Commonwealth Court orders pause to further certification of Pa. election results

A Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday ordered a pause to any election certification proceedings still pending in the state as part of a lawsuit brought by a number of Republican candidates and legislators, including Rep. Mike Kelly and candidate Sean Parnell.

The judge’s action does not affect the outcome of the presidential race in Pennsylvania, where the results officially were certified Tuesday.

In her preliminary order, Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough granted a hearing on the Republican suit that alleges the state’s broad expansion of mail-in voting was unconstitutional and seeks to have those ballots tossed out.

The lawsuit names the state, the state Legislature, Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar.

More than 2.6 million Pennsylvanians voted by mail in the presidential race. Just under 2 million of them were votes for Biden.

In the presidential race, the Wednesday order halts the process “to the extent that there remains any further action to perfect the certification of the results,” meaning the small number of ballots that remain to be tabulated by county election boards around the state.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the order from McCullough, a Republican, could hold up the certification of state and local contests on the ballot or interrupt the scheduled Dec. 14 meeting of the state’s 20 electors. McCullough scheduled a hearing for Friday.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro wrote on Twitter that the order “does not impact yesterday’s appointment of electors,” referring to the 20 electoral votes Biden is set to receive from Pennsylvania.

The attorney general’s office filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court within hours of the Commonwealth Court action.

Attorneys for the state and Legislature argued previously that the request to halt the certification process was moot, as the results were certified Tuesday morning. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, however, contended that the state’s “duties with regard to the finalization of the full election results are far from complete.”

The Associated Press contributed.