PA judge halts certification (edited with clarification)

[AkFemDem]

Edit- this article is continuously updating. While the original is pasted in this post, they now seek to be clarifying this will affect down ballot races. A better link would be this one: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2020/11/25/pennsylvania-vote-election-certification-sean-parnell-mike-kelly-commonwealth-court-appeal/stories/202011250159


A Pennsylvania judge issued an order temporarily preventing the state from taking any further actions to certify the election results.

The ruling stops action until after a Nov. 27 hearing, “to the extent that there remains any further action to perfect the certification of the results of the 2020 General Election.” Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar certified Biden’s 80,555-vote victory in Pennsylvania, which was announced in tweet by Democratic Governor Tom Wolf yesterday.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office didn’t immediately have a comment when reached by phone.

The case is separate from the federal lawsuit by President Donald Trump’s campaign that seeks to undo Pennsylvania’s certification unless it tosses out tens of thousands of mail-in ballots the suit alleges are illegal.”

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/pennsylvania-judge-blocks-further-election-certification-steps

[Roland99]

1. wasn't it already certified by the PA SOS?

[AkFemDem]

2. Yes so I don't understand this ruling at all

Maybe a legal type can explain.

[Roland99]

5. seems like a PA judge needs to be recalled from the bench if he's allowing this farce to continue

[jmg257]

3. Lower level elections - President is done. nt

[Lucinda]

7. Thank you!

[Orangepeel]

11. no, this suit is about the presidential electors, too

McCullough, a Republican, directed Boockvar and Wolf, both Democrats, to file a response by 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, also a Democrat, said in a statement that he’d file an appeal “momentarily,” adding: “This order does not impact yesterday’s appointment of electors.”

The plaintiffs argued an injunction could still be issued even though the certification had taken place, pointing out that a number of formal steps remained, including issuing commissions to elected candidates. The state’s “duties with regard to finalization of the full election results are far from complete,” they said in a motion on Tuesday.

The lawsuit claimed the Pennsylvania’s legislature’s adoption of expanded absentee voting last year was unconstitutional -- even though the legislature was controlled by Republicans and there wasn’t a challenge to the new system until Trump lost.

[jmg257]

18. Thanks! nt

[Orangepeel]

20. I have confidence that the PA AG is on top of things

sucks that it will likely ruin his Thanksgiving!

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

31. The lawsuit claimed the Pennsylvania's legislature's adoption of expanded absentee voting last year.

Hmmmm, then why not have challenged it immediately?

Millions of citizens, including many of my family & friends and I, voted absentee in PA under law--an assurance that our votes would count. To rescind that after the fact would be a travesty.

[MustLoveBeagles]

4. I'm confused

Weren't the election results already certified?

[Roland99]

6. ANOTHER update to the article just posted....

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, also a Democrat, said in a statement that he’d file an appeal “momentarily,” adding: “This order does not impact yesterday’s appointment of electors.”

The plaintiffs argued an injunction could still be issued even though the certification had taken place, pointing out that a number of formal steps remained, including issuing commissions to elected candidates. The state’s “duties with regard to finalization of the full election results are far from complete,” they said in a motion on Tuesday.

[AkFemDem]

8. Omg fourth update in 10 minutes

I should have waited to post 🤦🏻?♀️

Maybe if we wait 10 more it’ll be crystal clear

[Roland99]

16. if we wait a few more minutes, we'll probably find out where Hoffa is buried!

[AkFemDem]

21. Ha!!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

27. Lol. Thanks for the coffee in the nose.

[dware]

9. In no way do I see the PA SC upholding this idiotic ruling.

What are your thoughts on this?

[Sympthsical]

10. This has nothing to do with the presidential election

This is in regards to local elections.

The presidential vote in PA is done and certified. The electors have been appointed.

Just want to point that out to relieve people of some anxiety.

