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Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate launched their own “audit” of the 2020 election with a hearing Thursday, becoming the third state legislature to do so ten months after voters rejected former President Donald Trump.
It’s unclear exactly what will happen with this audit and whether it will follow the path of Arizona’s largely discredited review of the 2020 election, which continues to drag on with no end in sight. But the investigation in Pennsylvania, which will be funded by taxpayers, got off to a bad start Thursday.
Stewart Ulsh, chairman of the Fulton County Board of Elections in Pennsylvania, was the only witness at Thursday’s hearing. Ulsh had authorized a third party to conduct an election audit in his county at the behest of a pro-Trump senator in December. But responding to Democrats’ questions during the hearing, Ulsh has repeatedly said the audit found nothing wrong with the election. “Nothing was found,” he told senators.
Trump overwhelmingly won Fulton County, which has a population of around 15,000, and despite his audit finding no fraud, he has served as an inspiration to Trump supporters in states across the country seeking to review the elections. This is in part because, as the Washington Post reported in June, a draft report stating that the election is “well organized” and “conducted diligently and efficiently” has been revised to include the line ” This does not indicate that there were no problems with the election, just that they were not the fault of the county election commission or the county electoral director, “then added a few potential problems. .
Asked about the change on Thursday, Ulsh said, “I didn’t write the report, I didn’t tell them what to put in it.”
The fact that the Fulton County audit found no fraud did not seem to bother the Republicans on the panel, who repeatedly said that while there were no issues in the 2020 election, the counties would not should have no problem with an audit, a sentiment that has been echoed by Trump supporters who are calling for audits in several states.
But election audits have literal costs. Partisan investigations have already led to their voting machines being decertified in Fulton and Maricopa counties, Arizona, as counties turned them over to contractors without sufficient electoral experience (only after a court order had them there coerced, in the case of Maricopa County). These voting machines will need to be replaced before the next county election, which is expected to cost Maricopa County $ 2.8 million, as Fulton County continues with decertification.
And the continued questioning of the 2020 results comes after election officials from both parties in every state across the country conducted official post-election audits, all of which confirmed Trump’s loss – not to mention the recount throughout. State in Georgia, which was carried out by hand. All court cases challenging the election results and suggesting widespread electoral fraud have been dismissed. In reality, the unnamed Trump Republicans won elections across the country in 2020, increasing their numbers in the House, standing in tough Senate races, and taking control of two other state legislatures. And, as Democratic Senator Anthony Williams said during the hearing, half of the Pennsylvania State Senate was elected or re-elected in 2020 and that includes Republican Senator Cris Dush, who is leading the audit of Pennsylvania and won a large majority.
Dush, who chairs the Intergovernmental Operations Committee, opened the hearing with a phrase that audit officials in Arizona and Wisconsin also used: This is not about canceling the election – something that they don’t have the power to do. “This horse came out of the barn,” Dush said. Instead, Dush and his counterparts in other states insisted the audits were aimed at reviewing their election laws and possibly passing new legislation.
But it is extremely clear that the message that Trump supporters, the pro-Trump media, and the former president himself are hearing and broadcasting is that this is 2020. has even co-opted Trump’s science-sounding language. , calling the investigations “forensic” audits, and Corman said he spoke to Trump about the Pennsylvania plan.
Williams, the committee’s top Democrat, delivered an impassioned speech during Thursday’s hearing, calling the audit a “sham,” “an outright parody” and “part of the ongoing attack orchestrated at national level against our electoral system “. Williams called Republicans on the panel, saying the aim of the audit was “simply to stir up mistrust and division.”
“And the most infuriating thing about all of this is that everyone on this panel knows that. We know it and you know it, ”he said, referring to the Democrats and Republicans on the committee. “And yet we are sitting here witnessing the exploitation of people who honestly believe the lies they have been told about the alleged irregularities and the rigging, the basis of which is in fact unfounded, because they trust what they are said and by whom they are said. It’s sad and it’s wrong.
It’s unclear what the Pennsylvania audit will look like from here. Dush said the committee would hold additional hearings and that it had set up a website asking Pennsylvanians to “share any potential violation of election law or voting irregularities that they personally witnessed” for potential testimony. Corman has previously threatened to subpoena the State Department, which holds the Pennsylvania election (the office declined to participate in Thursday’s hearing, citing the Fulton County litigation) and he said he wanted experienced listeners, according to the Associated Press.
Taxpayers will foot the bill for Pennsylvania’s audit, unlike Arizona’s, which relies almost entirely on private donations, many of which come from large black money groups led by pro-Trump figures, including the former CEO of Overstock.com, Patrick Byrne, former National Security. adviser Michael Flynn; and two journalists from the far-right One America news network. Arizona’s effort, which is entering its fifth month, has cost millions of dollars so far, according to its prime contractor.
Wisconsin also went the taxpayer’s money route for its “audit,” which took the form of the appointment of a pro-Trump judge as special advisor and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos approved. so far $ 676,000 for this business. As the AP reported, Republicans in Pennsylvania could operate a $ 66 million reserve account, which the legislature “has maintained for years, managed in secrecy, with no rules on how it can be used. To pay for their audit.
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