Eight Republican members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation signaled Thursday that they will object to the Electoral College results when Congress meets to formally certify them on Jan. 6.
The members said Pennsylvania lawmakers, election officials, and/or courts illegally authorized the use of drop boxes, didn’t do proper signature matching on mail-in ballots, and improperly allowed officials to accept ballots past 8 p.m. on Election Day.
“The Pennsylvania election could be summed up as a free-for-all with no oversight and different standards applied throughout the commonwealth,” the members said.
They said the scope of the inaccuracies aren’t known and that Pennsylvania’s certifying the commonwealth’s 20 electors for President-elect Joseph R. Biden was based on a flawed system.
“Until these unlawful practices are acknowledged and corrected, we cannot agree to support electors chosen based upon an inaccurate total vote count,” they said.
The joint statement came from eight of Pennsylvania’s nine Republican House members: Reps. Mike Kelly, Dan Meuser, Glenn Thompson, Scott Perry, Lloyd Smucker, Guy Reschenthaler, John Joyce and Fred Keller.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick did not sign onto the statement.
President Trump’s campaign has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to void Mr. Biden’s slate of electors in Pennsylvania, saying that court rulings that allowed for expanded mail-in voting violated the U.S. Constitution.
Mr. Trump’s team has been shot down in their bids to overturn the results in Pennsylvania and elsewhere at essentially every turn.
Pennsylvania’s Democratic elected officials said they oversaw a free and fair election and it’s time to move on.
“The election is now over,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro and other deputies said in the commonwealth’s response to the Trump team’s Supreme Court petition. “Time has now run out for the Trump campaign and its acolytes to continue their baseless efforts to overturn the results of this election.”
Congress will convene on Jan. 6 to officially tally the Electoral College results ahead of Mr. Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
Mr. Biden defeated Mr. Trump by a 306-232 count in the Electoral College. It takes 270 electoral votes to clinch the presidency.
Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, said he will object to the results as well, meaning the long-shot push will likely get an extended debate.
Mr. Trump has cheered on the effort, putting Republicans in a tough spot.
If members vote against nullifying certified slates of electors in any given state, the president’s supporters might hold it against them in future GOP primary contests.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.