Bucks County Certifies 2020 Election Results

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — The Bucks County Board of Elections made the county's vote totals official on Monday, certifying results moments after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled against a challenge from President Donald Trump's campaign.

The board voted unanimously to certify vote totals Monday afternoon. In Bucks County, President-elect Joe Biden outpaced Trump by about 17,000 votes, earning 204,712 to Trump's 187,367.

The Bucks County lawsuit was one of several unsuccessful efforts Trump's legal team has launched to challenge election results in Pennsylvania, which Biden won. He had challenged about 2,000 Bucks County mail-in ballots.

RELATED: Trump's Appeal Rejected As PA Certification Deadline Looms

The lawsuit did not allege fraud, but claimed the ballots should not have been counted because their outer envelopes had come open, ink on them was smudged or they had other minor problems. A Bucks County Court of Common Pleas judge had ruled the votes were counted properly.

But, with Monday's statewide deadline to certify election results approaching, Bucks County asked the Supreme Court to step in. The Board of Elections met briefly at noon, only to take a break until 3:45 p.m. to give the court time to decide.

"We just got word that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reinforced that decision that those roughly 2,000 votes were counted properly," Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, a member of the elections board, said when members reconvened.

Trump's legal team suffered another blow Monday when their appeal of a federal judge's dismissal of their statewide elections lawsuit also was rejected.

U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephanos Bibas said in a court filing Monday afternoon that the appeal was "summarily dismissed for lack of standing, as there is no injury-in-fact."

The appeal came one day before the state's election certification deadline. The deadline for counties to certify the results of the election in Pennsylvania is Monday, Nov. 23.

"The Department of State continues to work closely with and support all 67 counties as they work to complete the election certification process," department spokeswoman Wanda Murren said in an email to Patch.

Trump's refusal to concede the election has been met with condemnation from both sides of the aisle, including Pennsylvania's U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey.

"President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the result of the presidential race in Pennsylvania," Toomey said Sunday, noting he was "deeply disappointed" Trump had lost the election but that it was time to work with Biden.

Biden won Pennsylvania by around 80,000 votes over Trump in 2020 en route to his general election victory.