“Why does last November’s election need the fraudit treatment? Are you still kissing up to Donald Trump? Does he still tell you what to do?”
PENNSYLVANIA — Pennsylvanians’ widespread anger towards Republicans’ effort to bring a sham “audit” to Pennsylvania is shaping up to be a huge problem for the Republican gubernatorial candidates who are tripping over each other to support Trumpian lies about the 2020 election.
While Pennsylvanians are making known their disapproval of the far-right’s taxpayer-funded fraudit, calling out their commitment to pleasing Trump and the “Super MAGA” right, Republicans don’t seem to be listening. Instead, they are pushing ahead, but they aren’t fooling anyone, as one Pennsylvanian sharply exclaimed, “I’m old enough to know when I’m being used with no benefit to me, my community and my state.” Even fellow Republicans are calling out the Trumpian lies, saying Jake Corman, “risks embarrassing himself beyond recognition with no hope of satisfying the demands of his tormentors,” and that he needs to “call off this nonsense.”
So far, that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Harrisburg Republicans have moved forward, issuing subpoenas for nine million Pennsylvanians’ social security numbers, which may be given to inexperienced third-party contractors.
This fraudit is a disaster for Pennsylvania Republicans, but the PA-Gov candidates are still supporting it. If they don’t believe us, they should hear it straight from Pennsylvanians:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: PA Republicans should reject election audit
By Jim Greenwood and Murray Dickman, 09/12/21
Most Pennsylvania Republican State Senators seem hell bent to follow in the unguided footsteps of their brethren in Arizona into Trump lunacy land to perform a so-called “forensic audit” of the 2020 election. The Commonwealth Republican Leadership should reject such a crazy idea.
For many months now, the Harrisburg leadership has responsibly rejected the calls of many of Trump’s followers to perform such a fruitless exercise. The fig leaf for this bizarre exercise is “… to improve our election system going forward.” But the goal is more nefarious.
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Until now, Corman has been widely viewed as a serious person and a steady hand. He succeeded his father in his state Senate seat and was widely viewed as a first-class state senator. What happened? It’s clear that Sen. Corman — like many of his legislative colleagues — is capitulating to the pressure of “mob rule.” Other GOP state senators — notably Sen Gene Yaw of Lycoming County and Dan Laughlin of Erie County — have resisted the same pressure and have come out against this fruitless effort very forcefully.
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The current Sen. Corman must also realize that fact, but still he risks embarrassing himself beyond recognition with no hope of satisfying the demands of his tormentors.
If Sen. Corman really wants to improve the integrity of our elections, he should start by removing the commonwealth from the list of only 10 other states that put no limits on how much money political action committees and wealthy individuals can contribute to candidates for the legislature or governor. No forensic audit is needed to unveil the corrupt influence there.
It’s not too late for the Republican Senate leadership to regain its dignity and reputation. Call off this nonsense.
The Reading Eagle: Letter: Stop Republican assault on bedrock of democracy
By Jane Beck, Brecknock Township, 09/21/21
Editor:
Since 1988, Republicans have won the popular vote for president one time. So they claim voting is rigged, and millions take the bait. Multitudes repeating a lie for months doesn’t make it become true. There is still not a shred of legitimate evidence.
In 2000, with a 537-vote lead in Florida, Republicans tried everything to prevent a recount. They pulled the Brooks Brothers riot, then got the Supreme Court to stop it. Now, in a complete flip-flop, Pennsylvania Senate Republicans, 10 months after the election, are starting an audit of all votes, with an 81,660 vote losing margin.
Do taxpayers realize we’re paying millions for this? Plus any voting machines handled by unlicensed people must be replaced, and Berks County just bought new machines. Sidney Powell’s organization is involved. She’s being sued for $1.3 billion for lies about fraud and was sanctioned by a judge for “reckless disregard for the truth.”
Sen. Cris Dush’s committee wants the name, birth date, address, driver’s license number, and last four digits of Social Security number of every registered voter in Pennsylvania. And how they went about voting. That’s beyond outrageous.
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Tribune-Review: Letter to the editor: Republicans not ‘protecting integrity’
By Frances Weiss, White Oak, 09/18/21
Republican legislators, who’ve dominated our state Legislature for decades, intend to overturn the mail-in voting law they all voted to pass in 2019. They now plan to cast doubt on the outcome of Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results by holding an Arizona-style audit of those votes, claiming irregularities and improprieties allowed innumerable numbers of mail-in votes to be illegally counted.
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These actions Republicans insist are about “protecting integrity” to me are actually the opposite.
