Wednesday, 24 Apr 2024

Pennsylvania counties start certifying results, despite Republican attempts to halt the process.

Multiple counties across Pennsylvania have certified the results of the election, as the process of cementing the results in the state continues despite some scattered efforts by local Republicans to halt the process.

In Allegheny County, the second largest county in the state and home to Pittsburgh, the board voted 2–1 to certify the results, with Sam Demarco, the lone Republican member, voting against. Mr. DeMarco said his vote was an attempt to spur action in the state capital to make changes to the state’s voting laws, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

In Luzerne County, which Mr. Trump won by more than 14,000 votes, the board certified the results in a 3–2 vote, again with the Democratic members of the board voting to certify and the two Republicans voting against.

State law dictates that counties in Pennsylvania have to certify their votes by the third Monday after the election. But there is no real penalty for missing the deadline, and multiple counties have missed the deadline in the past.

Philadelphia is planning to certify its results tonight during a 7 p.m. meeting after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Monday afternoon in a case involving roughly 8,000 ballots that had signatures but problems with the date or address. The court ruled against the Trump campaign and Republican allies, stating that those ballots must be counted.

After the counties certify the results, the process then moves to the secretary of state’s office to sign off on the certification, which she is supposed to complete by Nov. 30, and then to the governor’s office for the final signature and awarding of the electors.

Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and Gov. Tom Wolf, both of whom are Democrats, are likely to move swiftly once the certification reaches their respective offices.

The Trump campaign had sought to stop the certification of the election in Pennsylvania in court, but a judge rejected that effort in a stinging opinion on Saturday.

“This court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence,” wrote Judge Matthew Brann, a lifelong Republican who had been appointed by former President Barack Obama. “In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state.”

Despite the harsh rebuke, the Trump campaign vowed to press on, and filed an appeal to the Third Circuit on Sunday. In a statement last week, the campaign said it hoped the case would come before the Supreme Court.

But if Pennsylvania certifies its results, it will likely make the Trump campaign’s appeal to the Third Circuit moot, as it is centered around blocking certification.

State Republicans have also filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the election by claiming that the state’s expansion of no-excuse absentee ballots, passed last October by a Republican-led legislature and left in place for over a year with no objections until Mr. Trump lost Pennsylvania, was unconstitutional.

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