Gov. Tom Wolf | Facebook
Gov. Tom Wolf | Facebook
Top state officials have filed a notice to appeal a judge’s ruling blocking the certification of Pennsylvania’s vote until a hearing can be held on Nov. 27.
Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, along with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, appealed Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough’s order blocking the certification of the vote until the hearing.
The appeal, filed Wednesday afternoon, also mentions a jurisdictional statement that will be filed concurrently with the appeal.
“This order does not impact yesterday’s appointment of electors. We will be filing an appeal with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court momentarily,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro tweeted shortly after McCullough’s order.
According to Bloomberg the appeal was filed directly with the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court.
"Since the birth of our nation nearly 250 years ago, no court has ever issued an order purporting to interfere with a state's ascertainment of its presidential electors - until today," the Wolf administration said in its motion.
Wolf and Kathy Boockvar are asking the state’s Supreme Court to dismiss the underlying lawsuit and toss McCullough’s order.
McCullough halted the certification pending an evidentiary hearing scheduled for Friday morning. The case itself alleges that Act 77, Pennsylvania’s vote-by-mail law that passed last year is unconstitutional.
“Respondents are preliminarily enjoined from certifying the remaining results of the Election, pending the evidentiary hearing …” McCullough wrote in the order.
The plaintiffs in the case allege that the law was implemented illegally and it attempts to override statutes in the Pennsylvania Constitution.
McCullough, a Republican, has been on the court since 2010. She was re-elected unopposed in 2019. Her current term expires in 2030.
Joe Biden’s win over Trump in the state was certified on Tuesday by Boockvar, Bloomberg reported. Wolf then appointed electors for the state. Biden has a more than an 80,000-vote lead over Trump in the state.
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