A US federal judge has rejected a lawsuit from a Republican congressman that sought to allow Vice President Mike Pence reject Electoral College votes for Joe Biden when Congress meets on 6 January to certify his victory over President Donald Trump.
The latest long-shot attempt by Mr Trump's Republican allies to overturn the 3 November election was dismissed by one of his own appointees to the federal bench, Jeremy Kernodle.
He ruled that US Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas and a slate of Republican electors from Arizona could not show they suffered any personal harm "fairly traceable" to Mr Pence's allegedly unlawful conduct and, therefore, lacked legal standing to bring the case.
Mr Gohmert's suit had argued that Mr Pence had discretion to decide what votes should count. They also asked the judge to bar Mr Pence from following the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which lays out how objections to votes are handled by Congress.
A spokesman for Mr Trump referred questions to Mr Pence's office. A spokesman for Mr Pence declined to comment.
Mr Trump has refused to concede defeat to Democratic leader Joe Biden and has repeatedly falsely claimed the election was tainted by widespread fraud. He and his allies have lost dozens of court efforts seeking to reverse the election results.
Mr Biden beat Mr Trump by a 306-232 margin in the Electoral College and is set to be sworn in on 20 January.
Also today, US Senator Ted Cruz said he will spearhead a drive by nearly a dozen Republican senators to challenge the President-elect's victory when Electoral College results are tallied in Congress.
This is a largely symbolic move that has little chance of preventing Biden from taking office.
Mr Cruz's effort is in defiance of Senate Republican leaders, who have argued that the Senate's role in certifying the election is largely ceremonial and had been looking to avoid an extended debate on the floor about the outcome.
In a statement, Mr Cruz, a senator for Texas, and 10 other senators said they intend to vote to reject electors from swing states that have been at the centrr of President Donald Trump's unproven assertions of election fraud.
They said Congress should immediately appoint a commission to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of election results in those states.
"Once completed, individual states would evaluate the commission's findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed," they said.
Under the US Electoral College system, "electoral votes" are allotted to states and the District of Columbia based on their congressional representation.
Joe Biden's transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He is set to be sworn into office on 20 January.
The effort by Mr Cruz and other Republicans comes days after Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri became the first sitting member of the Senate to announce he would challenge the election result.
