HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania court on upheld the Legislature’s last-minute decision to invalidate the April primary vote on whether to give sitting judges five more years before they have to retire, a ballot referendum that lost narrowly but did not count.

The decision by a three-judge Commonwealth Court panel said the General Assembly acted properly under its broad and exclusive powers to determine when and how people will vote on constitutional amendments.

Nothing in the Pennsylvania Constitution mandates how amendments must be presented to voters, wrote Judge Kevin Brobson.

“Thus, it is immaterial whether the General Assembly did so by joint or concurrent resolution, so long as ‘a majority of the members elected to each House’ agreed to the time and manner prescription,” Brobson said.

Sen. Daylin Leach of Montgomery County, one of three sitting Democratic senators who filed the lawsuit, said an appeal to the state Supreme Court is all but certain.

‘Even though it had been ruled invalid ahead of time, about 2.4 million people cast ballots on the question during the April 26 primary, defeating it 51 percent to 49 percent.‘