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Pennsylvania Department of State Tells Counties Not to Allow Outside Access to Voting Systems
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BY ZACHARY STIEBER
Epoch Times
The Pennsylvania agency in charge of elections has issued a new directive telling counties not to let outside parties access electronic voting systems or components of such systems, such as tabulators and ballot printers.
The directive from the Pennsylvania Department of State, released on July 9, states that county boards of elections “shall not” provide any access to third parties that are seeking to examine the systems or system components.
If the counties do allow access, the voting equipment that’s examined “will be considered no longer secure or reliable to use in subsequent elections,” and the department will withdraw its certification for the equipment.
“Such access by third parties undermines chain of custody requirements and strict access limitations necessary to prevent both intentional and inadvertent tampering with electronic voting systems,” Acting Pennsylvania Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid, appointed in February by Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf, said in a statement. “It also jeopardizes the security and integrity of the systems and will prevent electronic voting system vendors from affirming that the systems continue to meet Commonwealth security standards and U.S. Election Assistance Commission certification.”
Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, a Republican, said in a response that the directive “is an attack on the General Assembly’s power to review, investigate, and legislate in matters within its legislative authority, which includes Pennsylvania’s election system.”
“The Legislature has clear authority—both statutorily and constitutionally—to provide oversight and issue subpoenas. This directive tramples those rights which were specifically put in place to prevent potential abuses and overreach by the Executive Branch,” he said.
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican, added that the directive was an example of a “disturbing pattern” of obstruction and violation of constitutional powers of the state Senate by the Wolf administration that dates back to March 2019.
Wolf and other Pennsylvania executive branch officials have condemned the push by some state Republicans for an audit, saying the 2020 election ran smoothly with virtually no problems. Mastriano triggered a probe of recent elections last week, sending letters to Philadelphia, York, and Tioga counties.
Mastriano cited abnormalities in the election, including how the number of mail-in ballots increased by more than 2 million compared to four years prior and the acceptance of ballots that arrived after Election Day.
The chairman of the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee requested all ballot production, processing, and tabulation equipment that was used during the election, as well as forensic images of all election equipment and software from the equipment, according to the letter to Philadelphia County, which was obtained by The Epoch Times.
Officials were asked to provide the documents by July 31. If they don’t, then Mastriano plans to go to his committee and hold a vote that would give him the authority to issue subpoenas.
“Let’s just find out what happened and get to the bottom of it and do what we’ve got to do to either safeguard our elections or celebrate how perfect the election was,” Mastriano told The Epoch Times in a recent interview.
“The bottom line is, we’re always asking for transparency in government, constantly, and regardless of who won the election, last year was unparalleled in so many ways. And so, if there’s ever a time to do a forensic analysis of an electorate, this is the time to do it. There’s so many things that kind of were disruptive last year. And so, I don’t know why anyone could be opposed to this, unless you have something to hide.”
The Office of City Commissioners for Philadelphia confirmed to The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that it received the letter.
“Our office is reviewing it and [we] have no comment about the requests at this time. We do want to be clear, however, that Senator Mastriano’s letter reiterates claims about the November 2020 election that have been resoundingly rejected by courts. The repetition of baseless claims by elected officials poses a real challenge to our democratic processes. We are committed to continuing the hard work of ensuring that Philadelphians are able to exercise their right to vote,” the commissioners’ office stated.
York and Tioga county officials confirmed to The Epoch Times their receipt of Mastriano’s letter, but declined further comment.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has said he is prepared to try to block audits of voting equipment in court.
Mastriano visited the audit taking place in Maricopa County, Arizona, last month, and has said his investigation is aimed at going even deeper than that election review. He would like to hire the firms conducting the Arizona audit, pending support from Pennsylvania Senate Republican leadership.
The Pennsylvania Department of State noted that Maricopa County has opted to replace the machines that were examined by auditors. The department said it wouldn’t reimburse Pennsylvania counties for the cost of obtaining replacement equipment for which it withdraws certification if outside access is granted.
It also referenced an elections assessment that took place in Fulton County, Pennsylvania.
