Lawsuit Challenges GOP Bid To Obtain Info On 9 Million PA Voters

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to thwart Republican efforts in the state Senate to obtain the voting and personal identification information of 9 million state residents.

The 76-page lawsuit was filed Thursday in Commonwealth Court against state Sens. Cris Dush of Jefferson County and Jake Corman of Centre County, and the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee. It asserts that subpoenas issued last week by the committee in a party-line vote jeopardize the rights of Pennsylvanians to free and fair elections and the right to protect their personal information.

The Republican effort to secure significant amounts of Pennsylvania election data is part of what GOP elected officials have termed a "forensic investigation" of 2020 election results in Pennsylvania. Subpoenas have been issued for information that includes lists of all registered voters, their voting activity, whether they voted in person or by mail, any changes in voter registration, driver's license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers.

“Giving this data away would compromise the privacy of every Pennsylvania voter — that violates Pennsylvanians’ constitutional rights," Shapiro said. "By trying to pry into everyone’s drivers license numbers and social security numbers they have gone too far. We say enough is enough. What they are doing is against the law and we intend to win.”

Senate Republican attempts to review the 2020 general and 2021 primary elections were launched after former President Donald Trump attributed his defeat in last year's presidential election to widespread voter fraud. Trump and his political allies, including those in Pennsylvania, have provided no evidence that widespread fraud occurred.

Shapiro's lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Department of State and its acting secretary, Veronica Degraffenreid, argues that the committee's concerns about the integrity of the 2020 and 2021 elections are based on false, partisan narratives that have been repeatedly disproven.

The lawsuit also asserts that the risk of providing such personal information to the committee or a third-party company is too great to ignore Pennsylvanians privacy rights. It contends that security protocols to safeguard the information are not yet in place.

See the entire lawsuit here.

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