Following U.S. Capitol riot, Pa.’s Thompson and Keller among those to reject vote results
Centre County’s two representatives in the U.S. House denounced Wednesday’s violence in the nation’s capital, but did not waiver in opposing the certification of Pennsylvania’s electors early Thursday morning.
Prior to the riot led by Trump supporters, U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Howard, and Rep. Fred Keller, R-Kreamer, were among Republicans who announced they would vote against certification of electors. While some lawmakers reversed their decisions after being evacuated from the Capitol Complex and returning for the count, Keller and Thompson maintained their stance and moved to reject the state’s results.
Neither responded to requests for comment on Thursday.
With no credible evidence of fraud, nearly all legal challenges presented by the Trump campaign have been dismissed by judges. But GOP members moved to challenge the commonwealth’s electoral votes, repeating allegations that Gov. Tom Wolf, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and the Supreme Court altered election code in an attempt to circumvent the democratic process.
“While systemic voter fraud was not something proven, we witnessed a systemic failure in the application of Pennsylvania’s voting law when it comes to the 2020 election,” Thompson on the House floor early Thursday morning.
During his remarks on the House floor, Thompson said the “path of least resistance would be remaining silent.” Voicing his support for the challenge, Thompson said election officials abused Act 77, a bipartisan piece of legislation that passed historic election reform in 2019.
“The election abuses ... taken by the Pennsylvania executive branch and upheld by the Pennsylvania judicial branch were clearly unconstitutional and had an obvious, if not major, impact on the 2020 election — particularly when it comes to the citizens’ faith in the electoral process,” Thompson said.
Since Nov. 3, the majority of officials questioning election integrity and casting doubt on voting procedures have been Republican lawmakers; some have continued to propagate unsubstantiated claims of fraud from the Trump campaign.
Reiterating requests from state lawmakers including Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman and House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, Thompson said he supports an investigation and audit of the 2020 general election to prevent “negligence” in future elections.
“Only with equal application of the law will the voters of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have certainty in their election processes,” Thompson said. “If our election integrity is compromised, we have failed the very voters who have sent us here to defend the Constitution.”
Opening his remarks on the House floor by saying Congress will never “give in to the mob,” Keller voiced support for opposing the electoral votes — repeating claims that Wolf, Boockvar and the Supreme Court violated the law by changing election code.
“The Constitution is clear, and the facts are indisputable,” Keller said. “I intend to fulfill my Constitutional oath, which the people of Pennsylvania have entrusted in me.”
Thompson and Keller were reelected in November. Neither have questioned the validity of their victories.
Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey voted to approve the certification of the electoral votes and highlighted the bipartisan nature of Act 77, which was passed by a GOP-controlled legislature and supported by a Democratic governor.
“I rise tonight to defend the people of Pennsylvania, to defend the more than 6.9 million voters who voted in this election and to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, this attempt to disenfranchise the voters of Pennsylvania based upon a lie — a falsehood,” Casey said while delivering remarks on the Senate floor. “That same lie sowed the seeds of today’s violence and today’s lawlessness here in the Capitol.”
While speaking on the Senate floor, Toomey told his colleagues that while he voted for Trump, he would not move to challenge the electoral votes because Congress does not have the legal authority to decide which votes are counted based on how a state conducts an election.
“This is what the objectors are really asking us to do — to federalize elections by rejecting Electoral College votes from states whose processes they say they disapprove of and thereby having Congress select the president of the United States instead of the American people,” Toomey said. “If Congress gets to decide which states get to vote in the Electoral College, then clearly, Congress is selecting the president — not the people.”
The challenge failed with a 282 to 138 vote in the House and a 92 to 7 vote in the Senate.
Other than sharing statements on the riot and remarks from the joint session, Keller and Thompson remained quiet Thursday. Their constituents took to social media to voice frustration and demand answers as to why they opposed the results.
Centre County commissioners also expressed frustration during a Thursday meeting but remained confident in the electoral process carried out at the local level.
When voting ended on Nov. 3, the board of commissioners sent a letter to representatives in Harrisburg and Washington, urging them to report any evidence of voter fraud.
On Thursday, commissioners said they never received a response.
“We haven’t heard from anybody — at all,” Democratic Commissioner Mark Higgins said. “Since both Rep. Keller and Rep. Thompson are in Congress, they’re elected every two years. They were elected on the same ballot at the same time, using all of the same processes. So, if for some reason, the election for the president of the United States is not valid, in their opinion, then their elections are also not valid. You don’t get to pick and choose.”
The board agreed that the county conducted a free and fair election and encouraged representatives to work together with all levels of government to strengthen election systems and give voice to perceived shortcomings.
“I think there are some concerns about some statewide issues,” Republican Commissioner Steve Dershem said. “But at the local level, I believe that Centre County performed very admirable in making sure that we had a fair and accurately counted election. It it perfect? No — no election ever will be, but we did everything within our means to assure that what we did was according to the guidelines we were provided by the state and federal government.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 2:36 PM.