“We already have seen systems compromised in Fulton County and in the state of Arizona,” the agency said in a statement last week. “In both cases, the politically motivated reviews turned up absolutely no evidence of any fraud or discrepancies. Those partisan exercises did, however, prove to be very costly for local officials and taxpayers when election administrators were forced to lease or purchase replacement equipment.”
Epoch Times
The Pennsylvania agency in charge of elections has issued a new directive telling counties not to let outside parties access electronic voting systems or components of such systems, such as tabulators and ballot printers.
The directive from the Pennsylvania Department of State, released on July 9, states that county boards of elections “shall not” provide any access to third parties that are seeking to examine the systems or system components.
If the counties do allow access, the voting equipment that’s examined “will be considered no longer secure or reliable to use in subsequent elections,” and the department will withdraw its certification for the equipment.
“Such access by third parties undermines chain of custody requirements and strict access limitations necessary to prevent both intentional and inadvertent tampering with electronic voting systems,” Acting Pennsylvania Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid, appointed in February by Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf, said in a statement. “It also jeopardizes the security and integrity of the systems and will prevent electronic voting system vendors from affirming that the systems continue to meet Commonwealth security standards and U.S. Election Assistance Commission certification.”
Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, a Republican, said in a response that the directive “is an attack on the General Assembly’s power to review, investigate, and legislate in matters within its legislative authority, which includes Pennsylvania’s election system.”
“The Legislature has clear authority—both statutorily and constitutionally—to provide oversight and issue subpoenas. This directive tramples those rights which were specifically put in place to prevent potential abuses and overreach by the Executive Branch,” he said.
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican, added that the directive was an example of a “disturbing pattern” of obstruction and violation of constitutional powers of the state Senate by the Wolf administration that dates back to March 2019.
Wolf and other Pennsylvania executive branch officials have condemned the push by some state Republicans for an audit, saying the 2020 election ran smoothly with virtually no problems. Mastriano triggered a probe of recent elections last week, sending letters to Philadelphia, York, and Tioga counties.
Mastriano cited abnormalities in the election, including how the number of mail-in ballots increased by more than 2 million compared to four years prior and the acceptance of ballots that arrived after Election Day.
The chairman of the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee requested all ballot production, processing, and tabulation equipment that was used during the election, as well as forensic images of all election equipment and software from the equipment, according to the letter to Philadelphia County, which was obtained by The Epoch Times.
Officials were asked to provide the documents by July 31. If they don’t, then Mastriano plans to go to his committee and hold a vote that would give him the authority to issue subpoenas.
“Let’s just find out what happened and get to the bottom of it and do what we’ve got to do to either safeguard our elections or celebrate how perfect the election was,” Mastriano told The Epoch Times in a recent interview.
“The bottom line is, we’re always asking for transparency in government, constantly, and regardless of who won the election, last year was unparalleled in so many ways. And so, if there’s ever a time to do a forensic analysis of an electorate, this is the time to do it. There’s so many things that kind of were disruptive last year. And so, I don’t know why anyone could be opposed to this, unless you have something to hide.”
The Office of City Commissioners for Philadelphia confirmed to The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that it received the letter.
“Our office is reviewing it and [we] have no comment about the requests at this time. We do want to be clear, however, that Senator Mastriano’s letter reiterates claims about the November 2020 election that have been resoundingly rejected by courts. The repetition of baseless claims by elected officials poses a real challenge to our democratic processes. We are committed to continuing the hard work of ensuring that Philadelphians are able to exercise their right to vote,” the commissioners’ office stated.
York and Tioga county officials confirmed to The Epoch Times their receipt of Mastriano’s letter, but declined further comment.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has said he is prepared to try to block audits of voting equipment in court.
Mastriano visited the audit taking place in Maricopa County, Arizona, last month, and has said his investigation is aimed at going even deeper than that election review. He would like to hire the firms conducting the Arizona audit, pending support from Pennsylvania Senate Republican leadership.
The Pennsylvania Department of State noted that Maricopa County has opted to replace the machines that were examined by auditors. The department said it wouldn’t reimburse Pennsylvania counties for the cost of obtaining replacement equipment for which it withdraws certification if outside access is granted.
