(Headline USA) Democrat Joe Biden was certified Tuesday as winner of the presidential election in Pennsylvania, despite voluminous affidavits claiming rampant vote fraud, and culminating three weeks of vote counting and a string of thus-far failed legal challenges by President Donald Trump — although the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has granted at least one review.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf first disclosed in a tweet that the Department of State had certified the vote count for president and vice president.
Wolf sent a “certificate of ascertainment” to the national archivist in Washington with the slate of electors who support Biden and Vice President nominee Kamala Harris.
Pennsylvania’s 20 electors, a mix of elected Democrats, party activists and other staunch Biden backers, will meet in the state Capitol on Dec. 14.
One of them, state Democratic Party chair Nancy Patton Mills, said she will also lead the Electoral College’s meeting in Harrisburg next month.
Patton Mills said she was gratified that Pennsylvania was “the state that made it possible” for Biden to win.
Biden’s announced win in the state, giving him its haul of 20 electoral votes, helped put him over the 270 needed.
The Pennsylvania results show Biden and Harris with 3.46 million votes, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence with 3.38 million, and Libertarian Jo Jorgensen with 79,000.
Democratic Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, in a news release, called the state’s election officials and poll workers “the true heroes of our democracy.”
“We are tremendously grateful to all 67 counties who have been working extremely long hours to ensure that every qualified voter’s vote is counted safely and securely,” Boockvar said.
