The Oklahoman

Trump wants Supreme Court to overturn Pa. election results

- By Jill Colvin and Marc Levy

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 extraordin­ary unlikely, it wouldn't 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 elect ors committed to Joseph Bid en and allowing the Pennsylvan­ia General Assembly to select their replacemen­ts ,” Trump attorney Rudy Giulia ni said in a statement.

He is asking the court to move swift ly so it can rule before Congress meets on Jan. 6 to tally the vote of the

Electoral College, which decisively confirmed Biden's win with 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232. But the justices are not scheduled t o meet again, even privately, until Jan 8, two days after Congress counts votes.

Pennsylvan­ia l ast month certified 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.

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.

Trump has lost before judges of both political parties, including some he appointed. And some of his strongest rebukes have come from conservati­ve Republican­s. The Supreme Court has also refused to take up two cases — decisions that Trump has scorned.

The new case is at least the fourth involving Pennsylvan­ia t hat Trump's campaign or Republican allies have taken to the Supreme Court in a bid to overturn Biden's victory in the state or at least reverse court decisions involving mailin balloting. Many more cases were filed in state and federal courts. Roughly 10,000 mailin ballots that arrived after polls closed but before a state court-ordered deadline remain in limbo, awaiting the highest court's decision on whether they should be counted.

The Trump campaign's filing Sunday appears to target three decisions of Pennsylvan­ia's Democratic- majority state Supreme Court.

 ?? [PATRICK SEMANSKY/ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO] ?? In this Dec. 12 photo, President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington before boarding Marine One.
[PATRICK SEMANSKY/ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO] In this Dec. 12 photo, President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington before boarding Marine One.

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