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(CNN) – The Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit Saturday night by US Representative Mike Kelly and other Republicans after they tried to invalidate the absentee vote and block the certification of votes in recent weeks.
The firing adds to a growing number of court losses for Republicans and supporters of President Donald Trump, who have tried to attack voting systems in the wake of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. The lawsuits have failed almost uniformly.
The court was unanimous in ruling against Kelly and others, and refused to block the certification of the vote on Saturday. Five of the seven justices wrote that they believed the lawsuit was filed too late, a year after absentee voting procedures were established in the state and weeks after millions of Pennsylvania residents voted in good faith.
MAP: See the results of the 2020 elections
“It is irrefutable that the petitioners did not act with due diligence in filing this claim,” the court wrote in its majority opinion.
The superior court said Republicans could not reconfigure their complaints and try again.
Lower state courts had said the lawsuit, which was filed weeks after Election Day, could prevent counties from certifying votes, but that measure had become essentially irrelevant.
Pennsylvania counties had already certified their vote counts, making Biden the winner of the battlefield status by a margin of 80,000 votes.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Pennsylvania dealt a fatal blow to the Trump campaign effort to overturn Biden’s presidential victory by dismissing a closely watched lawsuit that sought to invalidate millions of Pennsylvania votes. That case was essentially the last major case seeking to discard or block enough votes that could tip a key state in favor of Trump.
Judge Matthew Brann of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania called the Trump campaign case “Frankenstein’s monster” because of its poorly intertwined legal theories.
On Friday, a federal appeals court dealt another blow to Trump’s campaign effort, and a Trump-appointed judge wrote in a scathing opinion that the campaign’s lawsuit lacked evidence and that its Pennsylvania allegations “have no merit” .
The court opinion also rejected Trump’s motion to undo Pennsylvania’s vote certification, calling it “unprecedented” and “impressive” relief where no fraud was alleged.
This story has been updated with additional information.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Pennsylvania Supreme Court Dismisses Another Republican Election Case.”
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