The Trump campaign has been unable to provide evidence of mail-in voter fraud in response to a request by a federal judge in Pennsylvania, and doubted the president’s repeated assertion that post-in votes against him ” rigged “could be.
A lawsuit filed by the campaign to block the use of drop-off ballot boxes – where voters can submit their post-vote ballots to be picked up by election officials – had argued that their use would increase the risk of voter fraud in the battlefield state increase.
But when asked by Judge J Nicholas Ranjan to provide evidence, the campaign submitted hundreds of pages of documents that did not identify cases of post-in fraud.
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Submit the 524-page court, shared with The independent, instead included numerous news reports about voter fraud without mail, which was discovered and prosecuted, along with requests by the campaign for information from various counties in the state.
“The discovery produced by the Trump campaign unsurprisingly succeeded in proving voter fraud or electoral fraud in Pennsylvania. They also did not provide evidence that misconduct occurred in the primary election or that so-called voter fraud is a regular problem in Pennsylvania,” said Suzanne Almeida, of the Common Cause Pennsylvania Voting Law Group, which is a party to the lawsuit.
“This lawsuit, and specifically the vague allegations of abuse and questions about how our new vote-by-mail process works, are part of an attempt to undermine the integrity of our elections or raise questions about the outcome in November,” she added.
A senior officer of Trump campaign told The independent that they do not have to prove fraud to win the case, but rather “vote dilution” – where votes could be counted twice.
‘It should not be controversial to protect every vote of every person and ensure that it counts – and only counts once. Any amount of fraud is too much fraud. We are following all court orders, as we did in this case, and we are confident in this court case, ”the official said.
“The evidence of fraud we are producing in our response, coupled with the legal flaws inherent in the Democrats’ policy of allowing double voting and non-standard dropboxes, clearly proves that voting is diluting,” she added. .
But the apparent failure to provide substantial evidence of e-mail ballot in the case underscores repeated claims by Donald Trump that they could be used to rig the election against him. The president has been raging against post-in-ballots and ballot-box boxes almost every day in recent weeks, despite the vote by the mail itself.
“Messages are very dangerous for this country because of cheaters. They are going to collect them. They are fraudulent in many cases. They have to vote, “he said earlier this month, without proof.
At the same time, his campaign has filed several states to block the expansion of voting by mail. In the Pennsylvania lawsuit, the campaign followed up on the Secretary of State and 67 state elections, in a major legal test of the claims.
Pennsylvania has introduced a number of voting facilities in the past year to expand mail-in voting, including the introduction of dropboxes across the state. In other states where the boxes are used, it is not uncommon for half of all emails sent through them to be delivered.
The ballot drop-off boxes are likely to see greater use in the presidential election due to the continuing threat of the coronavirus and concerns about delays in the postal service.
The package, which is backed by the Republican National Committee and Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania Glenn Thompson, Mike Kelly, John Joyce, and Guy Reschenthaler, seeks to ban voting back to a location other than the Electoral Bureau.
Filed in late June, it claims state officials in the state have sacrificed the sanctity of personal votes at the altar of uncontrolled post-voting and have exponentially improved the threat that fraudulent or otherwise unjustified votes will will be cast and counted in the next general election. ”
It states that allowing the use of dropboxes “allows illegal absenteeism and mail-in voting, ballot voting and other fraud to be prevented and / or undetected, and will result in dilution of valid getten votes.”
In response to the suit, Democrats and voting rights groups filed a motion asking the Trump campaign to provide evidence of voter fraud to substantiate their candidacies, which the judge gave.
“The court finds that instances of voter fraud are relevant to the claims and defense works in this case,” District Judge Ranjan wrote. “Plaintiffs will produce such evidence in their possession, and if they have none, they will steal so much.”
The campaign then responded with the 524-page document. A hearing will take place later next month to hear the evidence.
Advocates of suffrage have warned the lawsuit in Pennsylvania is an attempt by Trump campaign to undermine the democratic process and suppress the vote. In a state that the president won in 2016 with only 44,000 votes – as 0.7 percent of the vote – the stakes are high.
The outcome of this case could also affect similar legal battles taking place across the country over the expansion of post-in votes.
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