Politics

Appelate Commonwealth Court Sides With Trump Campaign On Absentee Deadline Extension

(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania delivered President Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) a massive win Thursday night, ordering late absentee ballots missing identification to be segregated and not counted.

“The RNC is doing everything in our power to ensure that these kind of issues are resolved and the letter of the law is followed,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in an official statement. “We will not stand idly by as Democrats use shady and illegal tactics to tip the scales in their favor and against the will of the American people. We will continue to fight for election integrity every step of the way until the results up and down the ballot are final.”

The GOP sought an injunction stop voters from providing missing proof of identification on or after Nov. 9 and to stop the county board of elections from counting any absentee and mail-in ballots of voters whose proof of identification was not received or verified by Friday. (RELATED: Trump Falsely Claims To Have ‘Won’ In Georgia And Pennsylvania As Votes Are Still Being Tallied)

The court ruled that the board of elections should keep ballots that get their identification issues cured after Nov. 9 separate from ballots for which identification was received and verified before Nov. 9. The segregation of these ballots is in addition to ballots being segregated if they were received after 8:00 p.m. Election Day and before 5:00 p.m. Nov. 6 as litigation plays out as to whether the mail-in ballot extension is unconstitutional.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar issued guidance ordering ballots that arrive by Nov. 6 to be counted, including ballots postmarked on or before Election Day, as well as ballots missing a postmark. Her last minute switch up came days after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to expedite the case on late ballots on the understanding that Boockvar would issue guidance ordering county ballots to segregate ballots received after Election Day.