Prominent Republican pollster Frank Luntz hit back at conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on Twitter, telling him that “this election is over.”
The jab came amid a ruling by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania that struck down the counting of 2,349 ballots in Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, a critical 2020 battleground.
The ballots that were submitted did not include a printed date on the declaration form on the outside envelope but were otherwise correct and had been received before the deadline, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
But the court ruled that a county elections board could not “relax or ignore” requirements of the elections code and ruled the ballots should not be counted.
Kirk appeared to celebrate that court victory on Twitter:
“BOOM. A Pennsylvania court just invalidated 2,349 absentee ballots in Allegheny County where the voter didn’t date their declaration,” he tweeted on Thursday. “This is huge. This election isn’t over yet. Keep fighting!”
Luntz responded on Friday by saying “this election is over” given the large lead President-elect Joe Biden has in the county. He leads by more than 146,000 votes.
Overall, Biden leads Trump by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, an amount that is highly unlikely to change through a recount.
Trump has refused to concede the race and has made various allegations of widespread fraud, but he has found little success with legal challenges in court. His team has also been unable to provide evidence to back up the allegations of widespread fraud.