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President Donald Trump Vows To Send Lawyers To Challenge Mail-In Votes In Pennsylvania After Election Day

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- President Donald Trump says he will be challenging votes that come in after Tuesday night in Pennsylvania.

The Keystone State holds the key to the presidency. And raising the specter of potential fraud, President Trump is taking aim at Pennsylvania's plan to count ballots received after the polls close, saying he'll be sending lawyers here tomorrow night.

RELATED STORY: U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Pa. Republicans' Request To Block Extended Ballots Past Nov. 3

"As soon as that election is over, we're going in with our lawyers. But we don't want to have Pennsylvania, where you have a political governor, a very partisan guy ... We don't want to be in a position where he's allowed to, every day, watch ballots come in. Gee, if we could only find 10,000 more ballots," Trump said

But Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro told KDKA that "it's ludicrous and it's political speech on the eve of an election."

Shapiro says ballots postmarked before 8 p.m. on Tuesday and received before 5 p.m on Friday will be counted. The policy was upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and Shapiro says it will withstand the president's legal challenges.

"If the litigation wants to continue after the polls close, fine, we'll be ready. Bottom line is, we're going to make sure that all legal, eligible votes are counted, and the people of Pennsylvania need to know that's going to take a bit of time," he said.

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The president has political reasons to challenge mail-in ballots where Democrats far outpace Republican voters. While not all will vote with their party's nominee, Joe Biden has a clear advantage.

Of 2.4 million ballots already returned in Pennsylvania, 1,596,195 of them are registered Democrats while 555,895 are Republicans. In Allegheny County, 242,268 ballots from registered Democrats are in, compared with 59,031 Republicans.

RELATED STORY: Behind-The-Scenes Look At The Allegheny County Elections Warehouse

But they won't all be tabulated by Tuesday night.

"I think it's a terrible thing where we can't know the results of an election, the night of an election, in the modern-day age of computer," Trump said.

"It takes time to make sure every valid voter, their ballots are counted," said Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar.

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