Editorial: Don’t fall for a phony ‘forensic audit’ of 2020 election
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How long does the 2020 presidential election need to haunt Pennsylvania politics?
Almost seven months after the polls closed in November, the state is still being harangued by questions of whether or not to count the ballots yet again.
Former President Trump — who lost Pennsylvania and then the White House in a nail-biting finish that stretched long after Election Day — has not given up his false claims that he actually won, along with assertions of fraud that even his own Attorney General Bill Barr dismissed.
In Arizona’s Maricopa County, the umpteenth recounting was turned over to a sham process by Cyber Ninjas, a Florida company whose owner promoted false stories about 2020 election fraud. The exercise has been denounced by GOP officials in Arizona. And yet Pennsylvania legislators such as state Sen. Doug Mastriano trekked there this month to observe the “forensic audit,” with hopes of seeing it happen here.
That hope also has led the former president to attack state Republicans who have stood in his way, calling out Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre, and Sen. David Argall, R-Schuylkill, in a June 14 statement where he called them “stupid, corrupt or naive.”
Four days later, Argall told Spotlight PA that he doesn’t see “damage in doing it one more time to try to answer the concerns that people have.”
Argall is chairman of the Senate State Government Committee, which could conduct a hearing. But why?
The state House of Representatives already has conducted not one but 10. The ballots have been counted and recounted on the county levels in the key strongholds where numbers were questioned, including Allegheny and Philadelphia. The GOP and Trump campaign issues have been brought into courts at every level — and failed.
Yes, there is value in looking backward to find errors and cure future problems. But only for legitimate claims and processes, not for acts of political vandalism.
Argall should not be revisiting the idea of issuing subpoenas because he was called out by the former president. He should be following the lead of Corman and moving on to new issues for the state, his constituents and his party.
The House hearings resulted in Republican plans to change state voting — again. The last changes were just made in 2019 with Act 77 expanding mail-in ballots while ending straight-ticket voting. The new proposals address sticking points, like voter ID and ballot counting, that deserve appropriate debate.
Argall’s plate should be overflowing with work related to the upcoming redistricting of state and federal legislative districts. That will require looking ahead for how decisions will affect Pennsylvanians for the next decade.
“I don’t know why people are so mistrusting of the results,” Argall told Spotlight PA. “I just know that they are.”
The reason people mistrust them is because people like Argall — people who have the facts and know the score — keep bending on the question and saying “what is the harm?” The harm is that, after so many recounts and so many hearings, continuing to humor the question gives the appearance that there is still something to question.