The battle by Republicans to overturn Joe Biden's election win may have been dealt a fatal blow.
CNN reported Tuesday evening that the U.S. Supreme Court had refused a request by Republicans in that state to block the certification of the state's election results, a decision that may have ended President Donald Trump's longshot effort to overturn the results of the presidential election.
"The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice [Samuel] Alito and by him referred to the Court has been denied," read the order.
Alito is a conservative justice who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, a Republican.
Trump had hoped that the conservative-leaning court would agree to block the results from being certified. The order did not include comments from any of the nine justices.
In Pennsylvania, Trump's legal team wanted over 2.5 million absentee ballots to be thrown out, citing unproven claims of voter fraud. The state was key in securing the Electoral College majority for Biden, thus giving the former vice-president the White House.
The president, who lost the election in the Keystone State to Biden by less than 82,000 votes, had filed numerous lawsuits that argued widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania and other battleground states. No significant evidence has been produced to back up those claims, and most lawsuits have been either dismissed in court or dropped by Trump's lawyers.
CNN also reported that earlier on Tuesday, Trump had made a personal appeal to Supreme Court justices, as well as Pennsylvania state officials, to support his battle to block the results from being certified.
Trump has refused to concede defeat to Biden, though some of his supporters and congressional Republicans have acknowledged that Biden won the election.
With just about every state certifying its election totals, each state then chooses the electors who will actually cast the votes. Electors are typically bound to vote for whichever candidate has won the state. The electors will then meet on Monday to officially cast the votes.
Tuesday marked the so-called "safe harbour" date, which means that when a joint session of Congress meets in January to count the Electoral College votes, it must accept the votes that were certified by the "safe harbour" date.
Biden, who has begun nominating people to serve in his Cabinet and on the White House staff, will be inaugurated on January 20.
