U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and House candidate Sena Parnell filed an emergency request to the U.S. Supreme Court to block further certification of the 2020 election after losing a challenge to toss out absentee votes. File Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI |
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Dec. 1 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and congressional candidate Sena Parnell filed an emergency request to the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday seeking an appeal of the state Supreme Court's decision to dismiss their attempt to invalidate absentee voting and block the certification of votes.
The two filed the request asking Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for an injunction blocking Gov. Tom Wolf and Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar from futher certifying the results of the 2020 election.
On Saturday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said Kelly and his allies were far too late in filing their lawsuit seeking to invalidate all votes cast by mail or direct the majority-Republican legislature to choose a slate of presidential electors as it challenged a year-old law that established new absentee voting procedures and came weeks after Pennsylvanians voted.
Wolf and Boockvar certified the statewide election results last week for the general election showing President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris leading President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence -- who have issued a number of legal challenges in Pennsylvania and other key states -- by a margin of 80,555 votes to earn the state's 20 electoral votes.
Kelly and Parnell told Pennsylvania news station KDKA that while Act 77, which permitted no-excuse mail-in voting, is a state issue, federal issues of due process make it worthy of a U.S. Supreme Court appeal.
"While we believe that Act 77 is certainly a state issue, we do believe that there are very important federal questions nested within it," said Parnell. "So what we're doing is we're looking to appeal to the Supreme Court on those federal questions."
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, issued a statement supporting the appeal, saying it "raises serious legal issues."
"Ordinarily, the U.S. Supreme Court would stay out of election disputes, especially concerning state law. But these are not ordinary times," said Cruz.