A Pennsylvania appeals court judge on Wednesday ordered state officials to stop the certification of the rest of the ballots in the 2020 presidential election, pending a hearing about a case filed by GOP leaders alleging voter fraud in mail-in voting.
“To the extent that there remains any further action to perfect the certification of the results of the 2020 General Election … for the office of President and Vice President of the United States of America, Respondents are preliminarily enjoined from doing so, pending an evidentiary hearing,” Judge Patricia McCullough said in the ruling. The hearing is scheduled for Friday.
The move comes in the wake of Governor Tom Wolf’s claim that he had certified former Vice President Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential race in Pennsylvania. Biden reportedly gained 80,000 more votes than President Donald Trump.
Governor Wolf’s team has sought the intervention of the state Supreme Court to block the ruling from taking effect. He argued that there was no “conceivable justification” for it.
“Since the birth of our nation nearly 250 years ago, no court has ever issued an order purporting to interfere with a state’s ascertainment of its presidential electors – until today,” the administration said in its motion.
GOP voters in Pennsylvania, including Representative Mike Kelly and Republican congressional bet Sean Parnell, lodged a lawsuit alleging that a state law allowing for no-excuse absentee voting violated the Pennsylvania constitution.
The move made by Rep. Kelly and others sought to challenge about 2.5 million mail-in ballots that were predominantly cast by Democrats.
The entirety of Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law, part of the Act 77 bill that passed with bipartisan backing last year, is unconstitutional, according to Kelly and Parnell.
Kelly and Parnell said to expand mail-in voting, a constitutional amendment was needed.
Parnell said in a tweet that he “did not take an oath to defend any single political party. I took an oath to defend the Constitution. This cause of action is about protecting the PA Constitution and the rule of law.”
I did not take an oath to defend any single political party. I took an oath to defend the Constitution.
This cause of action is about protecting the PA Constitution & the rule of law.
We MUST ensure that all laws are passed within our constitutional system of government. Period https://t.co/gb6KRuVkfC— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellUSA) November 23, 2020
The state Supreme Court already overturned two Republican lawsuits alleging irregularities in the polls.
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