Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has filed a lawsuit against Bucks County, Pennsylvania, alleging “voter suppression” after voters were turned away early.
Voters said they were turned away at the Bucks County elections office as early as 2:30 p.m., even though the Pennsylvania Department of State said that if they were in line at 5 p.m., they had the right to request a ballot by mail. .
“This is a direct violation of Pennsylvanians’ right to cast their ballot, and all voters have the right to STAY in line,” the campaign announced in a statement.
“This is voter suppression from the left,” the campaign message continued. ‘We will fight for every legal vote in Pennsylvania. Go vote and stay in line!’
It is the second case in recent days of election problems in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania after 2,500 “fraudulent” voter registrations were found in Lancaster County.
Later on Wednesday, the county granted an extension allowing early voting to continue until 5 p.m. on Friday.
People wait in line outside the Bucks County government building to request an on-demand mail-in ballot on the last day to request one in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, October 29, 2024.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump gestures at a campaign rally at the PPL Center on October 29, 2024 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
The lawsuit claims that the Bucks County Board of Elections ‘denied voters the ability to vote by mail on demand, guaranteed by law.’
It goes on to describe “multiple reports” of voters being turned away due to “long lines.”
Trump also expressed concerns about voter suppression during a campaign rally Tuesday night.
“They got caught cheating in Lancaster County, they got caught in York… they weren’t going to do it until right after the election, but we had a whistleblower who turned them in… they cheat like hell and it’s a damn shame” . and we are going to fix it,’ he continued.
“In Pennsylvania, we haven’t seen it anywhere else yet,” he said during a campaign rally in Allentown.
He was referring to a criminal investigation in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where election officials flagged 2,500 voter registration forms for possible fraud.
Republican officials called it an organized effort but also said it had been contained.
It related to batches of records that had been released en masse, and some contained false names, suspicious handwriting, mismatched signatures or incorrect address information.
Donald Trump gestures at a campaign rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on October 29.
Two other Pennsylvania counties “received similar requests” and were notified for review, Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams said at a news conference. She declined to name the other counties.
“It appears to be an organized effort at this point,” said Adams, an elected Republican. ‘But of course it is an ongoing investigation. And we’ll see who exactly participated in it and how far it goes.”
At the news conference, Lancaster Commissioner Ray D’Agostino, a Republican who chairs the elections board, said: “The fact is, we’ve contained this. This is not right. It’s illegal. It’s immoral. And we found it and “We’re going to take care of it.”
Pennsylvania and its 19 Electoral College votes are crucial for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris to win the 270 needed to secure the White House.
The Keystone State was also one of the centers of unfounded allegations of voter fraud in 2020.
It took four days to finish counting the ballots to declare President Joe Biden the winner of that race because of county requirements in the state.
In 2020, results were not known until 11 a.m. local time on the Saturday after Election Day.
In 2020, Trump repeatedly pointed out irregularities and claimed fraud as part of his effort to overturn the election results. The effort included repeated statements about the risks of fraud before the election, and his allies directed many of their complaints against Pennsylvania.
Trump regularly speaks at his campaign rallies about a plan to “flood the vote” to quell what he calls Democratic voter fraud.
Still, Trump stressed that “the elections themselves are going very well,” by which he was referring to how his campaign to regain the White House is doing.