Twitter flags Trump tweet on Pennsylvania ballot extension
LOS ANGELES - Twitter flagged a tweet by President Donald Trump on the eve of Election Day in which he called a state Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania “VERY dangerous.”
The tweet was blocked Monday by a disclaimer from the social media company and must be clicked on by users to be viewed.
“The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one. It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!” Trump wrote in the tweet.
The disclaimer from Twitter covering Trump’s tweet reads, “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”
A spokesperson for the company said that a warning was placed on the Tweet for “making a potentially misleading claim about an election.”
“This action is in line with our Civic Integrity Policy, and as is standard with this warning, we will significantly restrict engagements on this Tweet,” the spokesperson added.
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Trump was apparently referring to a decision by Pennsylvania’s top court to allow a three-day extension for counting mailed ballots received after the election.
Trump and his reelection campaign have signaled that they will pursue an aggressive legal strategy to try to prevent Pennsylvania from counting mailed ballots that are received after Election Day.
Trump said the high court's pre-election refusal to rule out the extension was a “terrible decision.” He also said that once the polls close Tuesday, “we’re going in with our lawyers.”
The matter could find its way to the Supreme Court, especially if those ballots could tip the outcome in the battleground state.
President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at the Kenosha Regional Airport on November 02, 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The three-day extension was ordered by Pennsylvania's top court. The Supreme Court refused to block it, but several conservative justices have indicated they could revisit the issue after the election.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat, already has told local elections officials to keep the late-arriving ballots separate, but also to count them. She acknowledged that a post-election court fight could change that.
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The legal issue is whether the extension ordered by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, relying on voter protections in the Pennsylvania constitution, violated the U.S. Constitution. The argument advanced by Republicans is that the Constitution gives state legislatures — not state courts — the power to decide how electoral votes are awarded, including whether absentee ballots received after Election Day can be counted.
Roughly 20 states allow for late-arriving ballots, but Pennsylvania's Republican-controlled legislature did not authorize an extension, even with the huge increase in mailed ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic. Similar ballot-deadline extensions have resulted in court fights in Minnesota and North Carolina.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.