Pennsylvania high court throws out challenge to mail-in ballots
Worker holds bundles of mail-in ballots to be counted in Pennsylvania, November 4, 2020.
Aimee Dilger | SOPA Photos | LightRocket | Getty Photos
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket on Saturday rejected an election problem spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, who argued {that a} legislation allowing no-excuse mail voting violated the state Structure.
Kelly, together with a number of different Pennsylvania Republicans, sought to invalidate tens of millions of mail-in votes, which might have ceded a key state received by President-Elect Joe Biden to President Donald Trump.
The ruling mentioned, “Petitioners sought to invalidate the ballots of the tens of millions of Pennsylvania voters who utilized the mail-in voting procedures. … Alternatively, Petitioners advocated the extraordinary proposition that the court docket disenfranchise all 6.9 million Pennsylvanians who voted within the Common Election and as a substitute ‘direct the Common Meeting to decide on Pennsylvania’s electors.'”
The excessive court docket dominated no on all counts and mentioned, “All different excellent motions are dismissed as moot.” It mentioned the declare might have resulted within the “disenfranchisement” of tens of millions of voters.
A spokesman for Kelly didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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The state Supreme Court docket unanimously worn out a decrease court docket order that had blocked state officers from doing something additional to hold out this week’s certification of the election outcomes.
The court docket criticized plaintiffs for submitting the go well with greater than a yr after common mail-in voting was established within the state and mentioned they lacked “due diligence.”
The go well with is one in every of greater than 26 pro-Trump election challenges dismissed by courts in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and elsewhere.
The president has claimed his loss is the results of widespread fraud however to this point not a single court docket, together with some headed by Trump appointees, have agreed.
