Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Slams Texas Lt. Gov. for $1 Million Voter Fraud Reward, Alleges Republican Fraud Attempt

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman mocked the infamous $1 million reward proposed by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Tuesday by reporting an apparent attempt at voting fraud by a Republican in the Keystone State.

"Hey, Governor Patrick- it's your counterpart in Pennsylvania. I'd like to collect your handsome reward for reporting voter fraud. I got a dude in Forty Fort, PA who tried to have his dead mom vote for Trump," Fetterman tweeted. "I'd like mine in Sheetz gift cards."

The tweet came just hours after Patrick announced in a press release that he would pay up to $1 million from his campaign to incentivize people to come forward and report voter fraud across the country, despite no evidence that suggests widespread voter fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential election. Patrick said that he supports President Donald Trump's "efforts to identify voter fraud" but offered no legitimate evidence to back up his claims.

"Whistleblowers and tipsters should turn over their evidence to local law enforcement. Anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest and final conviction of voter fraud will be paid a minimum of $25,000," Patrick said in the press release.

In response to Fetterman's tweet, Patrick wrote: "Faith in the electoral process is a serious issue. Transparency is critical. PA Dems brought this on themselves w/ last minute changes to election laws and counting ballots behind closed doors. Respond to the reports. Answer the questions. Stop the snide put-downs and #getserious."

In a Wednesday appearance on CNN, Fetterman doubled down and further discussed the alleged attempt at voter fraud.

"The fraud that we know that has occurred in Pennsylvania in this cycle is a registered Republican in Luzerne County tried to vote for Trump with his dead mother's ballot," he said. "Other than that, no we have not witnessed any voter fraud here in Pennsylvania."

The presidential race was called for Joe Biden on Saturday after the president-elect received Pennsylvania's 20 Electoral College votes. While the grueling process of counting provisional and mail-in ballots is still underway in several counties throughout the state, Biden leads Trump by just over 50,000 votes.

"Math doesn't care about his feelings, it doesn't care about anyone's feelings. The math in Pennsylvania is damning for the president," said Fetterman.

Trump, who has refused to concede or begin the transition process, and his campaign launched a lawsuit in federal court on Monday to block Pennsylvania's election result, arguing that Democratic voters were treated more favorably than Republican voters and alleging baseless claims of fraud. However, the Trump campaign provided no evidence to support these claims.

Few lawsuits filed in Pennsylvania have yielded results for Trump, and it's unlikely that these lawsuits would change the outcome of the election in the state. The U.S. Supreme Court formally asked counties in Pennsylvania to segregate ballots last week in case of a decision that rules their three-day extension for accepting ballots postmarked by Election Day as unconstitutional. While this was considered a "win" for Trump by the GOP, counties were already segregating these ballots and counting them separately.

On CNN, Fetterman added that he would be unfazed if the Trump campaign took the 10,000 mail-in ballots received after Election Day to the Supreme Court, since Biden's lead would exceed that number.

"The bottom line is that there is no truth to any of this and, at some point, we all have to collectively accept that yelling 'voter fraud' when there is no evidence whatsoever of it, is yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater," he said. "It is harming the democratic franchise of our country and the peaceful transition of power, and we cannot accept that."

Patrick's $1 million reward was met with intense criticism on social media, while Jim Clancy, the former chairman of the Texas Ethics Committee, told CBS News that the large sum of money could be "an in-kind contribution to the Donald Trump campaign."

In a radio interview with The Mark Davis Show in October, Patrick claimed that Democrats were attempting to steal the election, saying, "If the president loses Pennsylvania or North Carolina [...] or Florida, they'll lose it because they stole it."

"Again, this needs to stop. It's absurd," Fetterman said in response to Patrick's reward.

This story was updated with the tweeted response from Patrick.