Judge hears Trump campaign’s lawsuit about poll watchers after president claimed ‘bad things happen in Philadelphia’

The city claims poll watchers are not necessary in satellite offices because votes are not recorded and counted

The Trump campaign has challenged Philadelphia's new satellite election offices in court, alleging the office was barring poll watchers.

During a court hearing, Donald Trump’s campaign lawyer Linda Kerns accused the City Commissioners, who run the election, of opening satellite election offices so the vote would happen away from the public eye.

“No one’s asking to interrupt the process,” she said. “We want to be there and shine a light on the process… Problems happen in Philadelphia, judge.”

Ms Kerns added: “The Philadelphia County Board of Elections denied, and continues to deny, the campaign its statutory right to have watchers observe the voting process.”

The comment mirrored what Mr Trump said about Philadelphia last week during the first presidential debate.

“Bad things happen in Philadelphia, bad things,” the president claimed.

He made misleading claims that poll watchers were thrown out of the satellite election offices in Philadelphia.

What Mr Trump was referring to was a woman hours before the debate who attempted to enter the election office as a poll watcher for the Trump campaign. She was barred by election officials because she lacked proper poll watcher credentials, which officials have not distributed yet to the Trump campaign.

City officials argued that satellite offices did not operate as official polling places – therefore, they said, poll watchers were not legally required under the law.

Benjamin Field, a lawyer for Philadelphia, said on Tuesday that votes are not recorded or counted in the satellite offices.

“The canvas begins at 7am on Election Day and happens going forward, and there are provisions for candidates to be observing that process,” he said, acknowledging when poll watchers could be used.

Mr Field then compared mail-in voting with satellite offices to explain poll watchers were not used in that instance.

“A person can vote that ballot immediately, if they choose," he said. “That person can vote that ballot on their kitchen table. That individual can walk to the post office and vote that ballot, or fill it out if you will … and the individual can deliver the ballot by either handing it back in person to the county board of elections or putting it in the mail.”

Despite issuing a lawsuit, the Trump campaign was unable to point to any direct election issues happening in the satellite office.

Judge Gary S Glazer did not immediately rule on the issue after hearing both sides, but he expressed scepticism about the Trump campaign’s argument against these satellite offices.

“Life is moving so fast here,” he said. “But … it just seems that if poll watchers were required, they would be in the election statute for mail-in voting.”

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Pennsylvania is allowing for any voter to vote by mail for the first time in the state’s election history. Election law now requires counties to provide mail-in ballots to voters who request them in person.

All of this comes as Mr Trump and his campaign have spread misleading information about mail-in ballots and the upcoming presidential election, heightening concerns about how voters can vote safely.

Mr Trump has claimed that mail-in ballots lead to voter fraud, but election officials have found few to no examples of fraud across the country. Critics have accused the president of using  voter suppression tactics to create distrust in the election results in case he were to lose.

The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in other states across the nation ahead of 3 November to fight new mail-in ballot laws created amid the pandemic.