Trump Demands Arizona-style 2020 Election Audit in Pennsylvania
Donald Trump has joined the list of GOP figures and conspiracy theorists who are calling for an Arizona-style audit of the 2020 election results to take place in Pennsylvania.
Trump issued a statement demanding that the Pennsylvania Senate "act fast" after Pennsylvania senators Doug Mastriano and Cris Dush and state representative Rob Kauffman toured an audit site in Arizona on Wednesday.
The three lawmakers are now calling for a recount in Pennsylvania, another state Trump lost to President Joe Biden in November after all the postal ballots were eventually counted.
This is despite the GOP-led and QAnon funded audit in Arizona being widely ridiculed and criticized by the Board of Supervisors in Maricopa County as turning the state into a "laughing stock."
The ballots in Maricopa County, Arizona have been slowly recounted for weeks and have yet to provide any meaningful evidence of voter fraud. In May, one official helping oversee the audit said they were looking for traces of bamboo fibers because of a conspiracy theory that tens of thousands of ballots were shipped in China.
Biden won Arizona as a whole in 2020's election by just 0.3 percentage points. Conspiracy theorists are hoping that any proof of election fraud in Arizona will result in a Domino-effect which will somehow result in Trump being reinstated as president.
"Great patriots led by State Senator Doug Mastriano, Senator Cris Dush, and State Representative Rob Kauffman went to Maricopa County, Arizona, to learn the best practices for conducting a full Forensic Audit of the 2020 General Election," Trump said. "Now the Pennsylvania Senate needs to act.
"Senate President Jake Corman needs to fulfill his promise to his constituents to conduct a full Forensic Audit. Senator Dave Argall, Chairman of the State Government Committee, has to authorize the subpoenas, if necessary.
"The people of Pennsylvania and America deserve to know the truth. If the Pennsylvania Senate leadership doesn't act, there is no way they will ever get re-elected!"
Officials in Pennsylvania have dismissed suggestions that there will be a recount of any votes in the presidential election.
Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, tweeted on Friday: "What they're calling for isn't an 'audit.' It's a taxpayer-funded disinformation campaign and a disgrace to democracy.
"Pennsylvania had a free and secure election. That's a fact. Pennsylvanians deserve better from their elected officials."
Rep. Seth Grove, a Republican who chairs the committee that handles election matters, tweeted on Thursday: "The PA House of Representatives will not be authorizing any further audits on any previous election.
"We are focused on fixing our broken election law to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat."
Pennsylvania is one of the few states which does not start counting its mail-in ballots until Election Day, with some counties even waiting until the following morning. Trump and others decried the delayed counting of the votes in the state in November as proof of "illegal" voting.
Trump is set to take part in one of his biggest public events since leaving the White House as he speaks at the North Carolina GOP state convention in Greenville on Saturday
"A great honor to be speaking at the North Carolina GOP convention tomorrow night. I understand the place will be packed, all records broken!" Trump said in a statement Friday.
