Although it took nearly ten months after the November 2020 election, Pennsylvania Republicans are holding a public hearing on their investigation into the election results, according to a state Senate committee announcement on Thursday.
The Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee will hold the first public hearing for a probe into the election “irregularities” on the 9th of September at the State Capitol, according to state senator and chairman Chris Dush in a recent statement.
The committee has sent an invitation to Pennsylvania Department of State officials to testify “regarding last-minute guidance provided to counties and its impact on the 2020 General Election.”
Dush declared that the hearing was going to be part of a broader inquiry into the election system of Pennsylvania. They are still determining the time and location of the hearing.
In addition to seeking testimony from various officials, the committee is also going to request sworn testimony from regular voters “regarding problems they have personally experienced with the state’s election system.”
“As part of the committee’s comprehensive election integrity investigation, Dush is encouraging voters to come forward if they have witnessed voter irregularities or other election improprieties firsthand,” the committee said. “The information will help lawmakers develop potential improvements to state law to bolster election security.”
The committee announced that they have set up a webpage where Pennsylvania residents can submit their testimony and they also advised that anyone who wants to do this will be “comfortable signing an affidavit and potentially testifying under oath at a Senate committee hearing under penalty of perjury.”
Pennsylvania election officials have already conducted two prior post-election reviews, including a statistical sampling that is required by law and a risk-limiting audit of the 2020 election results. The Pennsylvania Capital-Star 63 of the commonwealth’s 67 counties participated in this risk-limiting audit, but neither probe of this election found evidence of widespread fraud.
The state certified that former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election in Pennsylvania by a margin of just over 80,000 votes to Joe Biden. However, that hasn’t stopped the 45th President from repeatedly claiming that the election was stolen. That is why the GOP has sought to audit the elections in Arizona, Georgia, and elsewhere even though they have not produced any evidence that would overturn the election.
Critics of this Republican-led effort continue to accuse Trump and his supporters of attempting to undermine the integrity of our elections by constantly questioning the results. This is why Pennsylvania state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat making a bid for governor, has called all previous attempts to audit this election a “fishing expedition and a sham.”
Indeed, there was an effort to lead a “forensic” probe of the 2020 election led by State Senator Doug Mastriano (R), but it was halted by Senate President Pro Tempore Jack Corman (R) after he demoted Mastriano after the two men had a feud over his methods. In the wind-up, Corman appointed Dush to carry through with the probe.
These Pennsylvania lawmakers are quick to point out that this new probe is not to find evidence that would overturn the 2020 election. Instead, this probe is meant to identify weaknesses in the electoral system that Pennsylvania lawmakers could consider to strengthen the voting system as a whole.
“The purpose of this investigation is to uncover information which is necessary for the Legislature to potentially take future legislation action,” Dush said in his statement. “I look forward to putting my years of experience with legal cases, court proceedings, and evidence collection to good use in restoring faith in our elections.”