In battleground Pennsylvania, election officials are “bracing themselves” for a barrage of lawsuits

In the battleground state of Pennsylvania, which experts say could determine the winner of the battle presidential raceElection officials have been preparing for months for millions of residents to cast their long-awaited votes. Early voting is available in every county, with mail-in ballots available for voters to cast in person or by mail.

But those election officials have also been quietly preparing for another possibility: a flood of lawsuits that could flood the courts on Election Day and beyond.

“We are the largest swing county in the largest swing state, so we are very aware that there are a lot of eyes on us,” Bob Harvie, the Democratic vice chairman of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners, said in a speech. interview with ABC news.

Bucks County – a suburb outside of Philadelphia where former President Donald Trump narrowly lost by less than a percentage point in 2016 and by about 5% in 2020 – has been sued 11 times since the 2020 election, according to Harvie.

Now, Harvie said, they’re “getting ready” for a repeat.

They have reconnected with their attorneys starting in 2020, Harvie said, and have made sure to document everything they do.

“If we do everything the right way and document everything, any lawsuit that comes our way – no matter how frivolous – will fail,” Harvie said.

A number of pre-election challenges have already made their way to the Pennsylvania courts as part of a aggressive push by the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign’s “election integrity” program. This week, the RNC issued its most sweeping challenge yet, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to ban Pennsylvania voters from casting provisional ballots on Election Day if their ballots had previously been rejected due to the lack of a secrecy envelope — a case they reportedly has the potential to impact thousands of mail-in ballots in critical condition.

Josh Shapiro, the outspoken governor of the state who was considered to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate before she chose Tim Walz, recently said, “I have no confidence” that Donald Trump will certify the results of the 2024 election. will not question. election.

“I will tell the good people of this Commonwealth and this country that we are prepared for whatever Donald Trump throws at us, and we will ensure that the will of the people is protected,” Shapiro said while appearing on ABC . This week” on Sunday. On Tuesday, Trump said at a news conference that there were “bad spots” in Pennsylvania, but that the election was “going very well” so far.

An aide to Shapiro told ABC News that their legal team has been preparing for the election and potential lawsuits since the “first day” Shapiro took office nearly two years ago.

“Our attorneys stand ready to uphold Pennsylvania election law and defend voters’ rights,” the aide said.

Pennsylvania saw a wave of lawsuits in the wake of the 2020 election, as part of efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his loss. Conspiracy theories circulated rampantly after the state failed to count enough votes on election night to determine the winner — circumstances exacerbated by the large number of mail-in ballots resulting from the election. corona pandemic.

Pennsylvania law requires that election workers cannot perform so-called “pre-canvassing” of mail-in ballots — the process of preparing mail-in ballots for counting by opening them and removing the secrecy envelope — until 7 a.m. to delete. on election day. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit think tank, this means that Pennsylvania, unlike other states, cannot jump-start mail-in voting — which contributed to the 2020 slowdown.

The state didn’t know final results until the Saturday after Election Day in 2020 — and that law hasn’t changed for the 2024 election. However, Shapiro said the state has made some changes to speed things up, which he said will lead to faster results.

“We’ve made one concrete change since the last time we had a presidential race, and that is once the counties start counting – it’s 7 a.m. on Election Day – they can’t stop anymore, which means they have to have to go,” Shapiro said. said. “Last time, some counties stopped, went home, slept, drank some, you know, water and food, and came back. This time they’ve made plans to go all the way, so I expect it’ll be sooner than what we had last time.

For many, the specter of 2020 still hangs over their heads as they enter the final sprint toward the 2024 elections.

“I didn’t see 2020, but I understand it shocked everyone with what happened,” said Colleen Frens, who took over as county attorney in Chester County in 2021.

Chester County – an area in the suburbs of Philadelphia that contains the New York Times The county — said to be “increasingly critical of Democrats statewide” — did not “bear the brunt” of the legal challenges in 2020, Frens said, but the county still reached a point in recent years where election issues were almost consuming all its legal resources.

“We’re actually always waiting for the next shoe to drop. It’s a huge commitment of financial and human resources,” Frens said.

In total, the county has spent nearly half a million dollars on election disputes since 2020, officials told ABC News.

Recently, they’ve built relationships with outside attorneys should they need them on election night, and started a weekly meeting with neighboring counties to discuss what they’re seeing on the ground and how they can share legal resources.

“We have set up more formal assistance so that we can be there when we need it, and we don’t have to rush,” Frens said. “These are very important matters and you often only have twelve hours to prepare a brief, so we need to engage the resources of larger firms that have legal staff to assist with that.”

“We have to pay for it, but it works,” she said.