Chester County Named In Trump's Latest Election Lawsuit

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — Chester County is named among targets of a GOP-backed lawsuit challenging the legality of the 2020 election, days after Joe Biden was declared the projected winner of Pennsylvania and the U.S. presidency.

Chester is was one of seven counties in Pennsylvania named Monday in the Trump campaign's latest filing, which aims to stop the Pennsylvania Department of State from certifying the final results.

The suit resurfaces allegations that state and Democratic county officials broke the law. The claims, which chiefly surround mail-in ballots, are backed by no hard evidence in the suit. No actual cases are described of the alleged illegal activities by elections officials.

Biden defeated Trump soundly in Chester County. With a small number of provisional and other ballots still to be counted in the county, Biden earned 179,065 votes to Trump's 126,844. Biden's lead was a full 17 percentage points; Biden had 57 percent of Chesco's vote and Trump 40 percent.

The lawsuit not only asks that the counties accused be prohibited from certifying the results of the General Election, but it sues for the plaintiff — Donald J. Trump for President — to receive payment of "reasonable costs and expenses of this action, including attorneys' fees," paid by the defendants. The defendants the Boards of Elections of the seven counties named and Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar.

Neighboring Montgomery and Delaware counties were also named in the lawsuit. Philadelphia, Allegheny, Centre, and Northampton counties are named in the suit as well.

"We believe our process is sound and permissible under the Election Code," Kelly Cofrancisco, a spokesperson for Montgomery County, said in response to the filing.

The lawsuit says the mail-in ballot system and the "rush to count mail ballots and ensure Democrat Joe Biden is elected" created a "two-track" system of voting that favored mail-in voters because in-person voting required signatures and surveillance that mail-in voters were not subject to.

It also claims that mail-in ballots that were not correctly completed were tampered with and those voters given a chance to correct their ballots, but only in heavily Democratic areas. There are no actual incidences of this pointed to in the lawsuit.

The Public Interest Law Center said it has filed a petition to intervene in the federal case naming the seven counties. "We are asking to oppose the Trump campaign as parties in the case," said Jonathan McJunkin, communications associate for the center. Among the parties represented are Common Cause PA, the League of Women Voters PA, NAACP-PA, and the Black Political Empowerment Project.

"The voters have spoken," said Terrie Griffin, co-President of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania. "The votes are being counted. It is time to end these baseless attempts to overthrow the will of the people. The League joined this case to defend voters' voices in the democratic process. We must now allow that process to play out unimpeded."

Trump's lawsuit says ballots were mailed to voters who did not request them. It also claims that election workers were observed failing to allow voters who showed up with a mail-in ballot to spoil that ballot and vote in person. Again, no specific instances are offered for either accusation.

Chester County officials said they cannot comment on legal matters. Of Chester County's 311,456 ballots cast, 161,935 were in-person and 149,521 were mail-in ballots.

This isn't the first time a heavily Democratic county in the Philadelphia area has been brought to court by Republicans since Election Day. U.S. Congressional candidate Kathy Barnette, who lost to incumbent Democrat Madeleine Dean in the 4th District election, filed a suit on Election Day over the county "pre-canvassing" ballots in Montgomery County.

Barnette's lawsuit was met with skepticism by a federal judge. It alleged that the county had broken the law in allowing voters to correct "naked" ballots and other issues on Election Day, ensuring that their vote was counted. That suit was withdrawn just days later, with lawyers for Barnette citing similar pending litigation.

The fixing of errors on ballots is just one of the oft-cited gripes reiterated in the new suit filed Monday. It also claims the three-day deadline extension for mail-in ballots, upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, is illegal. See details here.

Read a related story: Trump Team Files New PA Election Lawsuit: 5 Things To Know