Senate Republican’s request for 3-county election records sparks quick criticism | New

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HARRISBURG State Senator Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin County, Republican Chairman of the Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Operations, said on Wednesday he had asked three counties to voluntarily hand over documents as he prepared to launch a forensic investigation into the November 2020 elections and the May 2021 primary elections.

The move immediately provoked the backsliding of Democrats, as well as election experts and watch groups.

“What Senator Mastriano is talking about is, to be frank, a partisan circus that is totally separate from any sort of best practice in electoral security and doing things to build faith in our elections,” Chris said. Deluzio, policy director at the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber ​​Security Law, Policy and Security.

Mastriano, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump who attended the Jan.6 uprising on the U.S. Capitol, was one of three Republican lawmakers in the state who traveled to Arizona to see the election audit commissioned by Republicans in the Senate of that state.

The others were State Senator Cris Dush, from R-Indiana County, and State Representative, Rob Kauffman, from R-Franklin County.

Mastriano said on Wednesday that he initially asked officials in Philadelphia, York and Tioga counties to turn over the documents related to the election.

A forensic investigation into our electoral results and processes for the 2020 general election and the 2021 primary will go a long way in restoring confidence in our system, Mastriano said in a statement released Wednesday morning.

Elizabeth Rementer, spokesperson for Gov. Tom Wolf, said the proposal echoed partisan audits in Arizona and Georgia and said the Wolf administration will fight to prevent the review.

“This latest attempt echoes efforts in Arizona and Fulton County (Ga.) That compromised the electoral process and provided access to third parties without the proper qualifications and security measures,” Rementer said. “This illogical partisan effort to overthrow the 2020 election will only lead to the decertification of compromised voting machines, additional county spending, and more partisanship that only seeks to undermine the Pennsylvania election. The administration will resist any attempt to disrupt our electoral process and undermine our elections, ”she said.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said on Wednesday that counties should refuse to release the information.

These counties should refuse to participate in this partisan fishing expedition. This audit could risk decertifying county voting machines, costing county taxpayers millions of dollars, Shapiro said. At present this information is being requested voluntarily, but if subpoenas are issued, you can expect our office to do everything to protect the Commonwealth, its constituents and the free and fair elections that were held in Pennsylvania, he said.

The State Department also urged counties to decline to participate in the review and warned that if the voting machines are turned over to the Mastriano committee, counties should be ready to replace the equipment before the next election.

Mastrianos’ announcement comes a week after Wolf vetoed an electoral bill passed by the General Assembly, which has Republican majorities in both houses. In vetoing House Bill 1300, Wolf said the measure had too many provisions that would suppress the vote. Wolf also used his veto power over budget bills to eliminate funding Republicans intended to use for an election audit office hosted by the Auditor General’s office.

Mastriano has given county leaders until July 31 to provide a plan on how they will comply with his request.

Its five-page information request lists 45 categories, with some similarities to the subpoena issued in Arizona to Maricopa County in January by the Republican Senate majority.

It includes all of the ballots that were attempted in the November election, logs from all computers and servers used to run the election, calendars of who accessed election equipment, and a complete election setup. end-to-end for use in a lab.

Mastriano also warned that the Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Operations could vote to issue a subpoena if a county does not comply with its request.

Senate Democrats say committee assignments given by Senate Speaker Pro Jake Corman of R-Center County indicate that the only state agency the Mastrianos committee has oversight is the Independent Commission of regulatory review.

Mastriano corrupts the committee process and politicizes it for the whims of former President Donald Trump, Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny County, and State Senator Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, said in a letter to Republican Senate leaders. Williams is the minority chair of the Senate committee on intergovernmental operations.

Each county has a bipartisan electoral council that oversaw the elections, and none of those councils concluded their elections were tainted with fraud, Deluzio said.

There has been a whole series of litigation dismissing these claims in the courts and the fact that Senator Mastriano continues to do so, for me, just shows a willingness to continue the masquerade which was a big fraud, which was not for undermine people’s trust in our democracy, said Deluzio. I understand what I’m saying sounds hyperbolic, but I think the risks are so dire. We must be direct and speak out against what is prima facie undemocratic, he said.

No county electoral council, attorney or state official raised concerns about any widespread voter fraud in the November election in Pennsylvania. Critics say an election audit is redundant, given the legal requirements for every county and state to review election results for accuracy and investigate any discrepancies.

Ray Murphy, the state coordinator for Keystone Votes, a coalition of groups pushing for electoral reform, said Mastrianos’ proposal would be a waste of money and that it raises various logistical concerns about how electoral information and equipment will be protected during the examination. .

There is very clearly defined in the law, who can touch the voting machines, and play with the USB sticks or look at the paper files, that is true and what it will end up doing is interfering with the channel. existing custody, he said. From what I understood from some electoral directors, this could potentially require them to resubmit their voting machines for State Department testing in order to obtain certification that their machines are functioning properly. Because basically you’re opening the hood of voting machines to people who don’t normally touch them, which will raise questions about the validity of those machines in the future, he said.

The state spent $ 70 million ahead of the 2020 election to help counties replace their voting machines, he said. If the counties decide they need to replace their machines because their safety was compromised by the Mastrianos investigation, it took a lot of effort to get that money in the first place, you’re going, you’re going to rack up that cost again, he said.

The League of Women Voters also criticized the proposed Senate election review. “The 2020 elections are over and have been certified. These efforts do a great injustice to voters and local election officials and will place additional time and expense demands on counties, on the basis of nothing,” the group said in a press release Wednesday afternoon.

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