Pennsylvania high court tosses lawmaker’s petition to halt election certification
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Saturday threw out a suit filed by a Republican lawmaker seeking to pause certification of the state’s election results, in another blow to President Donald Trump's ongoing efforts to contest the results of the presidential election.
Rep. Mike Kelly and and two GOP congressional candidates filed a petition in the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Nov. 21, arguing that a 2019 law that created no-excuse mail-in voting is unconstitutional. They asked the court to either halt certification of the Nov. 3 election results, which includes more than 2.5 million mail-in ballots, or alternatively allow the state legislator to appoint electors.
The seven-member state Supreme Court unanimously agreed that the effort to halt the election results came too late, since the suit was filed more than a year after the mail-in voting law was enacted. The court also wrote that the GOP group “failed to act with due diligence” by waiting to file the petition until days before the county boards of election were required to certify the election results.
“At the time this action was filed on November 21, 2020, millions of Pennsylvania voters had already expressed their will in both the June 2020 Primary Election and the November 2020 General Election and the final ballots in the 2020 General Election were being tallied, with the results becoming seemingly apparent,” the court order reads.
Two members of the court, Chief Justice Thomas Saylor and Justice Sallie Mundy, said Kelly and the GOP contingent should be allowed to pursue their argument that the state constitution bars the sort of widespread mail-in voting used this year. However, they joined the other justices in concluding that overturning the results of the election would not be an acceptable remedy.
Pennsylvania certified on Tuesday that President-elect Joe Biden won the state’s 20 Electoral College votes.
Trump has also tried to block the state’s certification efforts in federal court, but a judge eviscerated the president’s case last weekend. Following the Trump campaign’s appeal of the ruling, a federal appeals court panel on Friday also rejected the effort to throw out millions of Pennsylvania ballots.
Trump showed his support of Kelly's case in a tweet on the day it was filed, reiterating his claims of widespread fraud in the presidential election.
“This is not at all frivolous. It is brought on behalf of one of the most respected members of the United States Congress who is disgusted, like so many others, by an Election that is a fraudulent mess. Fake ballots, dead people voting, no Republican Poll Watchers allowed, & more!” Trump wrote in the tweet.
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts by both Trump and his allies in recent weeks as the president continues his push to stop Biden’s victory from being certified — but the efforts have largely fallen flat.
The president, though, has still not given up on his campaign’s efforts in Pennsylvania, tweeting on Saturday that they will continue to appeal court rulings — which have thus far deemed their cases meritless.
“The number of ballots that our Campaign is challenging in the Pennsylvania case is FAR LARGER than the 81,000 vote margin. It’s not even close,” Trump tweeted, without providing evidence. “Fraud and illegality ARE a big part of the case. Documents being completed. We will appeal!”
Josh Gerstein contributed reporting.
