A Pennsylvania county refuses to hand over its voting machines to Republican state lawmakers looking to conduct a “forensic investigation” of the state’s 2020 presidential election.
Tioga County, a rural county that former president Donald Trump won in November, voted to deny access to their voting machines after being contacted by state Rep. Doug Mastriano about an audit similar to the one that just concluded in Arizona.
The county’s solicitor, Christopher Gabriel, said officials made the decision to deny access to the voting machines after Pennsylvania’s State Department advised counties against giving “third-party entities” access to their election records.
“We can’t be in a position where we don’t have the election machines because we have to run the next election, these are extremely expensive machines, and our position is we need to follow the direction that [acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid] has given us,” Gabriel said on Wednesday.
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Degraffenreid sent a memo to each of the state’s counties warning officials that the state would not reimburse any cost of replacing voting equipment if they allowed state Republicans to investigate the equipment as part of an audit.
However, Mastriano, who also serves as the chairman of the Intergovernmental Operations Committee, threatened to pursue a subpoena if the counties did not comply with Republicans’ requests.
Despite attempts of obstruction by the Wolf Administration and the Attorney General, the Intergovernmental Operations Committee will press forward in the pursuit of a forensic investigation: https://t.co/j5ykNkL6Zw pic.twitter.com/I6gtWcxQ3Q
— Senator Doug Mastriano (@SenMastriano) July 12, 2021
“For people who once lectured the state about transparency and accountability, what do they have to hide?” he asked. “The Intergovernmental Operations Committee will press forward in pursuit of a forensic investigation.”
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