The Senate quickly killed Republican objections to Pennsylvania’s electoral vote for President-elect Joe Biden.
Senators voted 92-7 after midnight to derail the GOP attempt to overturn Pennsylvania’s support for the Democrat.
In a long day dominated by pro-Trump rioters’ deadly storming of the Capitol, it's the second state for which a group of Republicans tried and failed to reverse the will of voters. Some GOP lawmakers have backed President Donald Trump’s bogus claims that the election was fraudulent.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he believes no other states’ votes will be challenged. That means Congress’ formal certification of Biden’s victory could finish quickly once the House votes on the Pennsylvania challenge.
The Senate rejected the effort to cancel Pennsylvania’s votes without any debate.
Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri objected to the counting of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes.
Hawley said last week that he would object to Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, saying Congress should investigate voter fraud. President Donald Trump has falsely said since his defeat that there was widespread fraud in the election.
Biden won Pennsylvania by just over 80,000 votes. Since the Nov. 3 election, Trump and his allies filed at least a half-dozen lawsuits challenging Biden’s win on various grounds, including that many or all of the state’s mail-in ballots were illegal.
The lawsuits failed as judge after judge found no violation of state law or constitutional rights, or no grounds to grant an immediate halt to certifying the election.
Earlier in the evening, both the House and Senate rejected objections — spearheaded by Rep. Paul Gosar and Sen. Ted Cruz — to the electoral vote from Arizona. The objection failed 303-121 in the House on Wednesday night, with only Republicans voting in support. The Senate voted 93-6 to reject the objection. All votes in favor came from Republicans
The Republicans raised the objection based on false claims pushed by President Donald Trump and others of issues with the vote in Arizona, which were repeatedly dismissed in Arizona’s courts and by the state’s election officials.
