Oct. 10 (UPI) — A federal judge on Saturday dismissed a Trump campaign lawsuit against mail-in voting drop boxes in Pennsylvania.
President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign said the drop boxes for mail-in ballots were unconstitutional and risked voter fraud due to lack of guidance or mandates that they have security guards to man them.
But U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Ranjan disagreed in a 138-page opinion.
He said the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue because the harm is “speculative.”
“The court finds that the election regulations put in place by the General Assembly and implemented by defendants do not significantly burden any right to vote,” Ranjan wrote. “The are rational. They further important state interests. They align with the Commonwealth’s elaborate election-security measures. They do not run afoul of the United States Constitution. They will not otherwise be second-guessed by this court.”
In addition to the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and several other Republican congressional candidates were named as plaintiffs in the suit, which targeted Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar.
Plaintiffs challenged Boockvar’s guidance to elections boards not to reject a mail-in ballot solely on signature analysis and Pennsylvania’s rule that poll watchers be residents of the same county.
The defendants’ lawyer, Kevin Greenberg, lauded the decision.
“The court looked and saw the obvious — there was no fraud and no constitutional case,” Greenberg said. “Time after time the courts are ruling on behalf of voters — and million of Pennsylvanians are already voting. Now is the time to end the silly litigation and let voters have their say.”
Trump 2020 general counsel Matthew Morgan vowed to appeal.
“We disagree with the Western district’s decision on unsecure drop boxes, and President Trump’s team will immediately file an appeal to the Third Circuit to continue our fight to protect every Pennsylvania voter,” Morgan said.
