Federal judge issues remain at Trump’s challenge of balloting in post in Pennsylvania

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge on Sunday ordered a stay in the trial of President Donald Trump of the re-election campaign that sought to ban dropboxes and other changes in Pennsylvania’s post-balloting procedures.

The November 3 election promises to be the nation’s biggest test by postal ballot and the two major parties are locked in separate lawsuits that will shape how millions of Americans will vote this fall.

The Republican president has repeatedly said without proof that an increase in e-mail ballots would lead to an increase in fraud, even though Americans have long voted by mail.

There is perhaps no more consistent court case than the one in Pennsylvania, which Trump won in 2016 by less than 1 percentage point and is considered essential to his efforts for re-election.

J. Nicholas Ranjan, U.S. District Judge for Western Pennsylvania, said the federal case brought by the Trump campaign would not proceed until similar lawsuits in state courts have been completed unless they have been delayed.

Justin Clark, Trump’s deputy campaign manager, said the judge’s decision recognized the issue as affecting both state and constitutional issues.

“The federal court will simply reserve its judgment on this in the hope that the state court will resolve these serious issues and ensure that every Pennsylvania person counts their vote – once,” Clark said.

The Trump campaign seeks to ban ballot drop boxes, which were deployed in the state’s last primary state and which allow voters to submit absentee ballots and bypass the U.S. Postal Service.

The campaign claims the dropboxes were not explicitly authorized in a two-party bill passed by the state legislature last year, which expanded the state’s post-vote procedures.

The package also wants the abolition of the residency requirement for polling officers so that every voter in Pennsylvania could serve in that capacity at any polling station in the state.

The judge, a Trump nominee, said the suit involved state laws and he would first refer them to state courts.

“The court will apply the brakes on this lawsuit, and allow Pennsylvania state courts to weigh and interpret the state statutes that underlie the plaintiffs’ federal constitutional claims,” ​​Ranjan said.

The Trump campaign says the ballot box invites fraud. The federal judge asked the campaign to provide evidence of actual fraud, but the campaign refused, arguing that it did not have to do anything to win the case.