Donald J. Trump’s campaign successfully sued election officials in Bucks County, Pa., on Wednesday, claiming that voters were improperly turned away while they were waiting in long lines for mail-in ballots.
Bucks County, a crucial battleground north of Philadelphia, had given voters until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to apply in person at county offices for a mail-in ballot. In the lawsuit, the Trump campaign said that some voters were turned away well before the deadline and left without being able to apply for and cast their ballot.
On Wednesday, Judge Jeffrey G. Trauger of the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas granted the Trump campaign’s request to extend the mail ballot application deadline. Voters now have until the close of business on Friday to apply in person.
In Pennsylvania, voters can apply for a mail-in ballot. If deemed eligible to vote, they can fill out and deliver the ballots at the county offices on the same day or return to drop them off on another day.
The lawsuit, which was jointly filed by the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and David McCormick, a Republican candidate for Senate, cited voters who were told by county officials as early as 2:40 p.m. on Tuesday that they would not be able to apply for the ballot.
“We will keep fighting,’’ Michael Whatley, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a post on social media about the ruling. “Go vote! Stay in line!”
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is often on the opposite side of Republican groups on legal challenges to voting procedures, applauded the judge’s decision and said it had received similar complaints from voters being turned away from the mail-in ballot lines in Bucks County.
“I am glad they were able to get this order so people who need to apply for a mail-in ballot can do so,” Sara Rose, the A.C.L.U.’s deputy legal director of Pennsylvania, said in an interview.
A spokesman for Kamala Harris’s campaign declined to comment on the Bucks County lawsuit.
In a statement, a spokesman for Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania’s secretary of state, who oversees voting rules and procedures in the state, said that election officials in all 67 counties were told that they needed to ensure that people who joined the lines before 5 p.m. on Tuesday received a ballot application.
Mr. Schmidt’s office said Pennsylvania election officials have received 120,000 in person requests for mail-in ballot applications, including nearly 20,000 on Tuesday alone.
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