As auditors in Arizona prepare to draft and release their final report to the Arizona State Senate next week, including the findings of the Republican-led full forensic review of the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County, similar audit efforts underway in Pennsylvania, led by Republican Senator Doug Mastriano, have been thwarted, and this time not by Democrats, but rather by Pennsylvania GOP Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman.
In a press release issued Friday, Senator Mastriano claimed that Corman, “without consulting” Mastriano, had informed Mastriano’s staff that a meeting in place to vote on the issue of county subpoenas, requiring compliance with an investigation into the 2020-2021 elections, had been canceled.
Speaking to One America News, Mastriano explained that he posted the meeting information the day before, as required by the state’s Open Meetings Law.
“I come to find out the staff of the Senate leadership canceled my reservation of that room to have a vote,” said Mastriano. “Additionally, calls were made to my committee members saying the meeting was canceled without even conferring with me. This happened behind my back.”
Mastriano went on to assert that he tried to work with Senators Corman and Kim Ward on “issues that needed to be resolved,” but “to no avail.” He further alleged that his team was “continuously stone walled.”
“I’ve been threatened that my staff would be fired as retribution for my desire to move forward with a forensic investigation,” he said in a written statement.
“It’s been impossible to ignore the rising swell of voices across this commonwealth and country that begged for answers they weren’t receiving,” remarked Mastriano. “Without a forensic investigation of our recent elections, many questions will remain unanswered. I can’t think of anything worse than that.”
On Friday, the senator took to Twitter with an update on his plans to investigate the elections in Pennsylvania:
“This investigation seeks answers to the questions that so many are asking. If those elections were free and fair, as Democrats insist, Democrats should have no fear of such an investigation — but they were afraid.”
It is rumored that the Pennsylvania Senate will move forward with an audit, but under the leadership of State Senator Cris Dush instead of Mastriano. “If that happens,” said Mastriano, “I have little confidence that a real investigation will ever take place.”
In response to Mastriano’s allegations, Corman issued a caustic statement of his own, which read, in part: “It is deeply disappointing that Senator Mastriano has retreated from conducting a forensic investigation of the election in Pennsylvania, and it is discouraging to realize that he was only ever interested in politics and showmanship and not actually getting things done.”
As of this writing, no evidence appears to exist to suggest that Mastriano has “retreated.”
Senator Corman continued, “despite this setback, we remain committed to conducting a full investigatory audit of recent elections to improve our election system going forward. We need someone to lead this effort who is more interested in real results than grandstanding at rallies.”
Corman has allegedly formally requested that Air Force veteran Dush “take up this cause and initiate a thorough review of the election, starting with fighting back against the partisan attacks on our election system by the Wolf Administration.”
In early July, Pennsylvania Democrat Governor Tom Wolf had responded disdainfully to the Republican call for an audit, describing it as a “disgrace to democracy,” and later tweeting that Mastriano’s efforts were part of a “sham election audit” and also a “profound waste of time and taxpayer money.”
After letters were sent by Mastriano to York, Tioga, and Pennsylvania counties seeking their cooperation in the audit, Governor Wolf swiftly followed up his comments with action. Wolf warned all 67 counties in the state that participating in an audit would be grounds for decertifying a county’s voting machines, costing the counties millions in taxpayer dollars, as machines would need to be replaced in time for the next election cycle.
Another outspoken opponent of the audit, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has “promised to obstruct the investigation ‘every step of the way,’” according to Mastriano.
AG Shapiro’s position is crystal clear. He tweeted this message today, just as former President Donald Trump was set to take the stage in front of 40,000 people at a rally in Cullman, Alabama:
“As Donald Trump spends his evening in Alabama lying to Americans, it bears repeating:
Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
His victory in Pennsylvania was confirmed by two bipartisan audits. Our election was safe, secure, and fair.
When faced with the Big Lie, we will speak the truth.”
According to One America News, thousands of Pennsylvania voters are fervently advocating for a full investigation into the 2020 election. The news outlet reported on Friday that an Audit the Vote PA rally “packed the building with energized Pennsylvanians demanding an investigation into their election.”
Though state lawmakers continue to refuse to listen to their constituents, spread across party lines, they should be encouraging the people to speak up and have their voices heard. Undoubtedly, Pennsylvanians are preparing to battle, but they need brave legislators such as Mastriano to continue to stand and provide courageous and unrelenting leadership to ensure election integrity, the most important issue facing the nation today.
