The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected a last ditch, long shot effort by the GOP to throw out mail-in ballots cast in the November 3rd elections in the state.
In doing so, the state supreme court vacated a preliminary order by the Commonwealth Court, according to The Hill.
“Upon consideration of the parties’ filings in Commonwealth Court, we hereby dismiss the petition for review with prejudice based upon Petitioners’ failure to file their facial constitutional challenge in a timely manner,” the order read.
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“Petitioners sought to invalidate the ballots of the millions of Pennsylvania voters who utilized the mail-in voting procedures established by Act 77 and count only those ballots that Petitioners deem to be ‘legal votes'”, the order continued.
On Wednesday, state Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough ordered state officials to halt steps certifying the election. Following Judge McCullough’s order Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.
A group of Pennsylvania Republicans including Trump ally Rep. Mike Kelly filed an emergency lawsuit on Monday seeking to invalidate the more than 2.5 million mail-in ballots that Pennsylvanians used to vote in the Nov. 3 election.
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They argued that provisions that allowed expanded mail-in voting in the state were unconstitutional.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling comes one day after the three judge Republican appointed panel on the state’s federal appeals court rejected the Trump campaign’s lawsuit contesting Pennsylvania’s election. The judges said the campaign’s arguments are “light on facts” and “have no merit.”
