In a blow to
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, a U.S. judge on Thursday upheld
a Pennsylvania state law that could make it difficult for his supporters to
monitor Election Day activity in Democratic-leaning areas.
Trump has
repeatedly said that the Nov. 8 presidential election may be rigged, and has
urged supporters to keep an eye out for signs of voting fraud in
Philadelphia
and other heavily Democratic areas.
Democrats
worry that could encourage Trump supporters to harass Hispanics, African-Americans
and other minority voters in a state that could determine whether Trump or his
Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, wins the presidency.
Trump faces a
significant hurdle in Pennsylvania because state law requires partisan poll
watchers to perform their duties in the county in which they are registered to
vote.
That could
make it difficult to recruit monitors in places like Philadelphia, where
Democrats outnumber Republicans by a ratio of eight to one. The city has
120,000 registered Republicans and 1,685 voting locations.
The
Pennsylvania Republican Party sought to suspend that requirement so that poll
monitors could come from anywhere in the state, which would enable them to
bring in supporters from suburban and rural areas where Trump has stronger
support.
But U.S.
District Judge Gerald Pappert denied the request, writing that it would be too
disruptive to change the law less than a week before Tuesday's vote.
"Were the
Court to enter the requested injunction, poll watchers would be allowed to roam
the Commonwealth on election day for the first time in the Election Code's
seventy-nine year history - giving the Commonwealth and county election
officials all of five days' notice to prepare for the change," he wrote.
The Republican
Party of Pennsylvania did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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