Hennessey signs letter seeking invalidation of Pa. electors

The presidential election votes cast and certified Monday in Harrisburg by Pennsylvania’s College of Electors should be rejected by Congress, according to a Dec. 4 letter signed by 64 Republican state legislators, including state Rep. Tim Hennessey.

Hennessey, R-26th Dist., did not return multiple messages to his various offices seeking comment and explanation for his endorsement of the request.

In the letter to Pennsylvania’s entire delegation in Congress, the state legislators wrote they “urge you to object, and vote to sustain such objection, to the Electoral College votes received from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021.”

Four rationales for that unprecedented action are offered in the letter:

• Counting mail-in ballots received after 8 p.m. on Election Night;

• Some counties allowing voters to correct errors on mail-ion ballots;

• Counting those corrected ballots, which the legislators claim are “defective;”

• And preventing poll watchers from “meaningfully observing” the vote count in some places.

Democratic elected officials disagree.

“The election was secure and valid and so far as these issues raised, they have all been through the courts and found to be without merit,” said Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Val Arkoosh, who not only oversaw Montgomery County’s voting as a member of the county election board, but was among the 20 electors who cast Pennsylvania’s electoral college ballots for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Monday in Harrisburg.

Arkoosh noted that if those 64 legislators feel the Nov. 3 election was invalid, those who signed the letter and were elected in that same election are not legally in office.

Paul Friel, the Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged Hennessey for 26th Dist. seat, which includes parts of Pottstown and a large swath of northern Chester County, agreed.

“If Tim doesn’t feel the election was valid, perhaps he should step down,” said Friel. “It’s disingenuous for someone to accept the results of an election that returns them to office, but then seek to invalidate the part of the election that didn’t go the way they wanted.”

“To be honest, when I learned that Tim has signed on to that letter, I was disappointed in my representative in looking to disenfranchise millions of Pennsylvania voters,” Friel said. “I think that undermines our democracy.”

It also “absolutely” violates the oath to obey and protect the U.S. Constitution that those state legislators swore when they took office, said Arkoosh.

The two members of the House of Representatives who share constituents with Hennessey — U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-4th Dist. and U.S. Rep Chrissy Houlahan, D-6th Dist. — don’t appear to be swayed by the letter’s arguments.

In fact, said Tim Mack,

Dean’s press secretary, they haven’t even received it.

“Usually, we get a physical copy in the mail or an email, but I checked around and none of us have received the actual letter,” said Mack. “We just saw it posted on a web site. That leads most of us to conclude that this is just a publicity stunt.”

Dean said the request is “unconstitutional and it flies in the face of the will of the people.”

“The election is officially over,” Dean added. “It’s time for every elected official to respect the will of the people, honor our constitution, and accept the results.”

“Every four years, the people of our country get to decide who will serve as President of United States,” said a spokesperson for Rep. Houlahan, who declined to comment in person for this article.

“At the ballot box, Pennsylvanians made clear that their choice was Joe Biden. The Congresswoman along with Democrats and Republicans in the PA Delegation are committed to honoring the voters’ choice,” according to the spokesman.

Other local politicians casting ballots in Monday’s Electoral College proceeding included Attorney General Josh Shapiro, himself a former Montgomery County commissioner, and Chester County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Marian Moskowitz.

Arkoosh said the wooden box into which the presidential elector ballots were placed is the same one designed by Benjamin Franklin. “It was the same box that was used to elect George Washington,” she said.

“We are the state that put Joseph R. Biden and Kamala Harris over the threshold,” said Nancy Mills of Allegheny County, chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, who was elected president of Monday’s state proceedings. “We are the state that returned dignity and honor to the United States of America.”

Mills said she is the first woman to hold that role of president of the College of Electors, and said its appropriate that it happened in the same year that the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote celebrates its 100th anniversary.

In addition to Pennsylvania, Monday was also the day that other swing states which put Biden over the top in the national electoral college — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin — met and certified their presidential electors as well.

President Donald Trump’s attorneys have repeatedly failed in numerous court challenges in those states to challenge, invalidate or reverse those results and thus ensure him another four-year term.

Monday’s certifications of results for the national electoral college brings Biden and Harris is one more formal step close to taking office.

— Val Arkoosh, Montgomery County Commissioner and Pennsylvania presidential elector

— Paul Friel, Democratic opponent of Tim Hennessey in the November election