“Ballot bokeh” by iceman9294 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Republican lawmakers and legislators are calling for an immediate audit of Pennsylvania’s election results. In a letter penned by the state’s Speaker of the House, Bryan Cutler, the request more specifically demands an audit before the state’s election certification deadline of Nov. 23.
The certification deadline is the official date by which all election results are to be finalized, a date that was extended for the 2020 election to account for the influx of mail-in ballots due to COVID-19. Governor Tom Wolf has previously stated that Pennsylvania plans to audit election results after this deadline.
The letter voiced concern that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had “unconstitutionally extended the deadline to receive late ballots,” that Republican poll watchers had been barred from polling stations and that too many reports of “irregularities and inconsistencies” in the election process had been made to ignore. It also noted that there had been a number of phone calls and emails from representative’s constituents that showed dissatisfaction with the way that the election results were being handled.
The extension cited by Rep. Cutler has been highly contested by Republican representatives since its conception. On Sept. 17, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled to extend the date by which mail-in ballots were to be received and validated by three days, as long as the ballots were postmarked before election day. This ruling was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in a later ruling but has still met backlash for being inconsistent with previous elections and potentially confusing for voters and officials.
The accusation that Republican poll watchers were barred from polling stations is one that is mimicked by the Trump Administration’s ongoing lawsuit against Pennsylvania. The lawsuit, which targets the counties of Philadelphia and Allegheny, additionally claimed that, “
These claims remain unverified by any form of evidence.
Governor Wolf’s public response to the letter stated, “Allegations of fraud and illegal activity have been repeatedly debunked and dismissed by the courts. Those attacks against the core values of Americans are intended to undermine our democracy, and we must reject them … Election officials at the state and local level, Republican and Democrat, worked tirelessly amid a pandemic, so voters could decide this election.”
In a column penned by Rep. Cutler, the Speaker of the House stated, “Let me be clear, if President Donald Trump had won Pennsylvania, we would still be calling for this audit. It is the responsible thing to do when you change laws to the magnitude that we have around elections and to see what changes need to be made prior to the next election.”
Since the issuing of the letter, there has been no official move to hold an audit before the state’s election certification deadline, though the Trump Administration’s lawsuit continues to pursue its claim. No substantial evidence of voter fraud has been found in any state across the country.
Caroline Helms is a second-year English major with minors in Political Science and Journalism. CH923631@wcupa.edu