At the same time President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer was arguing for 1.5 million votes to be thrown out from the elections in Pennsylvania, that state’s Supreme Court rejected claims from the Trump Campaign that Republicans had not been allowed close enough to properly observe vote counting in Philadelphia.
“In sum, we conclude the Board did not act contrary to law in fashioning its regulations governing the positioning of candidate representatives during the precanvassing and canvassing process, as the Election Code does not specify minimum distance parameters for the location of such representatives,” the court’s majority wrote.
The Trump Campaign has argued - without any evidence to back up the charge - that Republican observers were kept far away, allowing Democrats to engage in huge amounts of election fraud.
The PA Supreme Court has rejected the Trump campaign's challenge to poll-watching in Philadelphia. Among other things, it says the campaign's own evidence shows Republican poll-watchers were able to stand close enough to see what was going on. pic.twitter.com/0FC2kUwH5x
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) November 17, 2020
The headline that the PA Supreme Court threw out the Trump campaign's observer-access claim by a 5-2 vote is misleading; the dissenters did not *agree* with Trump; they concluded that the dispute is moot.
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) November 17, 2020
It's really unanimous:https://t.co/hhnUEs2IO5https://t.co/GTcjRnoBJq
In arguments Tuesday afternoon before a federal judge in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Rudy Giuliani personally argued the Trump Campaign case, calling for 1.5 million ballots to be thrown out in Pennsylvania.
Giuliani said the allegations were part of ‘widespread nationwide voter fraud’ committed by Democrats, though he offered no new evidence to back up the charge, as he argued that Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania were ‘well known’ for voter fraud.
Lawyers for the state of Pennsylvania said Giuliani was throwing out accusations which weren’t even part of the Trump Campaign’s complaint before the court, adding that there was no information about the number of votes in specific counties, or specific voters who supposedly had been harmed.
“This just is disgraceful,” said Mark Aronchick, arguing for the Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) Board of Elections.
An animated Mark Aronchick, counsel for the Allegheny County Board of Elections, mocks Rudy Giuliani for basing his assertions "on something that happened in 1960"
— Aaron Katersky (@AaronKatersky) November 17, 2020
Two weeks after the elections, the court action in Pennsylvania was a reminder of the uphill fight for President Trump to contest his loss to President-Elect Joe Biden.
While Giuliani was making his arguments, Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) was on the Senate floor for the first time since the election - getting congratulations from GOP Senators who so far have refused to say that Biden is the winner.
