Top line

The Pennsylvania State Department decertified the Fulton County voting machines after they were inspected by a private computer company behind Arizona’s partisan election audit, as other counties in Pennsylvania are now facing similar demands for their voting equipment from a GOP state senator launching a new election inquiry.

Highlights

Large number

$ 25,000. This is how much Fulton County has already paid to rent new voting machines for the county’s municipal election in May, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported, after Dominion refused to let the county use the voting machines Wake TSI had inspected. The county will likely now have to spend significantly more to fully replace the voting machines. York County, Pa. Estimated it would cost at least $ 2.7 million to replace its equipment, for example, and Tioga County in the state is estimated at Reuters it would cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars”.

What to watch out for

Mastriano has sent demands to York, Tioga and Philadelphia counties asking them to voluntarily hand over their voting machines and election materials – and other counties could follow – by July 31, so that a third-party company can examine them in a so-called “forensic investigation”. York and Tioga counties have previously said they do not want to cooperate with Mastriano’s request as it could result in their decertification. The Republican lawmaker has said he intends to subpoena counties if they do not voluntarily provide the documents, likely setting up a legal showdown as Democratic State Attorney General Josh Shapiro has turned committed to fighting any potential subpoena.

Key context

The Fulton County Election Audit predates the ongoing partisan audit in Maricopa County, Ariz., In which Wake TSI also participated until pulling from the recount in May to the expiration of their contract. Arizona’s audit has been the subject of much criticism and is currently under investigation by the House Oversight Committee, but has nonetheless spurred a new national effort by Republican state lawmakers to launch their own election inquiries. . In addition to Pennsylvania, efforts are also underway in states like Wisconsin and Georgia, and Texas House lawmakers. introduced legislation Tuesday that would launch an audit of their results. While partisan audits won’t change election results, critics have warned they could sow more mistrust in the vote count, as happened in Fulton County, where Wake TSI concluded report that although the county election was “well organized” there were several “issues to note”. “While it may seem minor, the impact on an election can be huge,” Wake TSI said in the report, which the To post notes was entered by numbers on the right as evidence of potential fraud. There is no credible evidence of widespread electoral fraud in Pennsylvania or elsewhere, including involving Dominion voting machines.

Further reading

How pressure from Trump allies to undermine 2020 results through ballot reviews quietly started in Pennsylvania (Washington Post)

Group led by ‘kraken’ attorney Sidney Powell hired AZ election firm to investigate PA election (Arizona mirror)

Pennsylvania audit intensifies as GOP county refuses to hand over election materials (Forbes)

Counties and states Trump won reject calls to launch their own Arizona-style election audits (Forbes)

Pennsylvania prepares Arizona-style election audit as lawmaker demands counties turn in voting materials (Forbes)