Many of you have contacted my office regarding the 2020 election. Pennsylvanians, and all Americans, deserve to have full transparency in this election, and confidence in our election process.
The Senate Republican Caucus has joined with the Pennsylvania GOP in litigation that is currently before the United States Supreme Court regarding the mail in ballot deadline extension. On two occasions, the PA Supreme Court refused our request to block the extension for receiving ballots up until November 6th (except for military ballots). This is in clear violation of our state’s Election Code. Additionally, after the Supreme Court ruling, Governor Wolf made it clear he would veto any bill to provide enhanced election security.
To add insult to injury, the Pennsylvania Secretary of State has fundamentally altered the manner in which Pennsylvania’s election was conducted. The constantly changing guidance she had delivered to counties not only directly contradicted PA’s Election Code language she is sworn to uphold, but also conflicted with her own litigation statements and decisions of both the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court. Members of our Caucus have asked for her resignation.
The vote count in PA continues. If the final number is within a half of one percent then there is an automatic recount required by PA law. Presently, the margin is a little outside a half of one percent but there are a lot of provisional ballots yet to be counted. Even if the margin does not require a recount, the Trump campaign is entitled to ask for one.
There is no question that the Legislature, along with the Governor, needs to take additional concrete steps to safeguard the integrity of our elections to prevent the kind of abuses that have been reported to us. We WILL reform the process to make sure what happened in 2020 never happens again.