Judge Blocks Certification of Pennsylvania Election Results

A Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday ordered state officials to not certify the results of the 2020 election until her court holds a hearing on an election contest on Friday. Commonwealth Judge Patricia McCullough ordered the state to not take any further steps to complete the certification of the presidential race, which the state announced on Tuesday. She also blocked the certification of all the other election results. “To the extent that there remains any further action to perfect the certification of the results of the 2020 General Election for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States of America, respondents are preliminarily enjoined from doing so, pending an evidentiary hearing to be held on Friday,” the judge wrote in her order. “Respondents are preliminarily enjoined from certifying the remaining results of the election, pending the evidentiary hearing.”

McCullough is presiding over a lawsuit brought by Republican lawmakers and candidates against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, and the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The plaintiffs alleged that Pennsylvania’s vote-by-mail stature—Act 77—is in violation of the state’s constitution. “Act 77 is the most expansive and fundamental change to the Pennsylvania voting code, implemented illegally, to date,” the lawsuit, filed in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, states. “As with prior historical attempts to illegally expand mail-in voting by statute, which have been struck down going as far back as the Military Absentee Ballot Act of 1839, Act 77 is another illegal attempt to override the limitations on absentee voting prescribed in the Pennsylvania Constitution, without first following the necessary procedure to amend the constitution to allow for the expansion.” The plaintiffs include Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Republican congressional candidate Sean Parnell, and Pennsylvania House of Representatives candidate Wanda Logan. The office of Gov. Wolf did not respond to a request for comment. It is unclear what steps remained as of Wednesday morning to “perfect” the certification of the presidential and vice-presidential races.

After the Keystone State announced the certification of the presidential election results on Tuesday, the plaintiffs filed an emergency request just before midnight, arguing that there was no need to act so fast. In 2016, Pennsylvania certified the presidential election on Dec. 12. “It appears that respondents’ actions may have been accelerated in response to the application for emergency relief … in an effort to preclude any remedial action by this court faster than this court was able to evaluate the application for emergency relief and the answers to it,” the plaintiffs wrote. The emergency request underlined that while Pennsylvania completed vote-counting and submitted the signed certification to the U.S. archivist, a number of steps still remain for the formal certification process to be completed. “While Respondents may have proactively attempted to avoid potential injunctive relief granted by this Court, Respondents duties with regard to finalization of the full election results are far from complete,” the filing states.

Marc Elias, one of the top attorneys leading the Democrats’ post-election legal battles, called the lawsuit frivolous. “Republican Congressman Mike Kelly has filed a new frivolous lawsuit in Pennsylvania seeking to block the state from certifying the election results and having the state legislature choose electors,” Elias wrote on Twitter on Nov. 21. “This is absolutely shameful.” President Donald Trump responded to Elias, writing: “This is not at all frivolous. It is brought on behalf of one of the most respected members of the United States Congress who is disgusted, like so many others, by an Election that is a fraudulent mess. Fake ballots, dead people voting, no Republican Poll Watchers allowed, & more!” Wolf signed Act 77 into law on Oct. 31, 2019. Eight of the nine sponsors of the bill in the Pennsylvania Senate were Republicans.

https://www.ntd.com/judge-blocks-certification-of-pennsylvania-election-results_532786.html

620 MD 2020 – Application for Emergency Relief

https://www.scribd.com/document/485800333/620-MD-2020-Application-for-Emergency-Relief

>>11789187

It has been an HONOR indeed to STAND beside The Q team, All of our Patriots in the field and on the ground. Most of all it has been an HONOR to STAND beside all these Outstanding ANONS, Thank You one and all.. Let's Finish This!

Errors, ‘Scams’ Led California To Send Millions In COVID Unemployment Benefits To Prisoners, Death Row Inmates

In what a group of California District Attorneys is calling “the most significant fraud on taxpayer funds in California history,” a possible $1 billion in taxpayer-funded COVID unemployment benefits went to convicted murderers, rapists, and death row inmates in the California prison system. The Los Angeles Times reports that the “pandemic relief system administered by the state Employment Development Department” issued checks to hundreds of incarcerated individuals, including high-profile convicted murderer Scott Peterson. “Nine district attorneys across California and a federal prosecutor on Tuesday made these allegations and called for Gov. Gavin Newsom to intervene to stop such unemployment swindling in California jails and prisons,” the outlet reported, noting that the money went to prisoners, who are ineligible for unemployment relief — including COVID unemployment relief — through “fraud that involves identity theft of prisoners as well as alleged scams by individual inmates and organized gangs to game the state system.”

So far, investigators have officially discovered at more than $100 million in misdirected funds, but the attorneys who signed Tuesday’s letter say they believe that once a full investigation has concluded, the losses could total around $1 billion. “So far, investigations have uncovered more than $400,000 in state benefits paid to death row inmates, and more than $140 million to other incarcerated people in California’s 38 prisons, according to Sacramento County Dist. Atty. Anne Marie Schubert, who helped organize and lead a task force that uncovered the alleged dupery,” the LA Times notes. “In total, payments to those ineligible due to incarceration in prisons and jails could total nearly $1 billion, the prosecutors claim.” In one county alone, prosecutors anticipate more than $10 million in misdirected funds — enough that they’re calling on Newsom to take immediate action. “Kern County Dist. Atty. Cynthia Zimmer, whose district has five prisons, the most of any county in California, called the scope of the scams shocking. Zimmer said her office had found about $16 million in allegedly fraudulent claims in her county alone,” the L.A. Times reports. One facility — Pleasant Valley State Prison — is home to around 850 questionable claims, potentially totaling $3.6 million in appropriated taxpayer funds.

It’s not clear how much of the unemployment money was stolen, the attorneys say, because there are several schemes involved, and there are individual families, unaffiliated with any larger effort, who may have applied for COVID relief money on behalf of incarcerated relatives — a form of identity theft. California Governor Gavin Newsom, already under fire for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, tried to quash concerns about the fraud in a statement Tuesday, pledging to appoint a statewide task force to investigate, but some state officials noted that there are so many Californians in need of unemployment assistance as a result of continued lockdowns, that the problem may be too big to manage — and Newsom’s efforts may be too late. “To expedite and strengthen these efforts I have directed the Office of Emergency Services to stand up a task force to coordinate state efforts and support investigations by local District Attorneys,” Newsom said. “We will continue to fully partner with law enforcement and direct as many resources as needed to investigate and resolve this issue speedily. While we have made improvements, we need to do more. Everything the state does will be done in partnership with the local District Attorneys and I thank them for their commitment to resolving this issue as quickly as possible.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/errors-scams-led-california-to-send-millions-in-covid-unemployment-benefits-to-prisoners-death-row-inmates