A Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court judge ruled Thursday that mail-in ballots across the state that were not verified by Monday cannot be counted.
The decision by Commonwealth Court President Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt is not expected to have a major impact on the state’s election results as the Associated Press reported it affects only a portion of the approximately 10,000 ballots that arrived to local election offices after election night at 8 p.m.
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Under a previous court order, those ballots were to be seperated and not counted in counties’ unofficial election results due to separate litigation.
Leading up to the judge’s order on Thursday, the president’s campaign made the case that ballots not verified by Monday, which is guaranteed in the state election code, should not be counted. The Pennsylvania Department of State had extended the deadline to verify some ballots until Thursday, but the court disagreed.
Leavitt ruled that Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar “lacked statutory authority” to extend the deadline date past Monday.
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
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The decision could be appealed.
As of Thursday night, former Vice President Joe Biden had more than 58,000 votes more than President Donald Trump in the Keystone State.
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Biden is the projected winner of the national election, while Trump has declared he won and claims there was widespread fraud. In court and in the media, the Trump campaign has been unable to provide evidence of widespread fraud more than 10 days after polls closed.
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