President Donald Trump’s campaign isn’t done fighting to appeal a rejected decision to toss about 2,000 mail-in and absentee votes from Bucks County.
On Friday, the campaign filed an emergency petition with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court asking them to review the case, which has previously been shot down.
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Attorney Linda Kerns, who represents the Trump campaign, said the previous court decisions did not meet the rules of the election code and “violates the plain and ordinary meaning of the section’s mandatory language and creates serious equal protection concerns for voters throughout the Commonwealth.”
Bucks County reported 398,797 ballots cast for the general election out of 487,986 registered voters. Democratic candidate Joe Biden won the presidential election by earning 17,345 more votes than Trump.
The campaign claims that the Bucks County Board of Elections deviated from the state election code and guidance in counting the roughly 2,000 votes that had minor errors or defects. Some of the petitions singled out by the Trump campaign had unsealed privacy envelopes.
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“Every illegal vote that is counted in an election undermines democracy and disenfranchises an American citizen who cast a legal vote. And when such illegal votes are counted in some counties and not others, federal equal protection concerns are implicated,” the lawsuit reads.
At a hearing last month at the Bucks County Justice Center, Board of Elections made the case that the mistakes were minor and no ill-intent was discovered. Attorneys for the Democratic National Committee, Bucks County Democratic Committee, and PA House Democratic Committee argued the ballots should be counted.
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Bucks County Judge Robert Baldi ended up dismissing the claims after hours of testimony. In his decision, he said dismissing ballots due to unsealed privacy envelopes would be an “injustice.”
Baldi did note in his decision that voters and county election boards across the state could benefit for “clear precise legislation” from lawmakers in Harrisburg regarding ballots with minor problems for future elections.
As part of the case, Trump’s campaign said in court that there was no evidence of fraud, misconduct, impropriety, and undue influence in Bucks County’s election. Local Democrats and Republicans have made similar statements that there was no fraud.
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Federal, state and local law enforcement and federal homeland security officials have reported no evidence of widespread fraud in the state or nation.
Trump’s campaign and some allies have pushed unproven claims of widespread fraud, while also stating in court that many of the court cases had nothing to do with fraud.
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