WASHINGTON: A Penns­ylvania judge on Saturday threw out Donald Trump’s claims of widespread electoral fraud there, dealing a new blow to the Republican’s bid to overturn his loss in the US presidential election.

The decision — announ­ced in a scathing judgement which excoriated the Trump team’s legal strategy — paves the way for Pennsy­lvania to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory there, which is scheduled to take place on Monday.

With the clock ticking down to Biden’s January 20 inauguration, Trump’s team has focused on trying to stop battleground states from certifying election results, in addition to his numerous legal challenges that have so far failed.

Judge Matthew Brann wrote in his ruling that Trump’s team had presented “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations” in their complaints about mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.

“In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state,” Brann wrote.

“Our people, laws, and institutions demand more.”

Biden won the state-by-state Electoral College votes that ultimately decide who takes the White House by 306 to 232.

The Electoral College is due to formally vote on Dec­e­mber 14, with certificat­ions to take place beforehand.

States’ certification of res­ults of their popular votes is usually routine following a US presidential election.

But Trump’s refusal to concede has complicated the process and drawn concerns that he could cause long-term damage to Ame­ricans’ trust in their voting system.

Only a limited number of Republicans have so far recognised Biden as the winner and called on Trump to concede.

The Pennsylvania court ruling prompted a Repub­lican senator from the state, Pat Toomey, to join those ranks, saying Biden “won the 2020 election and will become the 46th president of the United States”.

The judgement in Pennsy­lvania came hours after Republicans also requested a delay in certification in Mic­h­igan, another battleground, in a letter that repeated allegations of irregularities in the state which Biden won by 155,000 votes.

They asked for a delay of two weeks to allow for a full audit of results in Wayne County, the state’s largest and where majority-black Detroit is located, which was won overwhelmingly by Biden.

Michigan’s board of canvassers, which includes two Democrats and two Republicans, is also due to meet on Monday to certify the results.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2020