The Trump team was handed another win on Thursday after a Pennsylvania judge ruled in their favor. The ruling states that Pennsylvania may not count ballots where voters failed to provide proof of identification by Nov. 9. Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar did not have the power to unilaterally to change the state’s identification deadline.
Fox News reports:
State law said that voters have until six days after the election — this year that was Nov. 9 — to cure problems regarding a lack of proof of identification. After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots could be accepted three days after Election Day, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar submitted guidance that said proof of identification could be provided up until Nov. 12, which is six days from the ballot acceptance deadline. That guidance was issued two days before Election Day.
“[T]he Court concludes that Respondent Kathy Boockvar, in her official capacity as Secretary of the Commonwealth, lacked statutory authority to issue the November 1, 2020, guidance to Respondents County Boards of Elections insofar as that guidance purported to change the deadline … for certain electors to verify proof of identification,” Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt said in a court order.
The court had previously ordered that all ballots where voters provided proof of identification between Nov. 10 and 12 should be segregated until a ruling was issued determining what should be done with them.
On Thursday, Leavitt ruled that those ballots shall not be counted.
This is one of the multiple legal challenges the Trump team has filed in the Keystone State. The campaign is waiting for a ruling from the Supreme Court regarding if the PA Supreme Court acted lawfully in granting the three-day extension in accepting the mail-in ballots.