Both the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Pennsylvania Senate are set to introduce a resolution disputing the projected results of the 2020 General Election.
The General Assembly contests, on multiple counts, the execution and certification of the 2020 General Election. They say the Governor and Pennsylvania Supreme Court usurped them by creating their own rules, some at the last minute, for the vote hold Nov. 3.
“We believe this moment is pivotal and important enough that the General Assembly needs to take extraordinary measures to answer these extraordinary questions. We also believe our representative oversight duty as Pennsylvania’s legislative branch of government demands us to re-assume our constitutional authority and take immediate action,” the Pennsylvania General Assembly said in a collective statement released on Friday. “It is absolutely imperative that we take these steps if we are to ensure public trust in our electoral system. Faith in government begins with faith in the elections which select that government.”
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, of Franklin County, tweeted this thread on Saturday explaining the purpose of the resolution he sponsored in the Senate:
There is mounting evidence that the PA presidential election was compromised. If this is the case, under Article II, Section 1.2 of the US Constitution, the state legislature has the sole authority to direct the manner of selecting delegates to the Electoral College. (1)
— Senator Doug Mastriano (@SenMastriano) November 28, 2020
Therefore, we are introducing a Resolution to exercise our obligation and authority to appoint delegates to the Electoral College. (3)
— Senator Doug Mastriano (@SenMastriano) November 28, 2020
Former Vice President Joe Biden has been projected the winner of Pennsylvania in the 2020 election but President Donald Trump vehemently contests this projection.
He tweeted several times on Saturday about the Pennsylvania election, including this one that got Twitter’s infamous flag:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1332552283553476608
Pennsylvania House and Senate to Introduce Resolutions Disputing 2020 Election Results, Processes
“A number of compromises of Pennsylvania’s election laws took place during the 2020 General Election,” the General Assembly statement reads. “The 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 memos introduced on Friday say the “Executive and Judicial branches” of state government infringed upon the General Assembly’s authority to set the rules for holding an election. Instead, they created last-minute changes clearly designed to help the Democrat Party they support, including:
- Extending the deadline to receive mail-in ballots
- Accepting mail-in ballots without a postmark
- Accepting mail-in ballots without a verified signature
- Not requiring any verification of signatures on mail-in ballots
- Encouraging some counties to open mail-in ballots early to look for defects
- Allowing curing of defective ballots to happen in certain counties but not others
- Blocking watchers from viewing mail-in ballots for certification
In addition to those late rules changes the General Assembly says goes against its power to set rules for and hold elections in Pennsylvania, they say several occurrences also call into question the validity of those ballots:
- Watchers witnessing irregularities in canvassing mail-in ballots
- Postal employees reporting multiple ballots sent to the same address, and ballots sent to unknown addresses, to vacant homes, to empty lots and to non-existent addresses
These reasons for introducing these resolutions are in addition to the new information gleaned from a Nov. 25 hearing of the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee in Gettysburg. That hearing featured representatives of Trump’s legal team, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, who brought forward witnesses who say they experienced other irregularities on Election Day. Some witnesses also testified to spotting statistically impossible trends in vote totals.
The goal of the resolution is to stop the full certification of the 2020 vote in Pennsylvania, including for statewide races and eventually give the power of selecting electors for the Electoral College to the General Assembly.
Trump applauded the efforts of the Pennsylvania lawmakers, in part, in taking this step:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1332713121413214208
Resolutions say Governor Tom Wolf and Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar acted hastily to certify the vote as much as they have so far. It was done on Nov. 24. In 2016, the GA says, the Pennsylvania vote was certified on December 12.
They especially think it’s inappropriate to certify the state’s vote results while they’re being challenged in court.
Trump and his supporters are hoping that several lawsuits dismissed in lower Pennsylvania courts and then by the state Supreme Court will make their way in front of the Supreme Court of the United States.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1332778938121203720
The resolution in each the House and Senate “urges the Secretary of the Commonwealth and the Governor to withdraw or vacate the certification of presidential electors and to delay certification of results in other statewide electoral contests voted on at the 2020 General Election” and also for the US Congress to consider the Presidential Electors chosen to date to be in dispute.
The GA says, “Just as Pennsylvania led the founding of our Nation, Pennsylvania should also lead the way by making sure our Commonwealth continues to stand as a keystone in our nation where free and fair elections are of paramount concern, no matter the final outcome of those elections.”
You can view the House Resolution Memo here and the Senate memo here.
ALSO READ:
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- Why Did Schuylkill County Election Officials Block Media Photographers from Ballot Counting Room?
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