Dans cet État clé de la présidentielle, la campagne du président sortant demandait à ce que soit annulé le décompte de quelque 682.479 bulletins reçus par courrier ou déposés en avance. Elle arguait entre autres qu’ils auraient dû être annulés, faute d’avoir été comptabilisés en présence d’un observateur notamment à Pittsburgh et Philadelphie. C’est précisément ce point qui a été retiré de sa plainte.
Pour autant cette dernière reste toujours bien en cours sur un autre argument: des comtés, à majorité démocrate, auraient illégalement permis à des électeurs de corriger après coup des “erreurs” dans leur bulletin envoyé par la poste. Des “erreurs” comme une absence de signatures ou une enveloppe non scellée qui auraient de fait conduit à l’annulation de leur bulletin.
Cette fois, le nombre de votes concernés par la plainte est largement plus petit et ne devrait pas changer le résultat. […]
[Rudy Giulani est l’avocat de Donald Trump]
SOURCE pour la version remaniée de la plainte (15 novembre)
D. Uneven Treatment of Watchers and Representatives at the County Election Boards’ Canvassing of Ballots.
132. In every instance where an absentee or mail-in ballot is opened and canvassed by a county election board, poll watchers and canvass representatives are legally permitted to be present. See Election Code Section 1308(b), 25 P.S. § 3146.8(b) (“Watchers shall be permitted to be present when the envelopes containing official absentee ballots and mail-in ballots are opened and when such ballots are counted and recorded.”); see also 25 P.S. § 3146.8(g)(1.1) and (g)(2).
133. Poll watchers and canvass representatives serve the important purpose of assuring voters, candidates, political parties, and political bodies, who may question the fairness of the election process, that the same is conducted in compliance with the law, and is done in a correct manner which protects the integrity and validity of the vote and ensures that all elections are free, open, fair, and honest.
134. Defendants have not allowed watchers and representatives to be present when the required declarations on envelopes containing official absentee and mail-in ballots are reviewed for sufficiency, when the ballot envelopes are opened, and when such ballots are counted and recorded. Instead, watchers were kept by security personnel and a metal barricade from the area where the review, opening, and counting were taking place. Consequently, it was physically impossible to view the envelopes or ballots.
135. In Centre County, the central pre-canvassing location was a large ballroom. The set-up was such that the poll watchers did not have meaningful access to observe the canvassing and tabulation process of mail-in and absentee ballots, and in fact, the poll watchers and observers who were present could not actually observe the ballots such that they could confirm or object to the validity of the ballots.
136. In Philadelphia County, poll watchers and canvass representatives were denied access altogether in some instances.
137. In Delaware County, observers were denied access to a back room counting area. After a court-ordered injunction, the poll watchers and canvass representatives were finally allowed in the back room counting area on November 5, 2020, to observe, but for only five minutes every two hours. During the allowed observation time in the back room counting area, the observers witnessed tens of thousands of paper ballots.
138. Other Pennsylvania Counties provided watchers with appropriate access to view the ballots as required by Commonwealth law. However, Defendants intentionally denied the Trump Campaign access to unobstructed observation and ensure opacity, denying Plaintiffs and the residents of Pennsylvania the equal protection of the law.
139. With particular regard to the Philadelphia County Board of Elections, the Board would not permit the Trump Campaign’s watchers to be within 6 feet of “all aspects” of the pre-canvassing process in direct contravention of Commonwealth Court Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon’s November 5, 2020 Order “requiring that all candidates, watchers, or candidate representatives be permitted to be present for the canvassing process pursuant to 25 P.S. § 2650 and/or 25 P.S. § 3146.8 and be permitted to observe all aspects of the canvassing process within 6 feet.” See In Re: Canvassing Observation, 11/05/2020 Order, 1094 C.D. 2020 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2020).
140. The Order required the Philadelphia Board of Elections to comply and allow watcher to be within 6 feet by 10:30 a.m., but at 10:35 a.m. the workers were denied entry. Instead, the Board sent all of the workers on a break (previously workers received breaks on a rolling basis), and the Commissioners met offsite. Two hours later the workers returned, and the watchers were allowed to be within 6 feet, but within 6 feet of the first row of counters only. Within a short period of time, the workers began working at other rows that were well-beyond 6-feet, rendering it impossible for watchers to observe the rows that were more than 25-feet beyond the area where watchers were allowed. Moreover, during the course of the entire period, the workers repeatedly removed ballots, sometimes over 100 feet away, to do something with them, which the Trump Campaign’s watchers were unable to observe.
141. Other Counties in the Commonwealth afford watchers the right to be present – that is, to be able to meaningfully view and even read – when official absentee and mail-in ballots are reviewed, being opened, counted, or recorded as required by 25 P.S. § 3146.8(b).
142. It is estimated that 680,770 ballots were processed by the Allegheny and Philadelphia County Boards of Elections when no observation was allowed.
143. A shocking number of mail-in ballots have inexplicably appeared in counties since the November 4 ballot reports. For instance, in Delaware County, the county’s Wednesday, November 4 report indicated that Delaware County reported it has received about 113,000 mail-in ballots and counted approximately 93,000 voted ballots. On the next day, November 5, the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s 4:30 report reflected that Delaware County had received about 114,000 ballots. Several hours later, the Delaware County solicitor reported to an observer that the County had received about 126,000 mail-in ballots and counted about 122,000. As of Sunday, November 8, 2020, the Department of State’s website reflects that the County has counted about 127,000 mail-in ballots. Plaintiffs have received no explanation for where the additional 14,000 voted ballots came from, when they arrived, or why they are included in the current count
[Note du contributeur : il est à noter qu’il est actuellement impossible de retomber sur le tweet de l’avocat de Donald Trump en tapant son contenu dans la recherche twitter. A cause d’un filtre spécifique il faut aller directement sur sa page twitter pour y avoir accès]
