GETTYSBURG, Pa. — State Sen. Doug Mastriano, a leading Republican gubernatorial candidate, recounted his longstanding and unproven case of voter fraud on Saturday.

Still, his claims seemed moderate compared to those of leading national election denier Mike Lindell, the founder of My Pillow and another featured speaker.

Lindell has repeatedly and incorrectly claimed that the number of votes counted in the 2020 election in Pennsylvania exceeded the number of registered voters. Each time, he drew nothing but applause from the crowd of several hundred who nearly filled a conference room near Gettysburg.

For the record, Pennsylvania, with about 13 million people, had 9,090,962 registered voters at the time of the 2020 election, according to Ballotpedia. Pennsylvania voters cast 6,915,283 votes, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Mastriano, the first speaker at the event, introduced himself as the only Republican-controlled state Senate member from Pennsylvania willing to fully pursue the fraud allegations.

He said “behind my back, the swamp rose” to thwart him, and lamented that he faced opposition from fellow Senate Republicans in addition to Democrats and the media.

Lindell, meanwhile, has repeatedly accused even Fox News of being part of a corporate and media-led conspiracy against the investigation into the fraud allegations, saying he has “evidence” of thousands. votes stolen from former President Donald Trump, even in Democratic-dominated states such as California.

Such was the meaning of the free “voter integrity conference” promoted by Mastriano and held in the heart of his district.

There was no major media coverage and no highly visible presence from other prominent Republicans. It was a pro-Trump crowd, though the “Mastriano for Governor” articles were plentiful.

Before entering, attendees signed a petition to decertify the result of the 2020 Pennsylvania election.

Mastriano, 58, is a retired Army colonel in his first term in the state Senate. He announced his candidacy for governor in January. Polls have shown him neck and neck with the other Republican frontrunner, former U.S. Representative Lou Barletta, with both well ahead of others, including Jake Corman, the ranking Republican in the state Senate.

Mastriano was a leading denier in the 2020 election results, including those in Pennsylvania, which President Joe Biden won by 80,555 votes, and where multiple state and county audits found no evidence of substantial fraud.

Additionally, Republicans have done well overall in Pennsylvania, winning statewide races for Treasurer and Auditor General, further reducing the plausibility of any Democratic-engineered fraud. .

“There is no evidence that there was widespread fraud. Period,” says political analyst G. Terry Madonna. “I don’t think anyone would agree that there might have been a little here and a little there… But nothing that wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the election.”

The Associated Press said it contacted election offices in all 67 counties in Pennsylvania. He said election officials in 11 counties identified a total of 26 possible cases of voter fraud. Most involved claims of ballots or dead people. Six people had been charged at the end of 2021.

“Statewide, no prosecutor, judge or election official in Pennsylvania has raised concerns about widespread fraud,” the Associated Press wrote.

In the weeks following the election, Mastriano tweeted the bogus claim to ‘mount evidence’ against Pennsylvania’s election results, and floated the idea that state lawmakers could step in and send in pro-Trump delegates. in the Electoral College.

Mastriano was in contact with Trump in the weeks leading up to the certification of the final result. He also organized buses to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to disrupt certification of Biden’s victory.

Video appears to show Mastriano and his wife among a crowd walking through barricades on Jan. 6, although he claims he followed instructions from Capitol Police. No video has emerged showing him inside the Capitol.

Mastriano received a subpoena to appear before the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 uprising and to turn over documents related to the nomination of alternate Electoral College voters who would support Trump. He declined requests from the news media to discuss his compliance.

Meanwhile, polls consistently show a strong majority of Republicans agreeing with Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Madonna thinks Mastriano believes such claims and it will be a significant issue for him as he runs for governor.

“He’s not going to back down and he’s not going to give up,” he said.

Mastriano did not respond to questions from PennLive regarding his candidacy.

Madonna further believes that a substantial part of Mastriano’s “base” is strongly behind Trump and his false allegations of voter fraud. However, he doubts Mastriano can increase the number of those who believe in a stolen election.

“People have already made up their minds,” he says.

Lindell, who made his fortune after founding My Pillow Inc., has traveled the country promoting unproven allegations of voter fraud, saying the evidence is plentiful if only someone investigates.

His claims even extended to states like Idaho, where Trump won by more than 30 points. The claims so upset Republican officials in Idaho that they conducted an investigation, which concluded Lindell’s claims and information on his website were false, according to NBC News.

Officials sent a cease and desist letter to Lindell telling him to remove a fake graphic from his website and pay $6,500 for the investigation, but he refused, NBC News said.

Democrats had an advantage of 600,000 registered voters in Pennsylvania at the time of the 2020 election, further undermining claims that only fraud could explain Trump’s loss.

A PennLive analysis in the days after the election found that while Pennsylvania’s red counties were once again strongly supportive of Trump, Biden still did several percentage points better than Hillary Clinton in 2016, contributing significantly to her Victoire. Trump actually did better in Philadelphia than he did in 2016, an indicator that caused some conservatives to drop the idea of ​​fraud.

READ MORE: Biden’s votes are pouring in from Philadelphia, but he might have won the election in Pennsylvania’s red counties

Additionally, PennLive’s interviews with mostly Republican Harrisburg-area county officials found no witnesses to fraud. Some said they were embarrassed by efforts by Republicans at the state and national level to promote the fraud allegations.

READ MORE: Central Pennsylvania election officials see no evidence of voter fraud; one describes GOP effort to “overdo”

Mastriano told the crowd on Saturday that the solution was to elect only candidates who make fighting voter fraud their top priority. He further called for a state constitutional amendment requiring voter ID in Pennsylvania.