A Pennsylvania judge ruled in favor of the Trump campaign Thursday. The judge ordered the state not to count ballots where the voters needed to prove identification and failed to do so by Nov. 9.
State law said that voters have until six days after the election. This year it was changed to Nov. 9 to cure problems regarding a lack of proof of identification. After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots could be accepted three days after Election Day, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar submitted guidance that said proof of identification could be provided until Nov. 12 — six days from the ballot acceptance deadline. That guidance was issued two days before Election Day.
“[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,” Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt said in a court order.
The report notes that the judge’s ruling was in line with the Trump campaign’s argument that Boockvar did not have the authority to extend the identification deadline.
Leavitt ruled on Thursday that those ballots accepted after the Nov. 9 deadline shall not be counted.
Subscribe to the Daily Newsletter
