Recently, Rep. Mike Kelly’s dreams of finding a court willing to take his side against democracy ended when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal of Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law.

Now, after multiple court losses, Kelly should publicly apologize for his baseless attempts to stop President Joe Biden from taking office.

Kelly’s defiant vote against certifying the election, after a mob stormed the capitol building to stop that certification, put him squarely in that mob’s camp. Those election deniers, literally assaulting Capitol police with American flags and chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” are all connected to the months-long disinformation campaign that Kelly helped lead.

He has done such harm in spreading lies about stolen elections that it’s time for him to start cleaning up the mess he created and actively rebuild trust in our elections.

Kelly and all his fellow election deniers must concede that President Biden is the legitimate winner of the November election. Their continued denial serves only to foment anger and sow distrust in the American electoral system.

At the same time, the Butler County Republican Committee should stand by the Republican voting law, Act 77, which allowed universal, no-excuse, mail-in voting.

The law was passed in 2019 without dissent from any county Republicans. Kelly claims it violated the Pennsylvania constitution. Those state Republicans should stand by their vote and vocally oppose Kelly’s contention that it was unconstitutional, or they should explain why they voted for an unconstitutional law.

It won’t be easy to undo the damage Kelly has caused. But it’s time he and his compatriots get to work.

Catherine Lalonde, resident of Harmony and chairwoman of the Butler County Democratic Committee