Petition

an appeal to Commonwealth Court, but did not. Even assuming the allegations “enjoyed even a smidgen of merit,” the judge found the remedy rested at the time of occurrence, not seven weeks after the fact.

There was additionally no case or controversy for the petitioners to actually intervene in, Capuzzi found. The original petitioner – the Republican Executive Committee – did not challenge the Nov. 4 order, nor did it answer the emergency petition put forth by the proposed interveners. If they truly believed there had been some violation, the interveners should have filed a new action under a separate docket number, he said.

Capuzzi, who is also a Republican,

cited several other issues with the petitioners, including a failure to serve Scanlon as an “indispensible party” with a direct interest in the matter and that fact that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has already ruled on almost identical issues concerning the count at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

The opinion notes the Philadelphia matter was decided Nov. 9 and published Nov. 17, and held that state law required only that authorized representatives be permitted to “remain in the room” in which absentee and mail-in ballots were pre-canvassed, but boards of elections may set the actual proximity parameters.

“Strikingly, at the time of the filing of this frivolous action, the issue now brought forth by the petitioners had been adjudicated by the highest court in the commonwealth, i.e. the Delaware County Board of Elections had full authority to establish observation areas as it deemed fit,” the opinion states. “Consequently, there is a total absence of legal merit in the petitions.”

The judge went on to castigate Silver for failing to even reference that Supreme Court decision in her filings more than a month later and found this lack of due diligence to be “unconscionable and inexcusable,” wasting valuable court resources in deciding an outcome that was preordained.

“I’m extraordinary pleased by the judge’s decision,” said Delaware County Solicitor Bill Martin. “The county has been fighting a series of baseless litigations relating to this election, and this case is probably the worst. It’s shameful that we had to spend the time and money to make these fights just because the people who lost the election refused to acknowledge they lost.”