Pennsylvania Supreme Court Overturns Block on Certification of Election Results
Reporter : Janita Kan / The Epoch Times PREMIUM
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Saturday overturned a lower court’s order blocking election officials from certifying the results of the 2020 election. The court also dismissed the case with prejudice.
In a Per Curiam opinion, the state’s top court ruled to vacate Commonwealth Judge Patricia McCullough’s injunctive relief that would have prevented the state from taking further steps to complete the certification of the presidential race.
The court said the petitioners had failed to file their challenge in a “timely manner,” as they had filed their suit more than one year after the enactment of Act 77—the law central to the case.
The case at hand—cited as Kelly v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania—was filed by a group of Republican politicians who argue that Act 77, a law that made voting by mail without an excuse legal in Pennsylvania, violates the state’s constitution.
The lawsuit alleges that the state law is “another illegal attempt to override the limitations on absentee voting prescribed in the Pennsylvania Constitution, without first following the necessary procedure to amend the constitution to allow for the expansion.”
Earlier this week, McCullough granted an emergency request by the plaintiffs to temporarily block the certification after the Keystone state announced it was poised to finalize the process of formal certification for the presidential election results.
The Commonwealth judge explained in her opinion, issued on Friday, that the “petitioners appear to have established a likelihood to succeed on the merits because petitioners have asserted the Constitution does not provide a mechanism for the legislature to allow for expansion of absentee voting without a constitutional amendment.”
She also opined that the “petitioners appear to have a viable claim that the mail-in ballot procedures set forth in Act 77 contravene” the plain language of the provision of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which deals with absentee voting.
The state Supreme Court said on Saturday that the petitioners waited until days before the county of boards of election were required to certify the election results, which could “result in the disenfranchisement of millions of Pennsylvania voters” who voted by mail.
“It is beyond cavil that Petitioners failed to act with due diligence in presenting the instant claim,” the court wrote.
Chief Justice Thomas Saylor issued a separate opinion agreeing to reverse the preliminary injunction. However, Saylor said he believes the Republican petitioners should still be able to argue their case about the constitutional validity of Act 77.
“I find that the relevant substantive challenge raised by Appellees presents troublesome questions about the constitutional validity of the new mail-in voting scheme,” Saylor wrote.
Justice Sallie Mundy joined in that opinion.
The lawyers of the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.
'The President Has Clear Paths to Victory:' Michael Flynn
Reporter : Allen Zhong / Publisher : The Epoch Times
Gen. Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser for President Donald Trump who was pardoned by the president, said that Trump has clear paths to victory.
“The president has clear paths to victory,” he said during an interview with WVW-Tv.
He added that it doesn’t require a lot of courtroom action but will require Americans to come forward to tell their stories.
Hundreds and hundreds of Americans in different states are coming forward, Flynn said, with 10 to 12 new affidavits from one state received just on Saturday.
“We’re not in this to lose these battles, we’re in this to win these battles. I believe we’re going to win. I’m confident because we have the right people and the right plan and strategy,” he stated.
Various posts by Flynn on social media suggest that he works closely with Sidney Powell—his lead attorney since 2019—who is focusing on the alleged fraud related to voting machines and claims that voting software companies have been involved in a transnational conspiracy to overturn the election.
Currently, there are several teams or individuals working on the legal battle for Trump’s re-election in battleground states. Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani is leading the Trump campaign’s legal team. Powell is leading another legal effort and working independently. Some state Republican committees and individual Republicans have also joined these legal fights.
Possible Paths for Trump’s Re-election
In Pennsylvania, a judge ruling may clear a narrow path for a Trump victory in the Keystone state.
Pennsylvania Commonwealth Judge Patricia McCullough wrote in an opinion (pdf) on Friday that the Republican argument that the mail-in voting conducted in the recent general election was unconstitutional may win the case, according to Act 77. She wrote to explain her rationale for her injunction blocking the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results.
McCullough suggested that because having the legislature to appoint the electors—an “untenable” option “if the majority of voters who did not vote by mail entered their votes in accord with a constitutionally recognized method”—was not the only “equitable remedy” for the state to uphold “a most basic constitutional right of the people to a fair and free election,” she would grant to injunction.
But her ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, which is the appeal court in the state, on Saturday. The case is now very likely to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Another possible path for Trump’s reelection goes through the state legislature.
The GOP state lawmakers in Pennsylvania announced on the same day that they will introduce a resolution to request the United States Congress to declare that the results of the 2020 election in the Commonwealth are in dispute, The Epoch Times reported.
State senator Doug Mastriano, a Republican, told Steve Bannon’s War Room on Friday that the GOP-controlled state legislature was going to make a bid to reclaim its power to appoint the state’s electors to the Electoral College.
The Pennsylvania Republicans took those actions after a public hearing organized by the Senate Republicans on Nov. 25. Giuliani, several poll watchers, and experts testified during the hearing.
Similar hearings have been scheduled in Arizona for Monday and in Michigan on Dec. 1.
Trump on Saturday praised state lawmakers for defending the U.S. Constitution.
