Trump campaign retreats from key claim in Pennsylvania suit

President Donald Trump's campaign is withdrawing a central part of its lawsuit seeking to stop certification of election results in Pennsylvania, where Democrat Joe Biden beat Trump to capture state and help win White House. Ahe of a Tuesday hearing in case, Trump's campaign dropped allegation that hundreds of thousands of mail-in and absentee ballots - 682,479, to be precise were illegally processed without its representatives watching.

campaign's slimmed-down lawsuit, filed in federal court on Sunday, maintains aim of blocking Pennsylvania from certifying a victory for Biden in state, and it maintains its claim that Democratic voters were treated more favorably than Republican voters.

Associated Press on v. 7 called presidential contest for former Vice President Joe Biden, after determining that remaining ballots left to be counted in Pennsylvania would t allow Trump to catch up. Trump has refused to concede. remaining claim in lawsuit centers on disqualifying ballots cast by voters who were given an opportunity to fix mail-in ballots that were going to be disqualified for a technicality.

lawsuit charges that “Democratic-heavy counties” violated law by identifying mail-in ballots before Election Day that h defects — such as lacking an inner “secrecy envelope” or lacking a voter's signature on outside envelope — so that voter could fix it and ensure that ir vote would count, called “curing.” Republican-heavy counties “followed law and did t provide a tice and cure process, disenfranchising many,” lawsuit said.

Cliff Levine, a lawyer representing Democratic National Committee, which is seeking to intervene, said it isn't clear how many voters were given chance to fix ir ballot. But, he said, it is minimal and certainly fewer than margin — almost 70,000 — that separates Biden and Trump.

“ numbers aren't even close to margin between two candidates, t even close,” Levine said.

In any case, re is provision in state law preventing counties from helping voters to fix a ballot that contains a technical deficiency. Levine said lawsuit does t contain any allegation that somebody voted illegally. “y really should be suing counties that didn't allow (voters) to make corrections,” Levine said.

“ goal should be making sure every vote counts.” Pennsylvania's top election official, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat, responded in court on Sunday, asking judge to dismiss case. State courts are proper jurisdiction for subject, and lawsuit contains “plausible claim for relief on any legal ory,” state's lawyers wrote.

More than 2.6 million mail-in ballots were reported received by counties, and re has been report by state or county election officials or a prosecutor of fraud or any or problem with accuracy of count. A key me of Trump and his supporters has been ir claim that Philelphia — a Democratic bastion where Trump lost bly h t allowed Trump's campaign representatives to watch mail-in and absentee ballots processed and tabulated.

However, Republican lawyers have ackwledged in a separate federal court proceeding that y h certified observers watching mail-in ballots being processed in Philelphia. Gov. Tom Wolf's ministration has said that ballot watchers from all parties h observers throughout process and that “any insinuation orwise is a lie.” 

(Im Credits: AP)