At 12:30 am, the president who never seems to sleep, tweeted about the PA Appeals Court’s decision to deny the Trump administration’s request to allow poll watchers to monitor satellite election offices.
In his tweet, President Trump asked @OANN (One America News Network): “How terrible is this?” adding, “We are just seeking a fair vote count. This can only lead to very bad things. Bad intentions much??? Disgraceful!!!”
“A Pennsylvania Appeals Court turns down the Trump Administrations request for Poll Watchers to monitor satellite election offices.” @OANN How terrible is this? We are just seeking a fair vote count. This can only lead to very bad things. Bad intentions much??? Disgraceful!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2020
President Trump was referring to a decision made on Friday by a Pennsylvania appeals court that refuses to let his campaign or representatives of the campaign monitor people registering to vote or voting early in satellite election offices in the critical swing state Trump won by a small margin in 2016.
On October 8, 2020, The Philadelphia Inquirer touted the 17 new satellite offices available to residents for “early voting” in neighborhoods across Philadelphia.
City elections officials plan to open 15 new satellite elections offices where voters can request, receive, fill out, and submit a mail ballot in one stop. People can also visit the offices to register to vote, request a mail ballot to take home and submit later, or to drop off a completed mail ballot.
Two permanent elections offices, one in City Hall and one on Columbus Boulevard at Spring Garden Street will also be options for voters
According to Law.com – Although President Donald Trump has encouraged efforts to monitor voting taking place at Pennsylvania’s satellite elections offices—famously saying during the last presidential debate that “bad things happen in Philadelphia“—a state court judge has determined that campaign-affiliated poll watchers have no right to monitor off-site voting before Election Day.
The Keystone reports – A three-judge Commonwealth Court panel in 2-1 decision upheld a Philadelphia judge’s rejection of the Trump campaign’s lawsuit against the heavily Democratic city, which Trump has called for his supporters to watch closely.
Earlier this month, Judge Gary Glazer ruled that Pennsylvania law does not allow such representatives to observe in election offices, a stance echoed by election lawyers, city officials, and the state’s top elections official.
Separately, two Pittsburgh-area Republican congressional candidates are advancing a similar legal effort as Trump’s campaign in Pittsburgh’s federal court, targeting satellite election offices in Allegheny County. Their request for a temporary restraining order was denied Friday by U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan.
Trump claims he will lose to Democrat Joe Biden in Pennsylvania only if Democrats cheat. Democrats counter that Trump’s campaign is trying to suppress votes and intimidate voters.
Barack Obama’s AG, Eric Holder threw out the 2008 voter intimidation case against the radical hate group, New Black Panthers, who stood outside a Philadelphia polling place with weapons.
The Philadelphia Inquirer– Here’s how a Justice Department complaint filed in January 2009 described those events:
Samir Shabazz, head of the Philadelphia chapter of the New Black Panther Party, and party member Jerry Jackson were “deployed” in front of a Fairmount Avenue polling place in “military-style uniforms.”
Shabazz brandished a nightstick. He “pointed the weapon at individuals, menacingly tapped it [in] his other hand, or menacingly tapped it elsewhere.” Both Shabazz and Jackson leveled “racial threats and racial insults at both black and white individuals,” and they “made menacing and intimidating gestures, statements, and movements directed at individuals who were present to aid voters.”
The two men, the party, and its national chairman were named in the complaint. Since none responded, the case was all but won.
However, in May 2009, the Justice Department dropped claims against all but Shabazz, who was merely ordered not to take a weapon to a Philadelphia polling place through 2012.