Pennsylvania Republicans Send Letter Urging Mitch McConnell to Dispute Election Results
By Katherine Fung On 12/31/20 at 12:43 PM EST
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may be urging Republicans to avoid challenging President-elect Joe Biden's victory in Pennsylvania, but state legislators are calling on McConnell to be the one to dispute the results of the election.
A Wednesday letter signed by 27 Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania's Legislature asked McConnell to "dispute the certification until an investigation is completed" into allegations of election fraud.
"Without a thorough investigation into these allegations, the certification of the Pennsylvania election results is suspect at best," the letter reads.
The legislators accused the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and the Executive branch of undermining the state's election code "by eliminating signature verification, postmarks, and due dates while allowing the proliferation of drop boxes with questionable security measures and the unauthorized curing of ballots, as well as the questionable treatment of poll watchers."
The GOP officials said actions taken by the state supreme court and Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, who has refused to launch an investigation into the state's election results, "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."
Biden won Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes and the state's 20 electors cast their votes for the former vice president last month, formally recognizing his victory in the Electoral College.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) walks to open up the senate on Capitol Hill on December 20, 2020 in Washington, DC. Pennsylvania legislators are urging McConnell to dispute the results of the election until an investigation is conducted. Tasos Katopodis/Stringer
Congress is set to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election next week on January 6. McConnell has urged Senate Republicans not to challenge the results, which would force both chambers to debate and vote on Biden's win.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri announced on Wednesday that he would go against such guidance and challenge the results in Pennsylvania.
Other GOP senators, like Susan Collins of Maine, questioned Hawley's efforts.
"I do not think that he will prevail in his quest. And I question why he is doing it when the courts have unanimously thrown out the suits that the president's team have filed for lack of credible evidence," Collins said. "And Sen. Hawley's a smart attorney who clerked for the Supreme Court, so he clearly understands that. So I don't understand."
President Donald Trump's legal team filed a number of lawsuits in key battleground states, including seven in Pennsylvania, seeking to overturn the results of the election. The majority of these legal challenges have been rejected or dismissed by judges.
On December 20, Trump's campaign filed another last-ditch lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to throw out over 110,000 mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania. The suit remains ongoing although courts have previously refused to throw out votes.
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A challenge in the joint meeting between the House and Senate next week may not decide the outcome of the election, but it will delay the certification of Biden's presidential win and force every member in Congress to affirm the victory on record.
McConnell has already recognized Biden as the president-elect, a move other Republican officials have steered away from.
"The electoral college has spoken," McConnell said on December 15 from the Senate floor, "Today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden."
Shortly after, Trump slammed the senator for breaking with him, tweeting that it was "too soon to give up."
Newsweek reached out to McConnell's office for comment but did not hear back before publication.