A federal judge put on hold Sunday President Donald Trump’s lawsuit seeking to ban Pennsylvania counties from using drop boxes to collect mail-in ballots.
U.S District Court Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan said the federal lawsuit will not move forward until state court cases about voting move forward or conclude, whichever is first.
“After carefully considering the arguments raised by the parties, the Court finds that the appropriate course is abstention, at least for the time being,” Ranjan wrote. “In other words, the Court will apply the brakes to this lawsuit, and allow the Pennsylvania state courts to weigh in and interpret the state statutes that undergird Plaintiffs’ federal- constitutional claims.”
Along with the ban to using dropboxes, the lawsuit wanted to bar counties from accepting absentee ballots that arrive without a security envelope.
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The suit also asks that poll watchers be allowed to observe in-person voting places even if they do not reside in the county. That would mean any Pennsylvania voter could serve in that role at any polling place in the state.
According to CNN, it is a setback for Republicans where there are several ongoing cases that could determine how the battleground state’s voters cast ballots this election. Ranjan was appointed by Trump, and the federal courts in some instances can be considered friendlier to conservative interests.
Pennsylvania is one of the few states where Trump has sued to make voting by mail more difficult, making this case a closely watched one.
“The President’s fight against the problems of Pennsylvania’s radical new vote-by-mail system has been running on parallel tracks in state and federal court for some time,” Justin Clark, Trump 2020 deputy campaign manager, said in a statement to CNN.
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