Photo from C-SPAN live stream of House proceedings Congressman Glenn Thompson speaks during the middle of the night.

Wednesday’s joint session of Congress to confirm the state’s electoral results — confirming that Joe Biden will be the 46th President of the United States come Jan. 20 — was supposed to largely be a ceremonial function.

After protesters in support of President Donald Trump illegally swarmed and entered the Capitol — forcing Congress to lock down for hours — it was the middle of the night Thursday morning before Pennsylvania’s votes were finally and formally counted.

But the unprecedented events of the day weren’t enough to stop members of Congress from formally objecting to Pennsylvania’s electoral votes.

Pennsylvania Representative Scott Perry and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley brought the objection around midnight.

The Senate retired to its chamber and there was no further debate. The objection failed 92-7 with Pennsylvania Senators Democrat Bob Casey and Republican Pat Toomey both voting in opposition.

The 3 a.m. vote in the House was also doomed to fail and it did — 282-138.

But it had the support of Warren County’s representative, Congressman Glenn Thompson.

“I rise to support the objection,” he said in comments on the floor of the House prior to the vote.

“I rise today with a heavy heart,” he said. “The violence that occured today at the U.S. Capitol was senseless, destructive and counter to our American values.”

He reminded the House that they all took oaths to defend the Constitution earlier this week.

“And while the path of least resistance particularly following today’s events would be remaining silent my oath to uphold the Constitution does not permit me to maintain silence.”

He then launched into an attack on the state’s electoral processes.

“While systemic voter fraud was not something proven we witnessed a systemic failure in the application of Pennsylvania’s voting law when it comes to the 2020 General Election,” he said. “In late 2019, the Commonwealth revisited and modernized its election law with the bipartisan Act 77. Granted in late 2019 the Commonwealth legislature did not have the foresight to anticipate how COVID-19 would present challenges to voting.

“Despite that it is not up to the governor, the secretary of the Commonwealth nor the state Supreme Court to unilaterally create law.”

He argued that the “election abuses” by the executive and judicial branches “were clearly unconstitutional and had an obvious if not measured impact on the 2020 election particularly when it comes to the citizen’s faith in the electorial process.”

He decried “irregularities in Pennsylvania” that included “uneven application of the law, ballot curing, ignoring signature validation requirements, using unsecured drop boxes, accepting ballots beyond the deadlines and interfering with certified poll watcher access among others” and said those efforts circumvented the authority of the state legislature.

Thompson asked for an audit and investigation to “ensure such negligence will be prevented in future elections.

“Only with equal application of the law will the voters of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have certainty in their election processes. Now I remain committed to ensuring the voters received an electoral system they deserve and where equal application of the law is guaranteed. If our election integrity is compromised we have failed the very voters who sent us here to defend the Constitution.”

Gov. Tom Wolf anticipated the objection and put out a statement refuting its basic premise before the incident at the Capitol occurred.

“Republican members of the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation plan to object to the counting of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes by claiming the election was compromised, and that our electoral votes are suspect,” Wolf said. “This is an outrageous lie, and they are undermining our democracy by recklessly repeating that lie to deceive the American people.”

His response after the riots was even more forceful.

“Today, President Trump’s supporters attempted a coup. This was the direct result of a deliberate disinformation campaign by Republicans from the President down to legislators in Pennsylvania. They lied about the results of the election. They lied about voter fraud. They lied about my administration and other governors. They lied about the administration of the election here in Pennsylvania and across the country. On November 3, we had a remarkably well-run election despite historic challenges.

“Republican legislators enabled this every step of the way. They’ve held show trials to gin up President Trump’s supporters. They’ve intentionally spread disinformation.”