Trump-allied lawmaker opens Pennsylvania election audit plan

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MARC LEVY and MARK SCOLFORO

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania state senator who has helped spread former President Donald Trump’s falsehoods about fraud in last year’s presidential election asked at least three counties Wednesday to submit to a “forensic investigation” of the 2020 election and May’s primary election.

Any Senate-issued subpoenas for an Arizona-style “election audit” will face strident opposition from Democrats, legal questions and almost certainly challenges in Pennsylvania’s courts, as battles over election laws rage through swing states and Congress.

Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, suggested that his tactics will be similar to those used in Arizona, in an interview streamed online Wednesday by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

“As we go through the ballots, my desire is to recount them but also forensically analyze with photographic material whether the ballots were copied or filled in by a human,” Mastriano told Bannon, saying he planned to study what type of paper was used, look for what he called software “shenanigans” and review the chain of custody for the ballots.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/pa-state-wire-pennsylvania-elections-election-2020-government-and-politics-cf7cfe0566c9ef47489d7ecef88165f5

[CrispyQ]

1. The Big Lie Travelling Shit Show 2021 Summer Tour

Where is our side on this? How many more shit shows are we going to allow? Is there really nothing we can do but sit & watch?

[usaf-vet]

2. You would think the "mentally challenged PA lawmakers would want to see the results from AZ 1st!

Or you could jump onto a sinking audit vessel.

This all sounds like one of these "here hold my beer and watch this"!

Just before the idiot buys himself a trip to the nearest trauma center.

[SoCalNative]

3. Why isn't this asshat

in jail for his part in the January 6th insurrection?

[durablend]

5. This. Right here.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. The PA State Asssembly tried to shoehorn a new "Election Audit Bureau"

into the state budget and it was line-item vetoed into oblivion by Gov. Wolf (D).

We have got to make sure that we can beat past precedent and get a (D) in for governor when Wolf's term is up (he is lame duck now). Otherwise we're fucked.

[Deminpenn]

8. Well, the 8 D year/8 R year governor cycle

was broken by Wolf when he defeated Corbett. No reason Josh Shapiro can't do the same for a Dem succeeding a Dem gov.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. That's what I'm hoping

Shapiro is an excellent candidate in that regard, particularly since he has name-recognition, not only within the state, but nationally.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. That guy belongs in jail

He's been running around the state holding meetings with county Republicans ... this from the grape vine ... alll whipped into a lather no matter how stupid they are, which is pretty stupid

[rickyhall]

7. Keep beating that horse's corpse, maybe it'll get up and run again.

But you idiots could be wasting your time. Just sayin'.

[riversedge]

9. "Such an audit could cost millions of dollars, and The Associated Press reported Friday that Mastria

.............Mastriano, who has spoken of his desire to bring an Arizona-style audit to Pennsylvania, said more counties could receive information requests in the future.

Such an audit could cost millions of dollars, and The Associated Press reported Friday that Mastriano has solicited legal advice from a Philadelphia-based law firm about the Senate Republican caucus using private money to finance consultants and lawyers on the investigation.

In the letter, counties are asked to respond by July 31 with a plan to comply and to propose a timeline “regarding inspection, testing or sampling of items.”

The sweeping, five-page information request lists 45 categories, with some similarities to the subpoena issued in Arizona to Maricopa County in January by that state’s Senate Republican majority.

[modrepub]

10. This Is Going To Get Weird

What will most likely happen is a bunch of solid Republican counties will "volunteer" their ballots while many others may not. Tioga and York counties are both Republican though York has a much high population. It's not clear what they would get from "auditing" those counties. Both Tioga and York voted for Trump and probably had far fewer mail-in ballots than most of the counties in SE PA, where Biden overcame Trump's advantage in the in-person vote count.

It seems the Republicans are looking for some type of "evidence" that mail in ballots were filled out in mass after being intercepted/requested from eligible voters. You'd have to get pretty detailed information to make that determination. That brings up the possibility of violating the sacred right of having a secret ballot, which infuriates me even more than their false accusation of voter fraud.

[keithbvadu2]

11. Get out the bamboo detector.

[Mr.Bill]

13. So they are going to have unqualified outside people

invesigate the "chain of custody" of the ballots, which will be violated the minute they get their hands on them.