PENNSYLVANIA — Jake Corman’s weak-kneed fear of recently-elected QAnon conspiracy theorist Doug Mastriano becomes clearer by the day — and the Scranton Times-Tribune Editorial Board called him out on Saturday. Corman could easily end the attempt at a “fraudit” that would cost PA taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and expose millions of Pennsylvanians’ personal information to unknown third parties, yet he refuses to speak out and openly plays footsie with the idea of a fraudit.
Scranton Times-Tribune: No private financing for ‘fraudit’
Recognizing that he is supposed to serve all Pennsylvanians rather than just radical ideological zealots in his own chamber, Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman should put an end to his Republican caucus’s flirtation with an election “fraudit” akin to the travesty that has unfolded in Arizona.
Corman appointed Sen. Doug Mastriano of Franklin County to the Senate State Government Committee, of which he has become chairman. Mastriano, who plans to seek the Republican gubernatorial nomination, now plans to misuse that government committee in furtherance of his fraudulent claim that there were irregularities in the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania that the actual counts and recounts and subsequent audits by 67 counties failed to detect.
Mastriano wants an audit modeled on the spectacle in Maricopa County, Arizona, which rightly has come to be known as the “fraudit.” The county’s commissioners, with a 4-1 Republican majority, already have determined that the fraudit compromised county voting machines and software and have voted to replace it all at a cost of millions of dollars to taxpayers.
In Pennsylvania, the Department of State already has decertified voting equipment in Fulton County that officials there foolishly turned over for a “fraudit” akin to what Mastriano desires statewide. Commissioners in Republican-majority Tioga and York counties rejected Mastriano’s demand for their equipment and data, and Philadelphia County has ignored it.
Now Mastriano plans to have his committee, which has no jurisdiction over elections, vote on subpoenas for the records, machinery and software.
Corman should head off this charade before it starts.
Lawmakers also should make clear that Pennsylvania is not open to another travesty involving the Arizona fraudit. The company orchestrating the political theater has announced that about 90% of its $5.7 million bill has been paid by private interests.
Elections are the government’s purview. There is no scenario, outside legal challenges in public courts, in which politically motivated private parties should be allowed to attempt to impose their will on the government and the electorate simply because they can afford to do so.
Corman has a solemn obligation to stop this farce.
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