Montgomery Media: Letter: Paying for intrusion of privacy
By Libby Hutcheson, Carlisle, 09/17/21
If someone called me asking for my name, address, driver’s license number, partial SSN and voting history, I’d hang up immediately, knowing it was a scam. If I were asked to then pay some exorbitant amount so that information could be used without my express permission and given to some unknown entity, as is the case with the Pa. GOP “audit,” I would immediately join a class action suit demanding my Fourth Amendment right to privacy.
That right is one of my dearest freedoms, and it is shocking that Pa. Republicans are either so ignorant and/or so hypocritical that they want to proceed with this travesty while proclaiming opposition to masks on the grounds of personal freedom. For what? Because these same lawmakers have alleged, unfounded “questions” about the 2020 election that they now want to examine because they claim they don’t have answers to their own fabrications. My dog chases his own tail in the same way, but I don’t have to pay attention to it when I know it is just a game.
The Arizona “audit,” which has been totally discredited, may cost upwards of $9 million, and has required several counties to purchase new voting machines since the audit compromised the old ones. Do we really want to follow the absolute worst and dumbest example of partisanship gone awry, pay for it with our hard-earned money, so these guys can grandstand for the previous guy?
I’m old enough to know when I’m being used with no benefit to me, my community and my state.
Republican Herald: One silly partisan audit leads to another
By Lisa Von Ahn, 09/14/21
Some government hearings are boring, some are dramatic and some are actually heartening. The one the state Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee held last week made me want to both laugh and cry.
We all know that 10 months after the presidential election, Donald Trump and the Trumplicans still haven’t budged from his Big Lie that he lost because of voter fraud, rather than his failed policies and overall repulsiveness. His baseless claim and variations of it have already spawned Arizona’s ludicrous and seemingly endless “forensic audit.”
With their Dear Leader pulling the strings, GOP state senators like President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, committee Chair Cris Dush and our own Dave Argall are moving with uncharacteristic speed to bring a train wreck like this to our state.
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Whatever the level of concern, Trump stirred it up months before the election by falsely claiming there were plans to rig it. Interestingly, his name hardly came up, and in a nearly 20-minute attempt to justify the need for the hearing, Dush insisted that it wasn’t about the ex-president.
Nor was it supposed to be about Fulton County’s “audit,” which helped pave the way for one in Arizona, but despite Dush’s efforts to rein in the Democrats, they managed to question Ulsh on it.
Did contractor Wake TSI find fraud? No. How much did the audit cost? Ulsh didn’t know because the county didn’t pay for it. Then who paid? He didn’t ask and didn’t remember.
Ulsh said he checked out Wake’s “credentials” on the advice of “the senators” who approached him about doing an “audit.” He then said the only senator who did so was Judy Ward, a GOP who represents his county.
(There’s no record that Wake had any previous election-auditing experience. Its contract, published by the Arizona Mirror, showed former committee Chair Doug Mastriano, who was stripped of that position last month, set up the “audit” for former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell’s organization that funds challenges to the election.)
Besides subpoenas, Corman has promised more Big Lie-based hearings in this partisan farce that, despite its entertainment value, will only add to our country’s confusion and concerns.
State College: Letters: What Does ‘Pride in America’ Truly Mean; No Arizona-Style Sham Audit in PA
By Marilyn Goldfarb, Boalsburg, 09/02/21
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No Fraudulent Audit in PA
State Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman deserves a sarcastic cheer for his “leadership” in giving Sen. Doug Mastriano the heave-ho off the “Fraudit” (fraudulent audit) election integrity committee. Why was Mastriano, who was present at the U.S. Capitol at the time of the Jan. 6 riot, in charge of this In the first place?
But Corman’s fingerprints are still all over the Fraudit, and for that he deserves full-throated Bronx cheers. Instead of killing the Fraudit, he named Republican Senator Cris Dush, who traveled to Arizona to see how a Fraudit is done, to head it up.
A year ago at this time we were dealing with the escalating pandemic, our president was talking nonsense on COVID, and we in Pennsylvania were learning about the new mail voting system.
With no thanks to Trump, who declared Pennsylvania’s election rigged months before it happened, last November’s in-person and by-mail election saw a huge turnout and worked well. Through gold-medal work by county commissioners, election officials, and thousands of volunteers across the state, they tallied and verified a fraud-free election.
So what’s the problem, Senator Corman? Why does last November’s election need the Fraudit treatment? Are you still kissing up to Donald Trump? Does he still tell you what to do? Holding out for an ambassadorship in the next Trump administration?
There comes a time when men with spine admit they are wrong and move on.
Senator Corman: By continuing the Fraudit you have sullied your family’s record of public service, and are wasting your time and taxpayer money. Why?
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