All To Avoid The Inevitable

BREAKING: Trump campaign files PA lawsuit, alleges “'two-track' system resulted in voters being held to different standards depending on how they chose to exercise their right to vote." Read filing here: https://t.co/Iiml27lJUv pic.twitter.com/5SdkCiDqTp

— Carrie Sheffield (@carriesheffield) November 9, 2020

This is how mail-in systems work.

When I've voted in Texas, I've always had to sign the roll (after my identity has been verified with the records) before I could cast a ballot.  When I mailed-in a ballot, I signed the outside of the "security envelope," the inner envelope that seals the ballot and is itself sealed in a mailing ballot.

Funny no challenge to that system is being raised in Texas.

This is a hair-brained attempt to reach the equal protection basis of Bush v. Gore, which turned on the question of how ballots were being assessed ("hanging chads" were a problem only in Florida counties that used that ballot system) for voter intent in the recount.  So is this:

The Trump campaign argument is that voters in some counties were allowed to "cure" their ballots while voters in other counties were not. But the U.S. election system is decentralized and voters have different rules depending where they live.

— Hilary Beaumont (@HilaryBeaumont) November 9, 2020

The desperation is absolutely palpable.  And, of course, if this prevails, all ballots in PA would be dismissed, not just ballots in the Presidential election.  No court is going to canvass each and every ballot and only exclude votes for Presidential candidates.  Besides, if they did (and could do that by the December 14 deadline), it would simply remove Pennsylvania's 20 electors from consideration.  In that case, the total number of electoral votes possible would be 518, and Biden would only need 260 to win.  Biden has 290 as I type (and likely would add Georgia's 16).  Losing PA would drop him to 270, but it wouldn't raise Trump by 20.  Even if it did, Biden still wins (with or without Georgia).

Even if the Court resurrects Bush v. Gore in Pennsylvania, it wouldn't do Trump any good.