A U.S. district judge has shut down President Donald Trump’s plan to curtail mail-in voting in Pennsylvania by suing the state in federal court ahead of the November election.
Judge Nicholas Ranjan of the US District Court in the Western District of Pennsylvania, ruled on Sunday that Trump’s federal lawsuit against the Secretary of the Commonwealth over the use of drop boxes, poll watching and other voting processes should be put on hold, while state court cases about voting move forward, CNN reports.
The decision is a setback for Republicans where there are several ongoing cases that could determine how the battleground state’s voters cast ballots in this election. Ranjan was appointed by Trump, and the federal courts in some instances can be considered friendlier to conservative interests.
“After carefully considering the arguments raised by the parties, the Court finds that the appropriate course is abstention, at least for the time being. 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,” Ranjan wrote Sunday.
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Last week, Ranjan told Trump and the Republicans they needed to provide evidence of fraud in Pennsylvania voting this year because Democrats had sought it. However, they failed to provide any evidence to the court.
