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Trump begins attacking the integrity of Pennsylvania’s elections
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Trump begins attacking the integrity of Pennsylvania’s elections

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

In the last full week before Election Day, Donald Trump turned his attention to Pennsylvania. In addition to scheduled campaign stops in Allentown and Drexel Hill, he began making unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the state, a clear signal of Trump’s planned post-election strategy to declare victory no matter what.

“Pennsylvania is cheating and being caught, on a scale rarely seen before. REPORT FRAUD TO THE AUTHORITIES. Law enforcement must act, NOW!” he wrote further TruthSocial Wednesday.

In the previous days, Trump made specific claims about two counties in the state, claiming that officials in York and Lancaster counties received thousands of fraudulent documents, such as ballots. He ended his post by calling for legal intervention. “WHAT IS HAPPENING IN PENNSYLVANIA??? Law enforcement must do their job, immediately!!! WOW!!!”, he he wrote Tuesday.

The Philadelphia Applicant reports that Lancaster County officials flagged batches of 2,500 voter records for irregularities. The forms, sent by a canvassing organization, are also not official ballots, as Trump has claimed. As for York County, the County Commissioner confirmed that they received “thousands of election materials from a third-party organization” and that they are currently reviewing these submissions with plans to report any fraud they discover.

Trump also targeted Bucks County, Philadelphia’s crucial suburban county, as voters faced long lines as they tried to submit their on-demand ballots before Tuesday’s deadline. Unlike other states, Pennsylvania does not have one the typical advance voting process. In addition to the usual mail-in voting procedure, voters have the option of requesting a mail-in ballot in person, filling it out, and submitting it during a visit to the county election office. Voters who tried it at the Bucks County Clerk’s Office on Tuesday, the last day the option was available, waited hours in lines that wrapped around the block.

Although officials said CBS News that every waiting voter in line by 5 p.m. received a ballot request, the Trump campaign claimed the voters were ultimately turned away.

During Trump’s rally in Allentown on Tuesday, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said the campaign plans to take legal action against the county. “I’m proud to tell you tonight that the Trump-Vance campaign just filed a huge lawsuit against Bucks County for denying us voters,” he said, according to local NBC affiliate.

Pennsylvania was a target for Trump’s debunked claims of voter fraud during his 2020 campaign, but none of the lawsuits that looked into the state’s election process that cycle were ultimately settled. Governor Josh Shapirowho served as the state’s attorney general during that time, rejected the Trump campaign’s allegations and said the former president was trying to revive the same strategy from the previous campaign.

“Now they’re trying to use the same playbook to foment chaos, but hear me out on this: We’re going to have free and fair, safe and secure elections again — and the will of the people will be respected,” Shapiro. said.