Trump Complains About Pennsylvania Supreme Court Decision After It Tosses Out His Campaign’s Lawsuit

Earlier this morning, President Donald Trump complained about the Pennsylvania Supreme Court‘s 5-2 decision to toss out his campaign’s lawsuit alleging that officials in Philadelphia did not allow Republican observers into counting rooms.

The court ruled that election officials did not violate state law by maintaining at least 15 feet of distance between observers and those tasked with counting ballots.

“In sum, we conclude the Board did not act contrary to law in fashioning its regulations governing the positioning of candidate representatives during the pre-canvassing and canvassing process, as the Election Code does not specify minimum distance parameters for the location of such representatives,” the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled. “Critically, we find the Board’s regulations as applied herein were reasonable in that they allowed candidate representatives to observe the Board conducting its activities as prescribed under the Election Code. Accordingly, we determine the Commonwealth Court’s order was erroneous. Thus, we vacate, that order and reinstate the trial court’s order.”

The ruling dealt a significant blow to the Trump campaign and is likely to hurt their chances of contesting the results of the November 3 election in federal court.

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“They didn’t even allow Republican Observers into the building to watch. A terrible insult to our Constitution!” the president claimed. Given the facts, his tweet was soon flagged under Twitter’s civic integrity policy, which prohibits individuals from disseminating false information about elections.

The decision came the same day  Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani filed for court permission to appear for the Trump campaign in its lawsuit to block certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state of Pennsylvania. Giuliani claimed during a hearing that “the Democratic machine” kept observers away from the counting rooms and asserted the move was part of “widespread nationwide voter fraud.”

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. A joint statement from the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees said that they found “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” The statement went on to refer to the 2020 general election as “the most secure in American history.” 

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.