A Pennsylvania appellate court granted the Trump campaign the right to observe ballot counters in Philadelphia after campaign officials said they were prevented from overseeing the process.
Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski made the announcement from Philadelphia where they had a team of 15 election observers waiting to enter the vote-counting facility.
“This is very important because, as you know, they have kept us away,” Bondi said. Trump campaign officials complained that they were blocked by a barricade and security officers from entering the room where ballots were being tallied or allowed in the room at a 50 to 100-foot distance.
The order allowed the president’s reelection campaign to immediately begin watching election workers count votes from 6 feet away, in accordance with public health rules.
President Donald Trump described the appellate court ruling as a “big legal win.”
The campaign will have one person behind every vote-counter, Lewandowski said. Democrats are expected to try to appeal the ruling.
Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller told reporters in a press call that the campaign is expecting to take additional legal action to ensure its observers can look back at all the votes counted before the Thursday ruling. Miller added that the campaign was “very confident that we will be winning Pennsylvania.”
The Trump campaign lost an earlier appeal to a Pennsylvania court complaining one of its observers was not allowed to read the writing on a mail-in ballot. A judge struck down the complaint saying that the individual’s role was to observe, not audit. (FOX26NEWS)