrested development. How much hate is out there to continue to fuel this guys popularity.
    He is ignorant of American history as well as world history. He was born on third base but claims to have hit a triple. The guy is a con. Please people. Time to end this American psychotic break with reality and get back to reality.

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  2. I hope you are right about President Trump losing Pennsylvania in November, despite the campaign desperately trying to muddy the electoral waters with their hysterical, frantic crusade against main-in ballots.

    I'm always impressed with how good the woman who made our (excellent) wedding cake is in her current position as Elections Commission Registrar.

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  3. 307 introduces common sense to this matter. The Hater in Chief needs to resign while his embattled supporters seem to look the other way at his inane ramblings. What in the world is the newest Press Maven talking about ? She rants from her programmed script, waves off questions and apparebtly returns to her position under his desk.

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  4. It will never happen, but if the two parties in Harrisburg were to sit down and come up with some basic and common sense statewide standards on minimum requirements for mail in voting it would be a big help. Unfortunately what works for Potter County doesn't work that great in Bucks, Lehigh, Montgomery or Northampton Counties, let alone Philadelphia or Allegheny.

    That all said - massive voter fraud via mail is basically impossible to pull off without being completely and brazenly obvious about it, not to mention insanely expensive to do in one county let alone dozens in one state.

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  5. Trump is afraid of genuine democracy. That coincides with his apparent affinity for dictators.

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  6. Its alright for him to vote by mail but since he knows he's going to lose he wants to stop voters from exercising their right to vote. What a piece of $#*(#

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  7. I had a similar impression of this lawsuit. It sounded like sour grapes that we have expanded mail-in voting, lacking substance, and merely to cast doubt on voters' minds. Bunker Boy is going to be shown the door, and his campaign is resorting to tactics like this because their options are severely limited to change the narrative. A narrative Bunker Boy himself has created.

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  8. @9:07 said "massive voter fraud via mail is basically impossible to pull off without being completely and brazenly obvious about it,"

    Correct. Consider the case of the US mail carrier in West Virginia who said he wanted to irritate Democrats by corrupting ballots. He did it to EIGHT ballots, and he was nabbed. I must note also that he is apparently a Republican.

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  9. @11:32 - the sheer cost of both money and man hours to manipulate a vote via mail, to coordinate it and execute it correctly, while keeping the operation within a small group to keep it secret in ONE county is not worth the effort, risk and trouble.

    Such an operation would have a goal of just tipping the scale in favor of one candidate or the other. The people involved with the plot would have to know in advance who is/isn't voting in the election, then correctly guess at how many votes to throw at their candidate without raising suspicion.

    It's certainly not a perfect system, but it does seem to fulfill many a conspiracy theorists fantasies of some hidden cabal of wealthy James Bond villains living together on Skull Island looking to destroy American freedom...

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  10. I'm taking the word of former cabinet office, James Baker, who led a panel with Jimmy Carter to examine voter access. They both concluded mail in was fraught with problems and we should not do it. It's a bad idea. Elections can be properly run the old fashioned way. NorCo Elections is awesome and should lead the state. And I don't like a single other thing about county government. But give credit where it's due.

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  11. "Hey, cupcake. Still think you're going to outlast me?"

    I know I will. Many have tried. All have failed.

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  12. There is two different stacks of mail in vote ballots in the building I reside, one is in Spanish and the other is in English?

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  13. :It only takes a second." I guess that came from your sex life.

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  14. At 6:49, I think he already did as you are again editing posts to push you story

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  15. I voted by mail for the first time during the primary. It was great. I hope to do it in November, especially considering the recent uptick in Covid-19 cases. Does anyone know whether I'm automatically registered to vote by mail for November?

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You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.