Pennsylvania’s Republican Party wants to overturn a court order that restricts who can volunteer as poll watchers.
The GOP wants to overturn a declaratory judgment that would restrict poll watchers from serving only in their county of residence, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit comes as GOP nominee Donald Trump has pushed for poll watchers in Pennsylvania, saying that his supporters need to go to “certain areas and watch.”
The lawsuit refers to poll watchers, who go to polling places and can challenge absentee ballot votes and watch the counting of absentee ballot votes. Generally, each party is allowed a watcher, and they are allowed to be in the polling place after it closes as long as they remain in an enclosed space, according to the GOP lawsuit.
Republicans argue that poll watchers from other counties should be able to watch places in another county, as some elections will encompass their locality, such as those for House races.
The suit also takes aim at the Democratic stronghold of Philadelphia County, where Republicans are “not a majority of registered voters.”
The lawsuit charges the order made by a lower court judge violates the U.S. Constitution, specifically the rights to due process and equal protection as voting is a fundamental right.
“The Pennsylvania poll water statute arbitrarily and unreasonably distinguishes between voters within the same electoral district by allowing some, but not others, to serve as poll watchers,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also questions the integrity of the vote, and says Philadelphia County routinely handicaps the party from “fully and fairly staff polling places with poll watchers.”
Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party responded that the lawsuit was a “publicity stunt that will be found unconstitutional.
“For the Pennsylvania Republicans to take their nominee’s conspiracy theories and thinly veiled racism to heart by trying to change the law two weeks from Election Day shows just how unfit they are to lead,” Democratic Chairman Marcel Groen said in a statement.
RealClearPolitics’ polling average shows that Hillary Clinton is up 6 percentage points over Trump. The last time a Republican won Pennsylvania in a presidential election was 1988.
