Federal judge orders Trump campaign to provide evidence of Pa. voter fraud

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Thursday ordered the Trump campaign and the Republican party to produce evidence of vote-by-mail fraud in the state.

District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan called on President Donald Trump's re-election campaign to produce evidence supporting his claims of voter fraud in the state by Friday after it sued to ban dropboxes for mail ballots at county elections offices, CNN reproted.

"The Court finds that instances of voter fraud are relevant to the claims and defenses in this case," Ranjan wrote.

The Democratic Party and the Sierra Club wrote to the court on Wednesday requesting information and documents detailing how the Republican Party and the Trump campaign determined the possibility of fraud, particularly related to the use of dropboxes, ballot collection and mail-in ballots.

Lawyers representing the Democrats wrote that the Trump campaign "should not be permitted to raise such spectacular fraud-related claims, particularly in this national climate."

The Trump campaign, along with the Republican National Committee, three U.S. Representatives from Pennsylvania and two Republican voters who sought to serve as poll watchers filed the lawsuit against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and the boards of elections for all 67 of the state's counties in June.

The suit alleges that dropboxes were used unconstitutionally in the state's June 2 primary, as election officials make decisions outside of what is allowed by laws and county elections officials set up different policies throughout the state, violating constitutional guarantees of equal protection.