PA Supreme Court Says Philly Policy On Vote Observation Legal

PENNSYLVANIA — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Tuesday afternoon that Philadelphia did not violate state election laws in its conduction of the observation of ballot counting on Election Day. The 5-2 vote was cast at the same time as a separate federal court hearing was underway over the Trump campaign's broader election lawsuit, which makes related allegations.

The decision Tuesday overturns the lower Commonwealth Court's earlier ruling that the Philadelphia Board of Elections had not allowed observers close enough access. In the majority decision, justices wrote that while the "mechanics of the canvassing process" could be revisited, there was no basis to discount votes, as a lawsuit had argued.

"We note that these provisions (in the Election Code) do not set a minimum distance between authorized representative and canvassing activities occurring while they 'remain in the room,'" Justice Debra Todd wrote in the majority opinion.

That lower court's ruling had been one of the Trump campaign's few legal victories in the state thus far, as they've filed numerous cases at both the state and federal level in Pennsylvania in an attempt to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

During the separate hearing in federal court Tuesday, Rudy Giuliani, who took over the Trump team's legal case after multiple groups of lawyers vacated the case, argued that observers in Philadelphia "needed binoculars" to observe the counting process.

RELATED: Giuliani Joins PA Election Lawsuit As More Trump Lawyers Back Out

In a dissenting opinion to Tuesday's state Supreme Court ruling, Chief Justice Thomas Saylor argued video evidence from the Philadelphia Convention Center showed that observers were kept up to 35 yards away.

Todd's majority opinion further clarifies that the Election Code, as it is written, only states that observers may be present as witnesses, and that there is no legal expectation for them to be able to "audit ballots."

Saylor added that the lower Commonwealth's Court initial ruling, that the metal barriers keeping observers at this distance be removed, should be respected, as local courts have expertise in election cases specific to their jurisdictions.

Saylor was joined in his dissent by Justice Sally Updyke Mundy.

The proximity of watchers to the actual ballot counting process has been an issue raised by the GOP consistently since Election Day, and was the crux of Giuliani's arguments in federal court Tuesday. It's unclear exactly what impact this new state ruling will have on the federal case, though the existing federal suit has already had several of its most aggressive claims pared down or withdrawn entirely.