REPUBLICAN EFFORT TO CHALLENGE ELECTION FAILS

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ended another lawsuit related to the presidential election filed by a Republican former congressional candidate who had challenged the extension of Pennsylvania’s deadline to receive mail-in ballots. The justices, in a brief order, decided that the dispute was moot. They threw out a Nov. 13 decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that found the candidate, Jim Bognet, as well as four individual voters, did not have legal standing to challenge the ballot deadline extension. Bognet, who lost his race for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to Democratic rival Matt Cartwright, and the voters had filed the suit before the election, challenging a Sept. 17 ruling by Pennsylvania’s top court ordering officials to count mail-in ballots that were postmarked by Election Day and received up to three days later. The high court’s action was expected as it has previously rejected many others pursued by former president Donald Trump and his allies related to the presidential election.