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Election audit plan a ‘disgrace to democracy,’ governor says

  • The Associated Press
York County offered voters a dropbox for mailed ballots at its government center ahead of the primary June 2. Rules for hand delivering ballots are among issues at the focus of a federal lawsuit over Pennsylvania's election procedures filed by President Donald Trump's re-election campaign. The case is but one source of uncertainty complicating state election code reforms and planning by counties for November.

 Kate Landis / PA Post

York County offered voters a dropbox for mailed ballots at its government center ahead of the primary June 2. Rules for hand delivering ballots are among issues at the focus of a federal lawsuit over Pennsylvania's election procedures filed by President Donald Trump's re-election campaign. The case is but one source of uncertainty complicating state election code reforms and planning by counties for November.

(Harrisburg) — Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday said it is a “disgrace to democracy” that a Republican state lawmaker is trying to launch what he calls a “forensic investigation” of Pennsylvania’s 2020 presidential election, similar to what is happening in Arizona.

Wolf, a Democrat, said on Twitter that the “sham election audit” being attempted by Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano is also a “profound waste of time and taxpayer money,” in addition to being a disgrace.

Wolf’s administration has discouraged counties from cooperating, saying they risk decertifying their voting machines and costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

Also Thursday, Democratic state senators wrote to officials in Philadelphia and two counties to tell them that they should not comply with Mastriano’s requests.

The four Democratic members of the Intergovernmental Operations Committee, chaired by Mastriano, said in the letter that elections are not in its purview.

Mastriano issued letters to Philadelphia and York and Tioga counties Wednesday, giving officials there a sweeping request for access to documents and equipment, with the threat of subpoenas for holdouts who do not respond affirmatively by July’s end.

Trump has persistently claimed the 2020 election was rigged against him, and pressured Republican lawmakers in states he lost narrowly to conduct an audit, as is happening in Arizona.

Pa. Republican lawmakers and the U.S. Capitol attack
As part of WITF’s commitment to standing with facts, and because the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was an attempt to overthrow representative democracy in America, we are marking elected officials’ connections to the insurrection. Read more about this commitment.
State Sen. Doug Mastriano’s support of Donald Trump’s election-fraud lies included staging a policy committee meeting in November that gave Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani a platform for disinformation. Mastriano is also among the several dozen state lawmakers who signed letters asking Congress to delay certification of Pennsylvania’s 2020 election result, despite no evidence that would call that result into question.
To see the complete list of Pa. elected officials who took actions to sustain or amplify the election-fraud lie, click here.

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