PA lawmakers appeal to McConnell, Georgia court sets hearing in latest election challenges

President Trump's supporters across the country are escalating efforts to contest the Nov. 3 election results ahead of Wednesday's official certification by Congress, with some Pennsylvania lawmakers making a special appeal to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Georgia Republicans scoring an 11th-hour court hearing.

The frenzied efforts come as Republicans also try to win two runoff elections in Georgia that will determine control of the Senate, while the president's attorneys bank their hopes on an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and getting legislatures in as many as six states to object to certifications.

Republican congressional leaders expect as many as two dozen or more lawmakers in the House and at least one senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri, to object to the slate of electors for Joe Biden in several contested battleground states, prompting at least a two-hour debate next Wednesday.

Increasing the pressure, two dozen GOP state lawmakers in Pennsylvania, led by state Sen. Doug Mastriano, sent letters to McConnell and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy on Thursday asking that their state's election results not be accepted by Congress until further investigation of irregularities is completed.

"Actions taken by the PA State Supreme Court and Secretary [of State Kathy] Boockvar in the 2020 general election were so fraught with inconsistencies, improprieties and irregularities that the results for the Office of President of the United States cannot be determined in our state," the lawmakers wrote. "This election is an embarrassment to our nation."

"We the undersigned ask that you dispute the certification until an investigation is completed," added the letter signed by eight state senators or senators-elect and 19 state House members.

To the south, momentum was building among Trump supporters in Georgia after the GOP-controlled state Senate Judiciary Committee approved an audit of voting machines in Fulton County, the home to Atlanta, and held a hearing where one expert claimed he could access voting machines that were not supposed to be connected to the internet.

The Superior Court in Fulton scheduled a hearing Monday, accepting an emergency petition from a group of Georgian voters called Voter GA demanding a "forensic inspection" of November mail-in ballots.

"We have just received notice that we will be granted a hearing Monday, Jan. 4 at 11 a.m. on our Emergency Petition to visually inspect and forensically examine all Fulton County mail-in ballots," Garland Favorito, one of the petitioners, told The Epoch Times newspaper. "That includes those processed at State Farm Arena and those that auditors detected as potentially fraudulent."

Meanwhile, the president's attorneys have filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge Wisconsin's result while urging legislatures in as many as six states — Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada — to object to certifications.

"President Trump continues to fight for the American people and election integrity," campaign lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said in a statement this week after filing a lawsuit contesting Wisconsin's results to the U.S. Supreme Court. "We have to restore integrity to our process through every legal and constitutionally viable mechanism. America has seen the extent of corruption in this election and is demanding swift resolution.

"We hope that state legislatures in Wisconsin and the five other states will not wait on a court order but exercise their plenary constitutional authority and we continue to appeal to them as well as seek judicial remedy."