Congressional Record/Volume 167/Issue 4/House/Counting Electoral Votes/Pennsylvania Objection Debate/Keller Speech
Mr. Keller. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smucker) for yielding.
Madam Speaker, the violence that occurred in the Capitol today was shameful, unacceptable, and un-American. We are a nation of laws, not lawlessness, and we will never give in to the mob.
Thank you to the men and women of our Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies who heroically defended this building.
The criminal behavior we witnessed today does not erase the facts before us.
I am objecting to the certification of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes because Governor Tom Wolf, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court violated the State legislature’s clear constitutional authority to set election proceedings.
Under the Pennsylvania Constitution, only the General Assembly has the power to set election law.
Additionally, Article II of the U.S. Constitution explicitly grants State legislatures, not the Governor acting alone and not the courts, the explicit power to determine the manner of appointing Presidential electors.
Pennsylvania’s court unlawfully extended the deadline to receive absentee and mail-in ballots. Governor Wolf’s administration dismissed signature authentication procedures for absentee and mail-in ballots, allowed for the uneven administration of the election across counties, and unilaterally changed Pennsylvania’s election code without the State legislature’s consent.
The Constitution is clear and the facts are indisputable.
This past weekend, each Member of this body stood in this Chamber and swore an oath to protect and defend our Constitution. I intend to fulfill my constitutional oath which the people of Pennsylvania have entrusted in me. My objection is grounded in the Constitution and rule of law.
If we allow the Governor to violate the constitutional rights of the General Assembly, what is stopping him from violating the constitutional rights of the 12.8 million Pennsylvanians our State legislators were elected to represent?