The Trump campaign filed a federal lawsuit Monday in Pennsylvania, saying it’s fighting for election security by opposing the state’s move on mail-in-voting ahead of November’s election.
“Free and fair elections are essential to the right of Americans to choose through their vote whom they elect to represent them,” the campaign’s lawsuit read. “Upending our entire election process and undermining ballot security through unmonitored by-mail voting is the single greatest threat to free and fair elections. To be free and fair, elections must be transparent and verifiable.”
The filing comes after Pennsylvania officials made changes to the state’s absentee voting system, expanding the ability to vote by mail.
Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, signed a law last year allowing people to vote by mail without requiring an excuse such as not being present in the jurisdiction on election day.
The president’s campaign said the law led to absentee ballots being returned to locations such as shopping centers, parks and retirement homes instead of to county boards of elections.
The campaign also asserts the governor’s executive order he issued the day before the primary election, which extended absentee ballot deadlines, earlier this month changed requirements for some counties but not others, causing chaos and burdened voters’ rights.
Allegheny County issued duplicate mail-in ballots and Philadelphia County stopped counting ballots on June 4, two days after the primary day. It began counting ballots again on June 9, according to the court filing.
“The continued enforcement of arbitrary and disparate policies and procedures regarding poll watcher access and ballot return and counting poses a severe threat to the credibility and integrity of, and public confidence in, Pennsylvania’s elections, so long as absentee or mail-in voting is continued to be extensively used,” the complaint said.
The campaign is asking the court to issue an injunction, requiring poll watchers to be present where all ballots are cast, even absentee ones.
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