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HARRISBURG (AP) – Republicans in the Pennsylvania State Senate are pushing forward what the GOP calls a “Forensic investigation” from last year’s presidential election, scheduling a Senate committee meeting next Wednesday to vote on subpoenas.
It’s another sign that Pennsylvania Republicans will follow in the footsteps of the Arizona Senate GOP, whose largely discredited and partisan election. “Audit” began with fraud-seeking subpoenas to legitimize former President Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories that the election was rigged against him.
The new scheduled meeting came after the House’s top Republican, Pro Tempore President Jake Corman, said on Friday he wanted to issue subpoenas for information and testimony from senior state election officials. and the state voter registration system.
In his statement, Corman also said the Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Operations – which plans to meet on Wednesday – is expected to “Take other steps necessary to gain access to ballots and other voting materials in order to begin a full forensic check of the 2020 general election.”
In its online agenda, the Republican-controlled committee said it would meet “Consider a request to authorize the issuance of subpoenas”, but did not give more details.
Democrats have pledged to fight any subpoena and say the Republicans ‘goal of getting their hands on the ballots would violate a voter’ s constitutional right to keep their voting choices secret.
Election officials in the administration of Democratic Governor Tom Wolf declined to testify before the committee on Thursday.
The business in Pennsylvania could cost millions of dollars, and Republicans have yet to answer major questions about how it will work, who will work there, or where a potentially large amount of documents and equipment will be stored.
The state senator who chairs the Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Operations at Corman’s request is Senator Cris Dush, who visited the Arizona audit and promised to bring it to Pennsylvania.
Dush, R-Jefferson, was also one of 64 Republicans in the Pennsylvania Legislature who signed a statement last December urging members of Congress to prevent Pennsylvania electoral votes from being cast for Biden, despite no evidence of widespread fraud during elections.
Democrats say the ultimate goal of Republicans’ engagement is to undermine access to the ballot and eliminate Pennsylvania’s postal voting law.
Senatorial Minority Leader Jay Costa D-Allegheny said the Republican quest for ballots “Is shocking and a blatant disregard for the constitutional right of a voter to have his vote secret.”
Costa also said it contradicted statements by Republicans that the goal of the “Forensic investigation” is to find and solve electoral problems, not to rehash last year’s elections.
Corman’s office responded to Costa’s statements about the confidentiality of the ballot on Friday, saying that “Nothing that has been announced in connection with this investigation has the potential to compromise the secrecy of the ballot. “
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