The Trump campaign filed a federal lawsuit Monday opposing Pennsylvania’s move to expand mail-in voting ahead of November’s elections, saying it is fighting for election security.
“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 residents to vote by mail without requiring an excuse such as not being in the jurisdiction on Election Day.
The president’s campaign said the law led to absentee ballots in the battleground state 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, which extended absentee ballot deadlines and was issued the day before the primary election this month, changed requirements for some counties but not for others, causing chaos and hurting voters’ rights.
Allegheny County issued duplicate mail-in ballots and Philadelphia County stopped counting ballots on June 4, two days after 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.
Wanda Murren, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, said they will review the lawsuit once it is served to the state officials.
“We will not offer further comment about the suit itself, as we do not comment on pending litigation,” she added.
Marc E. Elias, a lawyer and founder of Democracy Docket, which advocates for Democrats’ policies and voting rights, called the filing a “voter suppression lawsuit” on Twitter, saying it’s “aimed at disenfranchising those who vote by mail and bolstering their voter challenge program.”
The president has continued to express worry about abuses of mail-in voting, saying last week during a Fox News town hall in Wisconsin that it could be the “biggest risk” to a fair outcome in November.
Many states are promoting the vote-by-mail option to avoid long lines at the polls and combat the spread of the coronavirus.
Studies have found that voter fraud is relatively rare compared to the millions of ballots cast, but it does happen.
The conservative Heritage Foundation think tank compiled a list of 1,285 proven instances of voter fraud, including more than a hundred cases of fraudulent use of absentee ballots.
The absentee ballot fraud spanned dozens of states, including Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
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