Pennsylvania Courts Rejects Trump’s Efforts
The high-intensity drama surrounding election day has finally come to an end and we now have a winner with a clear majority – President-Elect Joe Biden. Among all the incidents reported across the United States, one such major fiasco reported in Pennsylvania. The Trump 2020 Campaign attempted to block more than 9,000 absentee ballots, just because they arrived after Election Day.
This came in after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the commonwealth could extend its deadline to receive mail-in ballots by up to three days after election day. The only condition was that the mail ballots should be postmarked on or before November 3.
Despite this, the Trump campaign filed a string of lawsuits to thwart every attempt made to consider these mail ballots. However, the Pennsylvania courts took a firm stand against these lawsuits and dismissed them. The judges took note of the ‘vast disruption’ and unprecedented challenges the nation continues to face during the COVID-19 pandemic. Acknowledging the fact that the United States has been one of the worst-hit nations in the pandemic, the judges upheld the extension.
Even after the courts dismissed the petitions of Trump campaigners, his attorneys filed a revised version of their lawsuit. This time, the lawsuit removed allegations stating that election officials violated the Trump campaign’s constitutional rights by limiting the ability of their observers to watch the counting of votes. The fresh lawsuit now focused on allegations that the Republicans were illegally disadvantaged because some Democratic-leaning counties allowed voters to fix errors on their mail ballots.
From the Democratic end, Kathy Bocker, Pennsylvania’s Democratic secretary of state, submitted a court filing retaliating against Trump Campaign’s lawsuit. In her filing, she reiterated her request for the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
While Trump kept pointing out the unconstitutionality of the 2020 election, Kenneth Starr, former White House independent counsel, and Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard, had different views. While Starr emphasized the need to allow the ‘litigation to run its course’, Tribe argued that ‘it was time for Trump to move on’.
Former President Barack Obama said that there was no legal basis for Trump to challenge the election results. Amidst outrage against Trump and support for the President-elect Joe Biden from people, supporters of the Democrats, former President Barack Obama and a host of others, the judges in the Pennsylvania courts took a stand and finally put all speculations to rest by finally dismissing the multiple lawsuits.
This dismissal is definitely a setback for Trump and his supporters, who were under the impression that the lawsuits filed by them showed positive developments in the states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.
