The Supreme Court has rejected Republicans' last-gasp bid to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the electoral battleground.
The court without comment Tuesday refused to call into question the certification process in Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Wolf already has certified Biden’s victory and the state’s 20 electors are to meet on Dec. 14 to cast their votes for Biden.
Biden won 306 electoral votes, so even if Pennsylvania’s results had been in doubt, he still would have more than the 270 electoral votes needed to become president.
Amid dozens of failed legal challenges since the election, Trump has been meeting with state legislative leaders, including Republican members of the Pennsylvania legislature.
A Trump-appointed federal judge was among a three-judge panel that threw out a lawsuit in Pennsylvania. The other two judges were Judge Michael Chagares, a George W. Bush appointee, and Judge D. Brooks Smith, who has been appointed by both GOP and Democratic presidents.
“Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” 3rd Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote. Bibas was appointed by Trump to the federal bench in 2017.
Last month, a joint statement released by federal and state officials described the presidential election as the “most secure in American history.”
The letter was signed by leaders of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and the National Association of State Election Directors, among others. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency was established two years ago as a branch of Homeland Security during the Trump administration.
In bold, the authors of the statement wrote, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” This statement matches those from secretaries of state and boards of election throughout the US.
In response to the letter, Trump fired US election security head Chris Krebs.