'Forensic Audit' Of 2020 Election To Move Forward In PA

PENNSYLVANIA — Approaching a full year later, the fallout from the 2020 election continues to be felt in Pennsylvania. Republican leaders in the state legislature are moving forward with plans to conduct a forensic investigation of the results, part of a larger effort backed by former President Trump to cast doubts on the legitimacy of the election.

Hearings will begin this week in Pennsylvania to review various procedural aspects of how the election was conducted in Pennsylvania, Senate President Jake Corman said. The effort is despite the fact that no county election board or state official has found any evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state in November's election.

"This audit is intended to go much further than previous reviews mandated by state law, which have focused on whether the reported counts are 'accurate,'" Corman said. "The goal of the Senate’s investigation will not be to conduct a recount, but to find any flaws in the system that could be exploited by bad actors and take action to correct those flaws through legislative changes to our Election Code."

Corman, previously blasted by Trump and some Trump allies over the speed with which he's moved forward with the investigation, has been in touch with Trump, according to the Associated Press.

Republicans say that the goal now is not to overturn the election, but to "uncover information which is necessary for the legislature to potentially take future legislative action."

"The goal of the Senate’s investigation will not be to conduct a recount, but to find any flaws in the system that could be exploited by bad actors and take action to correct those flaws through legislative changes to our Election Code," Corman added.

Corman has also removed Sen. Doug Mastriano from the leading the audit, replacing him with State Sen. Cris Dush. The move was controversial in some circles on the right, as Mastriano was viewed by many as a dogged champion of the effort to move the investigation forward. However, it was stalled over differences in opinion of the direction in which it should move, and how it could be paid for.

Corman and Dush insist they're working with the same goal.

“There have been stories that Senate Pro Tempore Corman has moved this investigation to me for the purpose of killing it," Dush said. "The opposite is true. We should have been having hearings and moving toward a more formalized plan to conduct an investigation weeks ago. My team and I are in the process of getting things organized and will work with Senate Leadership to get it done."

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro called the effort the "Big Lie."

"(Pennsylvanians) should speak with one voice to make this the end of the road for the Big Lie," he wrote in response to the hearings moving forward. "The goal for advocates of this attack has always been to overturn the results of a free & fair election. People are seeing through it as an attack on local election officials and the right to vote."

Other state Democrats said the hearings were part of a broader voter suppression effort by the GOP nationally.

“Here is the truth: all of the GOP’s sham audits and lies are part of a larger plan for the GOP to make it harder for working people to vote," State Sen. Malcolm Kenyatta said. "Starting a year ago, the GOP in states across the US rushed to pass “security” measures that simply make it harder for voters of color and working-class voters to have a say in who represents us. These craven efforts to undermine our democracy will not stop until the US Senate gets rid of the filibuster and passes the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act."

More than 2.6 million Pennsylvanians voted using a mail-in ballot in the 2020 election, according to data provided by the Pennsylvania Secretary of State's office.

In February, state officials announced the results of a "risk-limiting audit pilot" of the November 2020 presidential election, which confirmed that Joe Biden received more votes than Donald Trump. However, four counties — Greene, Beaver, Franklin and Lancaster — did not participate in the pilot.