It also referenced an elections assessment that took place in Fulton County, Pennsylvania.
“We already have seen systems compromised in Fulton County and in the state of Arizona,” the agency said in a statement last week. “In both cases, the politically motivated reviews turned up absolutely no evidence of any fraud or discrepancies. Those partisan exercises did, however, prove to be very costly for local officials and taxpayers when election administrators were forced to lease or purchase replacement equipment.”
Comments
Posted on Jul 12, 2021
HARRISBURG – Senate Doug Mastriano issued the following statement today in response to attempts by the Wolf Administration and the Attorney General to obstruct a forensic investigation of the 2020 General Election and 2021 Primary:
“On Friday, the Acting Secretary of State issued a veiled threat disguised as a “directive” to all 67 counties in Pennsylvania. This threat implied that any county who participates in a forensic investigation and allows access of electronic voting systems to “third party entities not directly involved in the conduct of elections” will have their machines automatically decertified and retired before the next election.
Even worse, the directive stated that counties would be forced to pay for new voting system equipment and prevented from seeking reimbursement from the State Department.
The General Assembly is in fact directly involved in the manner and conduct of elections across the Commonwealth as it is responsible for reforming and amending all election laws.
Nowhere in statute is the Secretary of State mandated to make a predictive finding, automatically retire voting systems after third party access, and force counties to pay for that decision.
The authority of such a directive from the “Acting” Secretary is also in question as she has yet to go before the Senate to be officially confirmed. The inclination of the Acting Secretary to act outside of the scope of her constitutional powers is deeply concerning and will certainly be considered during her confirmation process.
The scare tactics last week did not just emanate from the Acting Secretary.
Attorney General Shapiro has made numerous tv appearances and social media statements to threaten costly legal action and make baseless claims about how much an investigation would cost to taxpayers.
Perhaps the AG’s time could be better spent on important law enforcement issues rather than nightly CNN/MSNBC appearances, childish name calling, and tweets of incessant broad, yet empty platitudes. Here are some issues that could use the attention of the Attorney General:
Investigating sworn affidavits from the 2020 November election
Protecting the personal data of PA citizens by investigating the Wolf Administration’s contact tracing data breach which exposed the personal health data of over 72,000 Pennsylvanians
Coming up with actual solutions to stem the rising tide of violent crime in PA cities and standing up to progressive district attorneys
Investigating the deaths of 16,000 of our dearly loved elderly resulting from the Wolf Administration’s directive to send COVID-positive patients back into long term care facilities.
In my letter to request information from several counties on July 7th, I clearly stated that the Intergovernmental Operations Committee would be open to any requests from county officials to maintain the security of responsive materials and the privacy of all voting information.
What we are seeing is a convergence of scare tactics from Wolf Administration and the Attorney General to intimidate county officials and obstruct a forensic investigation.
Governor Wolf and AG Shapiro are standing in the way of the constitutional authority of the General Assembly. For people who once lectured the state about transparency and accountability, we all ask, what do they have to hide?
The Intergovernmental Operations Committee will press forward in the pursuit of a forensic investigation.”
William McSwain, who was U.S. attorney of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 2018 until January 2021, wrote to Trump expressing his disapproval of instructions he said he received from Barr.
"On Election Day and afterwards, our Office received various allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities," the letter said. "As part of my responsibilities as U.S. Attorney, I wanted to be transparent with the public and, of course, investigate fully any allegations. Attorney General Barr, however, instructed me not to make any public statements or put out any press releases regarding possible election irregularities. I was also given a directive to pass along serious allegations to the State Attorney General for investigation - the same State Attorney General who had already declared that you could not win."
McSwain was referring to Democrat Josh Shapiro, then-Attorney General of Pennsylvania, who said at the time that the state found "absolutely no evidence" of what Trump claimed was widespread "voter fraud," Sputnik reported. Days before the November election, Shapiro tweeted that "Trump is going to lose."
Is Barr the worst wingman ever? Anyone heard from Durham?