Trump Campaign Scores a Victory in Pennsylvania Court Over Ballot ID Deadline

A Pennsylvania judge ruled in favor of the Trump campaign today, ordering that the state may not count ballots where the voters needed to provide proof of identification and failed to do so by Nov. 9, according to a report from Fox News.

Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt said in a court order that “[T]he Court concludes that Respondent Kathy Boockvar, in her official capacity as Secretary of the Commonwealth, lacked statutory authority to issue the November 1, 2020, guidance to Respondents County Boards of Elections insofar as that guidance purported to change the deadline … for certain electors to verify proof of identification.”

Guidance issued two days before Election Day by Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said proof of identification could be provided up until Nov. 12, which is six days from the typical ballot acceptance deadline.

State law said that voters have until six days after the election, this year that was Nov. 9, to cure problems regarding a lack of proof of identification.

The US Supreme Court tied 4-4 in a ruling that mail-in ballots could be accepted three days after Election Day as long as postmarked by election day, which allowed a Pennslyvania Supreme Court on the matter allowing that decision to stand.

Following that ruling Boockvar arbitrarily decided that should extend the identification acceptance deadline as well.

Fox News also reported that this is one of several legal challenges the Trump campaign is bringing in Pennsylvania and tomorrow they are scheduled to have a hearing over thousands of ballots that they claim were improperly counted despite lacking required information.

The campaign additionally awaits action from the Supreme Court, now that it has the full amount of judges, regarding whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court acted properly in granting the three-day extension for accepting mail-in ballots.