Five weeks after the conclusion of the 2022 general election, there is still one county that has yet to certify its election results in the Keystone State.

The Department of State says Bucks County has only partially certified the 2022 election results due to provisional ballot challenges in a state House district. The other 66 counties have certified their results.

On Wednesday, a judge ordered certification could move forward in Bucks County while the petitions are being handled. Jim O’Malley, spokesperson for the County, said that the Board of Elections did the first signing for certification that day and that the expectation is that a second signing to fully certify will be done on December 21.

Recounts were sought in 172 voting precincts across 40 percent of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. That led to nine counties missing their November 29 certification deadline.

Judges authorized at least 19 precinct recounts in six counties, including Berks, Columbia and Westmoreland. Those requesting the recounts said they wanted to check the accuracy of the state’s election equipment and processes, echoing the conspiracy claims of voting machine manipulation for which there is no evidence.

Westmoreland Common Pleas Judge Harry Smail Jr., in a footnote to orders granting recounts, said such demands ought to be accompanied by specific claims of error or fraud.

“A sustained failure to address this deficiency will continue to burden the courts, elections bureaus, elections boards, county executive branches and the voting public by allowing manufactured challenges without a scintilla of evidentiary support to any and possibly all election certification processes in future elections,” Smail wrote.

Chester County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Sommer denied all of the recount petitions residents filed contesting the validity of the 2022 midterm elections.

“They cannot enlist this court in their quest to conduct a free-wheeling audit of cherry-picked precincts in Chester County,” he wrote in his decision. “It is not a forum for the childhood game of ‘I know something you don’t know.’ Nor is such gamesmanship the manner in which the practice of law is to be conducted. The courts are not places where one comes to hedge their bets on an election until they decide they are willing to accept the vote of the electorate,” Sommer wrote.

While he is happy about Sommer’s decision and hopes everyone has the opportunity to read it, Chester County Commissioner Josh Maxwell said he feels sorry for the election workers just doing their jobs at the center of these cases.

“To see them being accused of things that just aren’t accurate, it’s disappointing because I know how much they care about their jobs. I know how much they care about doing a good job. And so that’s the part that gets to me a little bit,” Maxwell said.

In a response to The Associated Press on Wednesday, the Department of State gave no date for certifying the results statewide but said it planned to comply with a request from the clerk of the U.S. House to send certification documents to Congress by mid-December.