Pennsylvania court says Secretary had no authority to change deadline 2 days before Election Day

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Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar– Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

On Thursday, a Pennsylvania judge ruled in favor of President Donald Trump, ordering that the state may not count ballots where the voters needed to provide proof of identification but failed to do so by November 9.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar disagrees with the ruling.

The Trump administration says that the state had no legal reason to change the rules just days before the election other than to allow illegal votes.

Trump has maintained the entire election that if voters did not have to prove who they were by providing identification that it would lead to voter fraud. The Trump administration said that Boockvar did not have the power to change the rules.

State law said that voters have until six days after the election — this year that was November 9 — to cure problems regarding a lack of proof of identification. After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots could be accepted three days after Election Day, Boockvar submitted guidance that said proof of identification could be provided up until November 12, which is six days from the ballot acceptance deadline. That guidance was issued two days before Election Day.

The court order reads in part, “[T]he Court concludes that Respondent Kathy Boockvar, in her official capacity as Secretary of the Commonwealth, lacked statutory authority to issue the November 1, 2020, guidance to Respondents County Boards of Elections insofar as that guidance purported to change the deadline … for certain electors to verify proof of identification.”

In a previous court order, the court stated that if voters provided identification between November 10-12 that those ballots be set aside.

Now, Judge Leavitt ruled that they cannot be counted at all.

There are still thousands of votes that have yet to be counted.

For those who think this is “fake news”, you can read the court order here.