“So much credit to all of the brave men and women in state houses who are defending our great Constitution. Thank you!” the president wrote in a Twitter post.
Ref: https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-president-has-clear-paths-to-victory-michael-flynn_3597034.html
News (6)
Pennsylvania Senator: 'Mounting Evidence' Shows Election Was Compromised
Reporter : Zachiary Stieber / Publisher : The Epoch Times PREMIUM
A growing body of evidence shows the presidential election in Pennsylvania was compromised, a state senator said Saturday.
“There is mounting evidence that the PA presidential election was compromised. If this is the case, under Article II, Section 1.2 of the U.S. Constitution, the state legislature has the sole authority to direct the manner of selecting delegates to the Electoral College,” state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican, said on Twitter.
“This power was given to the state legislature for the purpose of safeguarding the appointment of our president, specifically contemplating corruption and ensuring that the people are not disenfranchised through a corrupt election process,” he added. “Therefore, we are introducing a resolution to exercise our obligation and authority to appoint delegates to the Electoral College.”
Mastriano and other state lawmakers announced Friday they will soon introduce a resolution to dispute the results of the election, alleging that “documented irregularities and improprieties associated with mail-in balloting, pre-canvassing, and canvassing have undermined our elector process and as a result we cannot accept certification of the results in statewide races.”
The resolution calls on the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to recognize the alleged irregularities and improprieties and disapprove of what lawmakers describe as the infringement on the General Assembly’s authority to regulate elections.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar extended the mail ballot deadline without permission from the legislature. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month ordered Pennsylvania election officials to separate ballots that arrived after the previously-scheduled deadline up to the extended one while justices weigh whether the action was legal.
Pennsylvania lawmakers also said in the resolution they disapprove and disagree with the certification of election results, calling it “premature,” and want Boockvar and Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, to withdraw or vacate the certification. And they called on the U.S. Congress “to declare the selection of presidential electors in this commonwealth to be in dispute.”
Republicans control the House and Senate in Pennsylvania but it’s not clear if they have enough support to pass the resolution. Twenty-six of the House’s 203 members are co-sponsoring the resolution so far.
Mastriano has said the legislature is trying to claim its power to appoint the state’s electors to the Electoral College, an unusual mechanism that’s rarely been triggered in U.S. history. “We have a fight on our hands and we’re gonna fight. We’re gonna take the fight all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to,” he said.
Trump wrote on Twitter early Saturday that he “won Pennsylvania by a lot, perhaps more than anyone will ever know,” calling the election “RIGGED.” The current results show Democratic presidential nominee Biden won. Biden’s campaign has dismissed allegations of election fraud.
In a separate matter, a judge on Friday said Republicans who filed a lawsuit challenging a mail-in voting law passed last year will likely succeed.
“Petitioners appear to have established a likelihood to succeed on the merits because petitioners have asserted the Constitution does not provide a mechanism for the legislature to allow for expansion of absentee voting without a constitutional amendment,” Commonwealth Judge Patricia McCullough, who blocked the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results, wrote in her ruling.
Ivan Pentchoukov and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
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News (7) UPDATES 30/11/20
Data expert: FBI has launched an investigation into illegal voting
Reporter : Zhu Ying / Editor : Mei Lan / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2020/11/29/a102998252.html / Direct translation
Well-known data expert Matt Braynard disclosed on Sunday (29th) that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has proactively contacted him and asked him to provide information about the general election. Data analysis of illegal voting, he is providing relevant information to the agency. He expressed optimistically that he believes that this law enforcement agency still has many patriots dedicated to upholding the Constitution and laws.
Matt Braynard, the data director of Trump’s 2016 campaign, posted on his Twitter account on Sunday morning: “@FBI has directly asked me to provide VIP (analysis) results indicating the existence of illegal voting. "
He went on to state in a tweet, "As of Tuesday, we will pass all data (including name, address, phone number, etc.) to the organization."
Braynard is still tweeting: "In the past few years, (I) have made legitimate criticisms of the actions of the leaders of this organization, but I can personally prove that there are many ordinary people in this organization. The Patriots are fighting to maintain the Constitution, law and order."
Braynard also disclosed that the data research team he leads has submitted part of the data analysis and related statements about fraud in the election to the hearing or court; there are also some data analysis results that will soon appear in Pennsylvania and Georgia. State, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona court documents.
After the voting day of the US general election, a number of key swing states were accused of large-scale election fraud, and evidence continued to burst. A few days later, Brainard formed a professional team and launched an operation named "Voter Integrity Project", which specifically analyzed the voting statistics of key states in the 2020 general election, and found that There are a lot of voting violations.
In a number of key swing states in recent days, President Trump’s re-election campaign is pushing ahead with a legal battle over election fraud. Following the election hearings held by the Pennsylvania Senate on the 25th of this month, the Arizona State Assembly and the Michigan State Assembly will also hold hearings on election fairness on November 30 and December 1, respectively. It is reported that Matt Braynard will go to Arizona to testify in person, and there will be more witnesses and material evidence including statistical data analysis at the hearing.
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