sundin13 said:
My post was in reference to this lawsuit, which I assumed to be the one she was referencing: https://cdn.donaldjtrump.com/public-files/press_assets/2020-11-09-complaint-as-filed.pdf Specifically, look at points 13 and 14. It largely argues that there was a different set of procedures for in person and mail in voting which created a "two tiered" system. Imo, this is complete BS. As you said, everyone had the ability to vote by mail or in person, and in neither instance is any vote being held above another. It seems virtually every court is basically ignoring the wider request to throw out the mail in ballots and have instead focused on smaller subsections of ballots (and similarly ruling against Trump, ex https://wgntv.com/news/judges-rule-against-6-trump-campaign-lawsuits-to-invalidate-nearly-9000-pennsylvania-ballots/ ) |
Ok I see. It is indeed a privileges and immunities claim, but it's also a fourteenth amendment issue.
Where I screwed up is that I forgot that the 14th Amendment also has a privileges and immunity clause. But, in my defense, I'm pretty sure that when the issue is state or municipal residence, that is typically considered an issue under the article IV clause. I'm guessing that they couldn't use that here because they are dealing with a federal right, and not a state right.
Their 14th Amendment claim, as I understand it, is that even though everyone in PA could request an absentee ballot, the process was handled differently in different counties, so not all citizens have the same rights. Also, they're making a claim that by allowing a process that, according to them, leads to a chance of fraud, the privilege of voting is violated. Then there's also a 14th Amendment due process claim that because fraudulent votes may have been allowed in, that effectively strips voters of the right "to vote without the taint of fraud or intimidation".
Essentially the argument is that certain counties may have done things improperly with mail in voting, and maybe that allowed fraudulent votes, and because of that, everyone's vote becomes suspect, and that's unfair to all the people who voted non fraudulently.
To put it more succinctly, they are manufacturing suspicion of fraud, and then complaining that the people were deprived of the right to vote without suspicion of fraud. That's an impressive display of mental gymnastics. Look at around 156 for the 14th amendment conversation.
Of course, it's a nonsensical argument. The Courts are not going to invalidate thousands of votes with no evidence of fraud. And they're not going to literally disenfranchise 700K people because the rest of the voters may be tainted by potential fraud. There would also be the issue of why this claim was not brought in a more timely manner. And, that mail in voting has been around for 100+ years and been considered constitutional.
Trump was reportedly upset that he didn't have a dream team of lawyers like Bush did in 2000, but there's a reason for that... Bush had an actual case.








