Pennsylvania counties certify election results

PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania counties rushed Monday to certify results from the Nov. 3 election, even as President Donald Trump and his Republican allies continued to press their increasingly long-shot effort in court to stop the state from finalizing the vote tally declaring Joe Biden the victor.

As county boards of elections convened for what is normally little more than sleepy formality, the impact of the president’s push to undermine public trust in the integrity of the vote repeatedly surfaced.

In at least three of the state’s most populous counties — Montgomery, Allegheny and Luzerne

— boards split their votes along party lines. And in several others, speakers at public meetings urged elections administrators to reject the results, echoing baseless conspiracy theories of widespread fraud and malfunctioning voting machines that Trump has propagated in recent weeks.

Still, the vast majority of certification votes — including those in Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester counties — proceeded Monday with unanimous, bipartisan support. And there were no reports of county boards voting against certification, even as they faced scrutiny that elections administrators described as like nothing they had ever seen before.

“I understand that people have strong feelings about this and I understand that people get information from various sources, but I personally have faith in the process,” said Gerald Lawrence, a Democrat and chair of the Delaware County Board of Elections, moments before all three members of his panel voted to approve certification.

Before the board members cast their votes, county elections staff recounted threats and harassment they endured from skeptics while preparing the final tally. And Lawrence swatted away complaints from the public about a frequent Trump target — Dominion Voting Systems — noting the county did not use the company’s voting machines.