Tag: Pennsylvania

Trump campaign loses appeal over Pennsylvania race

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President Trump’s campaign on Friday lost its appeal in the legal battle to contest Pennsylvania’s already-certified election results. 

A federal appeals court in Philadelphia upheld a previous ruling that dismissed the campaign’s case to prevent Pennsylvania from certifying its election results showing former Vice President Joe Biden winning the state. 

The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that “the Campaign’s claims [of widespread voter fraud in the state] have no merit,” according to the court’s opinion. Continue reading.

Pennsylvania certifies Biden victory

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Pennsylvania officials on Tuesday certified the commonwealth’s election results showing Joe Biden won the presidential election in the state over President Trump.

The Pennsylvania Department of State said that Secretary of State Kathy Bookvar (D) certified the results after receiving certifications from all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties certified on Monday.

Gov. Tom Wolf (D) tweeted that he “signed the Certificate of Ascertainment for the slate of electors for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris” as required by law. The final vote total showed Biden ahead of Trump by 80,555 in the commonwealth. Continue reading.

Trump campaign appeals dismissal of Pennsylvania election challenge

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President Trump’s campaign on Sunday filed a notice of appeal after a federal judge dismissed Trump’s attempt to block the certification of votes in Pennsylvania.

Attorneys for the president’s campaign, including Rudy Giuliani, submitted an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit following Judge Matthew Brann’s scathing ruling Saturday rejecting Trump’s case.

Brann, a judge for the U.S. Middle District of Pennsylvania, issued an order permitting Pennsylvania to move forward with certifying its election results and dismissing Trump’s lawsuit that alleged, without evidence, widespread voter fraud.  Continue reading.

Trump’s latest Pennsylvania lawsuit asks judge to just declare Trump the winner

A new complaint asks a judge to throw out 1.5 million votes based on a lie that Trump observers were not allowed to witness ballot counting.

The Trump campaign on Wednesday amended its lawsuit in Pennsylvania yet again, this time asking a judge to simply toss out 1.5 million votes in the state and declare Donald Trump the winner — adding back in the lie that Trump campaign observers were not allowed to witness ballot counting, and thus all of the ballots should be thrown out.

“Upon information and belief, a substantial portion of the approximately 1.5 million absentee and mail votes in Defendant Counties should not have been counted, and the vast majority favored Biden, thus resulting in returns indicating Biden won Pennsylvania,” the campaign wrote in its amended lawsuit.

The claim is a lie, as observers were allowed in to witness ballot counting in the state. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said as much in a 5-2 ruling on Tuesday. Continue reading.

Pennsylvania judge has heard enough from Rudy Giuliani — cancels scheduled evidentiary hearing

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A federal judge based in Pennsylvania has heard enough from Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.

Judge Matthew Brann of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on Wednesday announced (PDF) that he was formally canceling an evidentiary hearing that had been scheduled to take place on Thursday.

“The evidentiary hearing previously scheduled for Thursday, November 19, 2020 is CANCELLED,” the judge wrote in his order, which also denied a motion by Trump attorney Linda Kerns to sanction opposing counsel for a supposedly “threatening” phone call. Continue reading.

Federal judge in Pennsylvania dismisses Trump campaign lawsuit on voting, calling fraud claims ‘speculative’

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A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania seeking to block the use of drop boxes as receptacles for mail ballots, require ballot signatures to match voter registration records and allow nonresident poll watchers at polling places, ruling that the president’s claims of potential fraud were “speculative.”

In a sharply worded opinion issued Saturday morning, U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan of the Western District of Pennsylvania ruled that the Trump campaign has no standing because of the lack of evidence of actual fraud.

“While Plaintiffs may not need to prove actual voter fraud, they must at least prove that such fraud is ‘certainly impending,’ ” Ranjan wrote. “They haven’t met that burden. At most, they have pieced together a sequence of uncertain assumptions.” Continue reading.

The famously secluded Amish are the target of a Republican campaign to drum up Pennsylvania votes for Trump

Washington Post logoMANHEIM, Pa. — In 2016, when more than 6 million Pennsylvanians voted in the presidential election, the state’s 20 pivotal electoral votes were decided by a margin of less than 45,000 voters.

Pennsylvania is home to more than 75,000 Amish people, and most who are eligible don’t vote.

For two Republican operatives, those two numbers together add up to one major opportunity — to convince the traditionally reluctant Amish to come out to the polls, where their votes might be tremendously influential. Their project, which started in 2016 with billboards and newspaper ads urging Amish people to vote for Donald Trump, goes by the name Amish PAC.

View the complete October 9 article by Julie Zauzmer on The Washington Post website here.

A Tale of Two Visits

The following article by Kenneth T. Walsh was posted on the U.S. News and World Report website March 16, 2018:

Reactions in Pennsylvania and California show where the presidency stands.

Marine One leaving the White House. Credit: Agusta-Westland

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP ventured outside Washington twice during the past week – once to a pro-Trump congressional district in western Pennsylvania and once to the anti-Trump venue of California, a state he lost by 4 million votes to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The reactions he got in each place served as a summary of where his presidency stands. He appears to be losing his grip on some of his once die-hard supporters because of policy flip-flops and erratic behavior. And he has yet to appeal to the many voters who can’t abide him and who are troubled by his bluster and his inconsistent but mostly conservative agenda. Continue reading “A Tale of Two Visits”