Former President Donald Trump and his allies celebrated on Wednesday after a Democrat-appointed judge handed them an election legal victory in Pennsylvania.
Judge Jeffrey Trauger earlier Wednesday sided with the Trump campaign and issued a one-page order extending the deadline for voters in Bucks County to apply in person for mail-in ballots for the November 5 election. The order extended the deadline from 5 p.m. Tuesday to 5 p.m. Friday.
Trump applauded the ruling from Trauger, who was appointed to his seat in 2016 by Tom Wolf, then-Democratic governor of Pennsylvania.
“BREAKING NEWS IN BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA,” Trump wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Attached to the post was a photo reading: “Early in-person mail-voting extended through November 1st.”
Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, said she was “really happy” Trauger extended the deadline to apply for mail-in ballots.
“We pushed back on and filed the lawsuit,” she said on Fox News. “And we’re really happy to see that they have extended it.”
“If you’re not allowing people to go vote who are there standing in the line, you really are disenfranchising people,” she added. “You are, in some ways, suppressing their ability to vote.”
Trump’s running mate, U.S. Senator JD Vance of Ohio, hailed the ruling as a “massive victory for election integrity in Pennsylvania.”
“We have to swamp the vote and ensure every legitimate vote is counted,” he wrote on X.
The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit Wednesday morning requesting the deadline be extended after photos and videos circulated online showing long lines outside election offices in Bucks County on the last day to apply for mail ballots. The Guardian reported that security guards cut the lines off and told some voters they wouldn’t be able to apply.
Bucks County said in a post on X that “due to a miscommunication,” some voters who were in line “were briefly told they could not be accommodated.” But, the county added, all voters who were in line by the 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline were able to apply for mail-in ballots.
The Republican National Committee joined Trump’s lawsuit, as did the campaign of Republican U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick of Pennsylvania.
Trauger’s decision to extend the deadline to apply for mail-in ballots was crucial in Pennsylvania, a battleground state with 19 electoral votes that could determine the winner of the election next week.
Bucks County, in particular, is seen as a bellwether. Earlier this year, the number of registered Republicans in the county surpassed registered Democrats for the first time since 2007, according to Pittsburgh’s public radio station.
As of Monday, there were 206,520 registered Republicans in Bucks and 200,767 registered Democrats.
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