By Zachary Stieber
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday said allegations of voter fraud have been debunked after state lawmakers called for an immediate election audit.
“Pennsylvania had a free, fair, and secure election. Millions of Pennsylvanians followed the rules allowed by the SCOTUS and each voter, regardless of political party, must have their voice heard. Allegations of fraud and illegal activity have been repeatedly debunked and dismissed by the courts,” Wolf’s office said in a statement to news outlets.
“Those attacks against the core values of Americans are intended to undermine our democracy, and we must reject them.”
The statement praised Republican and Democrat officials in Pennsylvania at the state and local level for working “tirelessly amid a pandemic so voters could decide this election” before claiming that all parties have had canvass observers throughout the ballot counting and any insinuation otherwise “is a lie.”
“Pennsylvania is going to fight every single attempt to disenfranchise voters. We will protect this election and the democratic process. Pennsylvania will count every vote, and we will protect the count of every vote,” it concluded.
State Republican lawmakers earlier Tuesday gathered at the state capitol in Harrisburg to call for investigatory hearings and a legislative-led audit of the 2020 election.
“There have been a number of very troubling issues that have come to our collective attention in the aftermath of last Tuesday’s general election. As a result, we have grave concerns regarding the future of our Commonwealth. Our offices have been overwhelmed with calls and emails and other messages from constituents who are confused and outraged by the circumstances surrounding this election,” state Rep. Dawn Keefer, a Republican, told reporters.
“We believe this moment is pivotal and important enough that the General Assembly needs to take extraordinary measures to answer these extraordinary questions. We also believe that our representative oversight duty as a Pennsylvania’s [sic] legislative branch of government demands that we immediately work to establish a forum where these issues can be thoroughly reviewed, in full view of the people of Pennsylvania for the purpose of determining whether Tuesday’s election was conducted fairly and lawfully,” she added.
Pennsylvania’s House speaker previously called on Wolf to approve a full audit of election returns prior to certification.
President Donald Trump’s campaign has alleged that Republican poll observers were not given proper access to ballot counting areas, among a number of election irregularities.
Ballot observer Brian McCafferty, a registered Democrat who said that he was not allowed within 30 feet of ballots being counted, told The Epoch Times: “How do you feel about them counting votes in the back? How confident are you that there’s no fraud going on? What are they hiding? They’re hiding something. And if they’re not, then why is it set up that way?”
A Pennsylvania judge on Nov. 5 ordered Philadelphia officials to let observers watch from no more than six feet away, GOP officials said the order was not obeyed.
The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit on Monday that alleged Pennsylvania’s election process violated the Constitution by creating different standards of verification and transparency for mail-in and in-person voters.
A separate lawsuit alleges Democratic election officials authorized county leaders to provide information about rejected mail ballots to party workers, violating state code.
Other irregularities have arisen. For instance, a U.S. Postal Service worker said he overheard a supervisor discussing backdating ballots. The service is investigating the matter. Erie County Election Board Chairman Carl Anderson III said in a statement that the issue related to about 130 ballots, adding in a statement: “They are not changing any outcomes. We will update our count to include them.”
