President Trump said Saturday that “illegally received” ballots are to blame for Democrat Joseph R. Biden’s overtaking him in key states like Pennsylvania as vote-counting continued in the 2020 election.
“Tens of thousands of votes were illegally received after 8 P.M. on Tuesday, Election Day, totally and easily changing the results in Pennsylvania and certain other razor thin states,” the president said on Twitter.
Twitter flagged the president’s Saturday morning tweetstorm as potentially misleading.
Mail ballots in Pennsylvania were legally allowed to be accepted until Friday if they were postmarked by Nov. 3, Election Day.
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered Friday that state officials in Pennsylvania segregate ballots that arrived after 8 p.m. on Election Day.
State officials said they were already doing that, but Republicans had petitioned the high court to make sure that it was being done properly.
The ruling doesn’t mean the ballots won’t be counted, just that they’ll be kept separately from earlier-arriving ballots.
The outstanding mail and absentee ballots in Pennsylvania have broken heavily for Mr. Biden after the president had held a lead on election night.
Mr. Trump had warned throughout the campaign that new state laws during the COVID-19 pandemic where voters were indiscriminately sent mail ballots could lead to massive fraud.
He has said absentee voting, where people actively provide a valid reason why they can’t vote in person, is OK.
Pennsylvania allowed all registered voters to request a mail or absentee ballot without providing a reason.
The president’s talk about mail voting might have prodded some of his supporters to vote in person on Election Day instead.
Pennsylvania is among a number of states where election workers could not start processing mail ballots until the morning of Election Day.
Mr. Trump also said Saturday that people aren’t being allowed proper access to observe the vote-counting.
“Tractors blocked doors & windows were covered with thick cardboard so that observers could not see into the count rooms. BAD THINGS HAPPENED INSIDE. BIG CHANGES TOOK PLACE!” he said.
His legal team had claimed a win after a Pennsylvania court did rule that the Trump campaign could have additional access to watch the vote count.
State officials say that observers on both sides have been granted access to watch the count, which is legally required.
The Pennsylvania dispute has been over how close people can be to review the ballots.
• Alex Swoyer contributed to this report.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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