[AkFemDem]

14. Thank you! I found another link that specifically

Discusses this in context of down ballot races. I’ll put away the razor blades and ambien now

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2020/11/25/pennsylvania-vote-election-certification-sean-parnell-mike-kelly-commonwealth-court-appeal/stories/202011250159

[Roland99]

22. this case won't last past Friday....check this

Lawyers for Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, Gov. Tom Wolf and the state — also named as defendants in the suit — noted that Act 77 said all constitutional challenges were to be brought within 180 days of effective date, which “came and went without any facial challenge to the constitutionality of Act 77’s provisions.”

“At no time during the 180-day period, the run-up to the primary election, or the runup to the general election did Petitioners (or anyone else) claim in any proceeding that Act 77 was unconstitutional on its fact,” the state’s lawyers wrote, noting that Mr. Kelly and Mr. Parnell ran in the 2020 primary and general election, “presumably garnering votes cast on the same mail-in ballots that they now claim to be unconstitutional.”

[regnaD kciN]

30. Pretty sure a law can't set time limits...

...on challenges to its own constitutionality.

[PTWB]

35. An unconstitutional law is unconstitutional - no artificial time limits can change that.

If the law is determined unconstitutional it is unlikely they’ll throw out the ballots - they’ll just disallow mail in voting for future elections.

[MustLoveBeagles]

24. Thank you

I wasn't worried so much as confused. Your post and some of the subsequent updates by others have clarified things.

[TristanIsolde]

12. What the hell is this crap

[dware]

17. See post #10. nt.

[BusyBeingBest]

13. This sounds like a repeat of Harris County in Texas, where Republicans

filed a suit saying drive-in early voting was against the state constitution. Judge basically said "go fuck yourselves, why didn't you challenge it sooner?" Here, the plaintiffs are saying mail-in voting IN GENERAL was against the PA constitution. But of course, the Republican PA legislators according to the article had no problem with the statute until the results didn't go their way. This one dingbat R judge isn't going to completely overturn and throw out PA's election results over this, I'm pretty sure.

[Dem2]

15. ...of some down-ballot races

JFC this is deceptive - I would delete it.

[AkFemDem]

19. If you'd been following since this first posted

Then you’d have seen this was a direct copy paste of the ORIGINAL text. It’s not my fault Bloomberg reported it so shoddily!! So JFC my post wasn’t deceptive 🤬 AND it’s been edited to reflect this UPDATE.

[Kaleva]

23. You ought to edit title at a minimum to make clear this only concerns down ticket races.

[AkFemDem]

25. It's already been edited, not sure what more you need

And people could always open and read the post 🤷🏻?♀️ It’s been more than clarifies as well.

[Kaleva]

28. Is there a reason u don't want to make it clear in the title this only concerns down ticket races?

[Roland99]

29. What's the title of the article of this link say to you?

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/pennsylvania-judge-blocks-further-election-certification-steps


settle down

[greenjar_01]

32. Delete and repost in PA forum

None of this is hard.

[AkFemDem]

33. No. If you read the judges ruling this clearly

Is directed at all races on the ballot. Apparently it’s super hard!

[AkFemDem]

34. Link to injunction for all you nay sayers

Who think this isn’t legitimate general discussion.

https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/kelly-order.pdf

[Dem2]

36. I wasn't criticizing you

I saw this posted with the corrected text on reddit and was just a little irritated seeing it here also.

You have to admit, this never-ending election has many of us thinking "will this be over already so we can move on!"

[AkFemDem]

26. The court order said the state is prohibited

“The court order said the state is prohibited from acting “to the extent that there remains any further action to perfect the certification of the results" of the races for president and vice president.“

So not sure what practical effect this has on to the presidential ballot since SOS already certified but contrary to some previous posts- this is also directed in some capacity at the top of the ballot as well.

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2020/11/25/pennsylvania-vote-election-certification-sean-parnell-mike-kelly-commonwealth-court-appeal/stories/202011250159