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Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturns judge's ruling raising constitutional questions about election

Court dismisses GOP lawsuit with prejudice.

Published: November 29, 2020 8:04am

Updated: November 29, 2020 1:23pm

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has delivered another blow to GOP election integrity challenges, overturning a state judge's ruling blocking the certification of the state's vote tally.

In a decision Saturday night, the state's high court also dismissed with prejudice the lawsuit brought by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly and other Pennsylvania Republicans who claimed a state law, Act 77, that made changes to mail-in voting violated the state constitution.

The justices unanimously ruled the challenge had been filed a year after the law and thus was too late. "Upon consideration of the parties’ filings in Commonwealth Court, we hereby dismiss the petition for review with prejudice based upon Petitioners’ failure to file their facial constitutional challenge in a timely manner," the court said.

Two of the Republican justices on the court sided with the majority ruling but issued statements saying the underlying constitutional argument appeared to have merit.

Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough last week ordered state officials to halt further steps to certify Joe Biden as the winner of the Pennsylvania election, ruling the GOP had a strong chance of prevailing on the constitutional arguments. The Supreme Court's decision overturns that ruling.

The lawsuit by Kelly and other Republicans sought to invalidate hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots.

You can read the Supreme Court ruling here.

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