Trump asks Supreme Court to overturn Pa. election results
WASHINGTON — Undeterred by dismissals and admonitions from judges, President Donald Trump’s campaign continued with its unprecedented efforts to overturn the results of the Nov 3. election Sunday, saying it had filed a new petition with the Supreme Court.
The petition seeks to reverse a trio of Pennsylvania Supreme Court cases having to do with mail-in ballots and asks the court to reject voters’ will and allow the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pick its own slate of electors.
While the prospect of the highest court in the land throwing out the results of a democratic election based on unfounded charges of voter fraud is extraordinarily unlikely,it wouldn’t even change the outcome. President-elect Joe Biden would still be the winner even without Pennsylvania because of his wide margin of victory in the Electoral College.
“The petition seeks all appropriate remedies, including vacating the appointment of electors committed to Joseph Biden and allowing the Pennsylvania General Assembly to select their replacements,” Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said in a statement.
Mr. Giuliani is asking the court to move swiftly so it can rule before Congress meets on Jan. 6 to officially tally the vote of the Electoral College, which decisively confirmed
Mr. Biden’s win with 306 electoral votes to Mr. Trump’s 232. But the justices are not scheduled to meet again until Jan. 8 — two days after Congress counts votes.
Pennsylvania last month certified Mr. Biden as the winner of the state’s 20 Electoral College votes after three weeks of vote counting and a string of failed legal challenges. Mr. Trump’s campaign and his allies have now filed roughly 50 lawsuits alleging widespread voting fraud. Almost all have been dismissed or dropped because there is no evidence to support their allegations.
Mr. Trump has lost before judges of both political parties, including some he appointed himself. And some of his strongest rebukes have come from conservative Republicans. The conservative-majority Supreme Court has also refused to take up two cases.
The new case is at least the fourth involving Pennsylvania that Mr. Trump’s campaign or his Republican allies have taken to the Supreme Court in a bid to overturn Mr. Biden’s victory in the state or to at least reverse court decisions involving mail-in balloting. Many more cases have been filed in state and federal courts.
Roughly 10,000 mail-in ballots that arrived after polls closed but before a state courtordered deadline remain in limbo, awaiting the highest court’s decision on whether they should be counted.