Former President Donald Trump urged Pennsylvania Republicans to conduct an audit of the 2020 election, similar to the one in Maricopa County, Arizona.
He issued a statement on Friday after a trio of Pennsylvania lawmakers — including state Sens. Doug Mastriano and Cris Dush and state Rep. Rob Kauffman — traveled to Maricopa County to tour the GOP-led Arizona Senate’s audit. After the tour, they expressed interest in getting their state a replication of the review.
Trump, who lost both Arizona and Pennsylvania to President Joe Biden, praised the three state lawmakers, referring to them as “great patriots.”
He also pressured Pennsylvania Senate leaders to follow their lead, stating, “Now the Pennsylvania Senate needs to act. Senate President Jake Corman needs to fulfill his promise to his constituents to conduct a full Forensic Audit. Senator Dave Argall, Chairman of the State Government Committee, has to authorize the subpoenas, if necessary. The people of Pennsylvania and America deserve to know the truth. If the Pennsylvania Senate leadership doesn’t act, there is no way they will ever get re-elected!”
ARIZONA ELECTION AUDIT ATTRACTS PENNSYLVANIA GOP LEGISLATORS HOPEFUL FOR THEIR OWN REVIEW
The former president has been adamant that widespread election fraud was the reason for his loss, and he believes that a thorough audit will expose this for the world to see. However, federal and state officials insist there is no evidence of widespread fraud.
Democrats, and some Republicans, have denounced Trump’s insistence of election fraud and the GOP-led push for audits, claiming they are sowing dissent and undermining faith in the democratic process.
The Maricopa County audit has especially faced resistance, as critics note results from two previous election machine audits, conducted for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, showed no irregularities in the county’s 2020 election. A recount of a sample of ballots also found no problems.
A letter signed by Maricopa County officials, including several Republicans, claimed the auditors were “way in over their heads,” denouncing the audit as a “spectacle that is harming all of us. Our state has become a laughingstock.”
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann says the review, led by private firm Cyber Ninjas, is meant to restore trust in the system and influence potential changes to the law, not to overturn the 2020 results.
In Pennsylvania, Republican State Rep. Seth Grove, who chairs the committee that handles election matters, flatly rejected any effort to conduct an audit similar to the one in Maricopa County. However, Argall, mentioned by name in Trump’s recent statement, said some sort of audit remains a possibility. A bill introduced by state Sen. Bob Mensch would have Pennsylvania’s independently elected auditor general perform an audit of votes if lawmakers pass it in June.
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Pennsylvania Democrats are universally opposed to any more voting audits. Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman called Trump’s request for a full forensic audit “ludicrous,” while Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf dismissed such attempts as an “effort to discredit the integrity of our elections.”
Wolf criticized this week’s tour of the Maricopa County audit by Pennsylvania state lawmakers as “chasing conspiracy theories across the country.”
