GOP asks Bucks County court in Pennsylvania for additional day of one-stop mail voting after line dustup

 The Trump campaign and other Republicans are seeking one additional day of so-called “on-demand” mail voting in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in a lawsuit filed against the Bucks County Board of Elections for allegedly turning away voters who showed up to cast ballots that way on Wednesday, the last day the service is offered.

The lawsuit was filed after former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee seized on the removal of a Trump supporter from an elections office in a separate Pennsylvania county — Delaware County — amid a dispute over whether voters there were wrongly being told to leave the line for applying and casting mail ballots.

Republicans labeled the incident as “voter suppression,” but Delaware County officials pushed back on their characterizations of the episode, with a statement Tuesday that said the woman was removed because she was “disruptive, belligerent, and attempting to influence voters waiting in line.”

Linda Kerns, an attorney who represents the RNC and Trump’s campaign, told CNN on Tuesday that her team had received “dozens” of reports from voters, including from Bucks County, about issues related to requesting a mail-in ballot in person. Kerns said they included claims that election officials were telling voters to “go home” or go to the polls on Election Day rather than stay in line and request a mail-in ballot, echoing claims in the newly filed lawsuit.

The new lawsuit provides the declarations of three individuals who say they were turned away at Bucks County election sites Tuesday, despite arriving well before the 5 p.m. ET deadline.

A spokesperson for Bucks County declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Voting in Pennsylvania: The state does not offer early in-person voting, but does allow voters to apply for and receive mail ballots in person at county election offices. The deadline to do so was Tuesday at 5 p.m. ET. But the lawsuit alleges that Bucks County election officials turned away voters who were in line before 5 p.m., against guidance from state election officials that said that anyone who was in line by the deadline should be allowed to obtain a mail ballot that way.

The option to cast an “on-demand” mail ballot allows voters to apply for and receive mail ballots in one transaction at an election site, but it was not meant as a stand-in for in-person early voting, which Pennsylvania does not offer. Nevertheless, political campaigns have encouraged voters to use the process.