Sentinel photos by BRIAN COX
Protesters wave flags and chant in support of President Donald Trump during a demonstration Wednesday afternoon at the corner of Third and Wayne streets in Lewistown. The demonstration was to call upon state Sen. Jake Corman to convene a special counsel to ‘nullify’ Pennsylvania’s Biden electors and award the state’s electoral votes to Trump, something Corman said he does not have authority to do.

LEWISTOWN — A church group from northeastern Pennsylvania held a demonstration Wednesday outside the Lewistown office of state Sen. Jake Corman, calling on Corman to convene a special counsel to “nullify” Pennsylvania’s presidential electors and have the state legislature appoint its own, thereby awarding the state’s 20 electoral votes to President Donald Trump.

The group spent late Wednesday morning and early afternoon chanting and waving Trump flags — as well as the national flags of Japan and South Korea — at the corner of Third and Wayne streets.

The group’s leader, Pastor Hyung Jin “Sean” Moon of Sanctuary Church in Wayne County, said the group was there because America’s presidential election affects the entire world.

“A lot of us are from — emigrated from Korea, Japan,” Moon said. “Myself, my family emigrated from North Korea. My father was in a death camp and was freed by the U.S. forces. So, the reality is the people in America have forgotten how precious freedom is and if you come from a communist country, you know how wicked communism is and that’s what’s happening with (Joe) Biden.”

He said that is why the group is calling on Corman, who is president pro tempore of the state Senate, to act now.

“He should be calling a special counsel to nullify the electors because it was done by fraud,” Moon said regarding the election. “I think people, internally, are angry. We just hope more people come out on the streets and protest so that all these government officials remember that they’re public servants and they have to serve the public.”

Moon claimed that in Pennsylvania there were 200,000 more votes cast than registered voters, but according to official Pennsylvania Department of State statistics, there were 9,011,495 registered voters for the general election in 2020 and a total of 6,915,283 votes cast.

Former Vice President Joe Biden was officially declared the winner of Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, which were cast Dec. 16. Congress meets in a joint session Jan. 6 to officially certify the Electoral College vote total, in which Biden defeated Trump by a 306 to 232 margin, according to the unofficial tally. An absolute majority of 270 electoral votes is needed to win. Inauguration Day is Jan. 20.

When reached by phone Wednesday, Corman said that while he is sympathetic to the group’s cause, he lacks the authority to do as he is being asked.

“I’m very sympathetic to their wishes,” Corman said. “But the law is very clear. The legislature does not have a role in picking electors.

“Ultimately, we do not have the authority.”

He said that while the U.S. Constitution does grant state legislatures the power to appoint electors, Pennsylvania’s General Assembly passed a resolution in the 1930s mandating the winner of the state’s popular vote, as certified by the Pennsylvania Secretary of State, will receive all of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes.

Corman said the way to remedy any election disuptes is through the judicial system.

“All challenges to an election are adjudicated through the courts,” he said. “What it would take is the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee or some other third party to challenge results in a court of law, produce evidence of fraud and have a court rule in their favor.”

Corman said while neither he nor the legislature has the authority to appoint new electors, he is taking accusations of election fraud in Pennsylvania seriously.

“I am in the process of appointing a select committee of Republicans and Democrats to review everything that happened in 2020 election and to report back findings to the legislature,” Corman said. “This group has subpoena power. They can make people testify under oath. That will allow us to provide oversight to the election to get to the bottom of these allegations.”

The protesters were joined by a few locals who waved Trump flags and held Trump signs while engaging in several pro-Trump chants such as “stop the steal” and “make America great again.” Several motorists passing by sounded their car horns, waved or otherwise expressed support for the demonstration.

“We stay in the moment,” Moon said. “We pray 2020 is filled with truth and and not lies and deception and stealing elections and fraud and we want the duly-elected president, the one that won in a landslide, Donald J. Trump, to not only have his day in court, but be able to be victorious and see him inaugurated on the 20th (of January) as our next president.”