By Matt Fair

Law360 (October 2, 2020, 1:51 PM EDT) -- After warning of "bad things" happening in Philadelphia and amid a broader barrage of questionable election fraud allegations, President Donald Trump's reelection campaign filed suit, claiming poll watchers had been improperly denied access to new satellite election offices in the city for voters to request, complete and return mail-in ballots.

The campaign said in a Thursday complaint in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas that the city's Board of Elections had run afoul of state election law by blocking poll watchers from accessing the sites on grounds that they did not constitute official polling places.

"The Trump campaign — and any campaign — has a statutory right to have watchers observe the voting process and ensure voting sites are being run properly and all rules are applied equally," Trump campaign general counsel Matthew Morgan said in a statement. "What are these officials hiding? We will not stand by while Democrats skirt the rules and illegally hide the voting process from the public."

The complaint comes after Trump, referring to the situation with the poll watchers, warned that "bad things happen in Philadelphia" during his combative debate performance with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday night.

It also comes amid a blitz of attacks from Trump suggesting, without offering evidence, that expanded mail-in voting efforts in Pennsylvania would lead to widespread voter fraud.

The Board of Elections opened the doors this week on seven out of a planned 15 new early voting sites across the city as part of a major statewide expansion of mail-in voting enacted last year.

That expansion is now being put to the test as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has sent requests for mail-in ballots in Philadelphia and beyond skyrocketing.

As the early voting sites opened, the campaign said that staff with the Board of Elections refused to allow its poll watchers access to the locations because they were not formal polling places.

According to correspondence between the campaign and the board, the poll watchers were told that the sites instead constituted Board of Elections offices.

While the campaign said the board offered to let campaign surrogates tour the satellite offices to see how they operate, the lawsuit argues that state election law allowed poll watchers access to any location provided for voting, and to observe any "computation or canvassing" of votes.

"The absence of poll watchers at polling places where registration and voting are occurring threatens the integrity of the vote in elections and denies voters the constitutional right to free and fair public elections under the United States and Pennsylvania constitutions," the complaint said.

Nick Custodio, a spokesman for the city commissioner's office, stood by the board's rationale for blocking the poll watchers when contacted Friday.

"The satellite offices are Board of Election offices that provide voter services to residents of Philadelphia for registration, absentee and mail-in ballots," he said. "The satellite offices are not polling places. Poll watcher certificates have not been issued for any individuals for anything other than poll-watching activities on Election Day at polling places. Individuals who are not seeking to receive services from a satellite office are not permitted to be there for other purposes."

The Trump campaign is represented by Ronald Hicks Jr. and Carolyn McGee of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP and Linda Kerns of the Law Offices of Linda A. Kerns LLC.

Counsel information for the commissioners was not immediately available.

The case is Donald J. Trump for President Inc. v. Philadelphia County Board of Elections et al., case number 200902035, before the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

--Editing by Orlando Lorenzo.

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