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WASHINGTON (AP) – A Pennsylvania judge dismissed Donald Trump’s allegations of widespread electoral fraud in that country on Saturday, dealing another blow to the Republican’s attempt to reverse his defeat in the U.S. presidential election.
The decision, announced in a scathing trial that criticized the Trump team’s legal strategy, paves the way for Pennsylvania to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory there, which is scheduled for Monday.
With the clock ticking until Biden’s inauguration on January 20, Trump’s team has focused on trying to prevent states on the battlefield from certifying the election results, in addition to their many legal challenges that even now they have failed.
Judge Matthew Brann wrote in his ruling that Trump’s team had made “tense, meritless legal arguments and speculative allegations” in their complaints about mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.
“In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, much less of all voters in its sixth most populous state,” Brann wrote.
“Our people, laws and institutions demand more.”
Biden won the Electoral College votes state by state that ultimately decide who takes the White House for 306-232.
The Electoral College must formally vote on December 14, and certifications will be made in advance.
Certification of their popular vote results by the states is often routine after a US presidential election.
But Trump’s refusal to concede complicated the process and raised concerns that it could cause long-term damage to Americans’ confidence in his voting system.
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So far, only a limited number of Republicans have recognized Biden as the winner and asked Trump to back down.
The Pennsylvania court ruling prompted a Republican state senator, Pat Toomey, to join those ranks, saying that Biden “won the 2020 election and will become the 46th president of the United States.”
“President Trump should accept the election result and facilitate the presidential transition process,” Toomey said in a statement congratulating Biden and specifying that he voted for Trump.
‘The results are clear’
The Pennsylvania ruling came hours after Republicans also requested a delay in certification in Michigan, another battlefield, in a letter repeating allegations of wrongdoing in the state that Biden won by 155,000 votes.
They called for a two-week delay to allow for a full audit of the results in Wayne County, the state’s largest and home to black-majority Detroit, which was overwhelmingly won by Biden.
Michigan’s board of voters, which includes two Democrats and two Republicans, will also meet Monday to certify the results.
Republican Party National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and Party Chair in Michigan Laura Cox called on the board to “be suspended for 14 days to allow a full audit and investigation into these anomalies and irregularities.”
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has said audits cannot be performed until after certification because officials do not have legal access to necessary documents until then.
On Saturday, he posted on Twitter that there was “no evidence” to question the election result.
“Bottom line: 5.5 million Michigan citizens voted,” he wrote.
“The results of their votes are clear. No evidence has emerged to undermine that.”
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On Friday, Trump invited Michigan lawmakers to the White House as part of his attempt to subvert the will of the voters, but lawmakers stood firm and said they would respect the election result.
Biden has so far tempered his criticism of Trump’s actions, though he has spoken of “incredibly damaging messages being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy works,” adding: “It’s hard to understand how this man thinks.”
Trump has rarely appeared in public since his electoral defeat, but he has not given up on his provocative Twitter campaign.
“The proof that comes is undeniable,” he tweeted on Saturday, when he also played golf.
“Many more votes than necessary. This was a LANDSLIDE!”
Twitter put another warning tag on his tweet, along with others he posted later.
