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The current US president, whom I imagine ought to know about the US constitution has tweeted:

700,000 ballots were not allowed to be viewed in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh which means, based on our great Constitution, we win the State of Pennsylvania!

As a foreigner, I am not as well acquainted with the US constitution as the US president.

Can someone tell me what he is referring to?

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Mawg says reinstate Monica
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    Similar question on Politics.SE: [To what is Trump referring when he says “700,000 ballots were not allowed to be viewed in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh”?](https://politics.stackexchange.com/q/60202/10072) – Glorfindel Nov 14 '20 at 13:56
  • I missed that one. Feel free to mark this as a dupe (+1) – Mawg says reinstate Monica Nov 14 '20 at 14:10
  • Hey, close guy, "`This question might not challenge a claim, or the claim identified might not be notable`" O;rly? I certainly see a challenge to a claim, and if it is not "`notable`", I can't imagine what might might be. Are you, perchance, allowing your political persuasions to override how this site *ought* to work? Could you explain your logic for closing? Doing so might help other potential posters in future. – Mawg says reinstate Monica Nov 14 '20 at 17:24
  • The Constitution says "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress" -- or in other words, states have full authority over the procedure for Presidential elections. This has been upheld by the Supreme Court. – Mark Nov 14 '20 at 20:43
  • You said to close it ... "cross site dupe" is not an option. –  Nov 15 '20 at 01:36
  • And, no, it's not really a claim either. Just legal/political interpretation. There's two other sites for that. –  Nov 15 '20 at 01:39

1 Answers1

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It means that the vote counts of those 700,000 ballots weren't allowed to be observed by some Republicans (they were denied entry, because they didn't register upfront and/or were misbehaving), and by Trump's reasoning, those votes should not count. Those votes were mail-in ballots in urban areas, and most of them went to his opponent Joe Biden. Without counting those votes, he might have had the majority of votes in Pennsylvania.

However, the law that governs this is not the Constitution, but in this case Pennsylvania Statutes Title 25 P.S. Elections & Electoral Districts § 3146.8. Canvassing of official absentee ballots which the National Conference of State Legislatures summarizes as

Absentee ballot processing and counting

  • Partisan observers are permitted to be present when absentee and mail-in ballot envelopes are opened, and when the ballots are counted and recorded (25 P.S. § 3146.8).

(you'll have to click Pennsylvania (PA) on the map to view it)

Glorfindel
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    The AP article states monitors "are not allowed to interfere with the conduct of the election and are typically required to register in advance" but does not list any incidents of Republicans being denied entry for these reasons as claimed in this answer. – Michael Theriot Nov 14 '20 at 15:57
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    In the link, it is claimed "observers were being kept too far away to be able to see if signatures matched." But that's not their job: theirs is ensure that the people processing the ballot papers are doing it in the proper way. – Weather Vane Nov 15 '20 at 19:55