Cruz urges Supreme Court to take up Pennsylvania election challenge

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) threw his support behind an effort to get the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of a ruling dismissing a GOP-led challenge of Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting system.

Cruz is the first senator to publicly voice support for the appeal, which came after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shot down a lawsuit protesting the system as a way of overturning the Keystone State’s election results, which showed President-elect Joe Biden defeating President Trump.

“This appeal raises serious legal issues, and I believe the Court should hear the case on an expedited basis,” Cruz said in a statement.

The lawsuit revolves around the claim that millions of ballots in Pennsylvania should be thrown out. The GOP’s argument is that the law allowing voters to cast mail ballots for any reason violates the state constitution’s requirements for who is eligible to receive a mail-in ballot. 

Pennsylvania’s highest court shot down the suit, noting that the complaint challenged a law passed in 2019 and ruling that the “extraordinary” request was filed too late. 

The petitioners were blamed for a “complete failure to act with due diligence in commencing their facial constitutional challenge” in the court’s ruling. 

The petitioners, led by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), who brought the original suit, filed an emergency request to the Supreme Court asking it to stop any further certification of the Pennsylvania vote.

The petitioners wrote that without involvement from the Supreme Court, the state “will take further actions to certify the results of the Election, potentially limiting this Court’s ability to grant relief in the event of a decision on the merits in Petitioners’ favor.”

Cruz said the petitioners’ case “raises serious legal issues” and urged the high court to “hear the case on an expedited basis.” 

“The Pennsylvania Constitution requires in-person voting, except in narrow and defined circumstances. Late last year, the Pennsylvania Legislature passed a law that purported to allow universal mail-in voting, notwithstanding the Pennsylvania Constitution’s express prohibition,” he said. “”This appeal argues that Pennsylvania cannot change the rules in the middle of the game.”

“The bitter division and acrimony we see across the nation needs resolution. And I believe the U.S. Supreme Court has a responsibility to the American people to ensure that we are following the law and following the Constitution. Hearing this case-now, on an emergency expedited basis-would be an important step in helping rebuild confidence in the integrity of our democratic system,” he added.  

Trump and his Republican allies have launched a litany of legal challenges in a handful of swing states to overturn the election results, though they have been unsuccessful in presenting evidence of the kind of widespread fraud they said swung the election.