On Saturday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed yet another Republican-led lawsuit trying to invalidate all votes cast by mail in the state. All seven judges in the court unanimously voted to throw out the lawsuit brought by Rep. Mike Kelly and other top-level Republicans. With this lawsuit loss, the Trump campaign has lost 39 election-related lawsuits. The President, despite losing the election, has so far refused to concede, despite already approving the transition process to a Biden administration.
Trump’s team had asked the state Supreme Court to invalidate more than 2.5 million legally-cast mail votes in the 2020 general election, claiming voter fraud. Alternatively, they had also suggested that the court allow the Republican-led state legislature to directly appoint electors to the Electoral College.
Justices on the court unanimously voted Saturday to dismiss their suit, with most stating that the Republicans waited way too long to challenge Act 77, a state law enacted in 2019 that established universal mail voting in the state. The court wrote that “it is beyond cavil that Petitioners failed to act with due diligence in presenting the instant claim.” The judges refused to allow the GOP to block vote certification in the state. The ruling with prejudice means that the same lawsuit cannot be brought to court again bringing another action on the same claim. The court also called the suggestion to appoint electors “extraordinary” and noted that that would disenfranchise the votes of 6.9 million people.
Another judge wrote that GOP plaintiffs “failed to allege that even a single mail-in ballot was fraudulently cast or counted.” It is true that there has not been any cases of voter fraud discovered around the U.S. in this election.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, cheered on the ruling, saying “we just notched another win for democracy” on Twitter.
🚨BREAKING: We just notched another win for democracy.
— Josh Shapiro (@JoshShapiroPA) November 28, 2020
The PA Supreme Court has dismissed the suit that was attempting to throw out the votes of 2.5 million Pennsylvanians and halt certification. https://t.co/qyMHSNwVbA
Separately, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rejected the Trump campaign’s request to overturn the certification of votes in Pennsylvania. In an unanimous decision, the three judges on the panel, all Republican appointees, voted to reject the request. The lawsuit claimed Democratic counties in the state allowed voters to correct errors on ballots, which illegally disadvantaged Republicans.
Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, wrote that not only did the case have “no merit,” the series of post-election lawsuits “has become a ridiculous political game” and is a “fight for the very integrity of our entire system.” She noted that the campaign had never alleged any ballots that were fraudulent or cast illegally, and that there was no proof to back up the campaign’s claims.
This lawsuit was brought to this court after a federal judge in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania threw out the lawsuit, calling it “Frankenstein’s monster” and labeled the request as being “without merit” and based on “speculative accusations.”
A spokesperson for the Biden campaign said that “this election is over and Donald Trump lost.” He said that “meritless lawsuits” will not change the results of this election.
Biden won the Keystone State by 1.2 percent, or 81,000 votes. The votes have been certified and based on the results of these lawsuits, the state’s 20 electoral votes will go to him.
Check out the 2020 election coverage page for more.
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