Days before the Capitol riot, a group of GOP state senators spearheaded an off-the-books audit of the 2020 election in Pennsylvania.
- State legislators helped a company tied to election conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell audit the vote count in a Pennsylvania county that Trump won by 86%.
- That same company, Wake TSI, is now working on a Republican-led “audit” of ballots in Maricopa County, Arizona that’s been ongoing for weeks.
- President Trump, who has reportedly mused about being “reinstated,” has encouraged the legislators to push for a similar audit in Pennsylvania.
On December 31st, 2020, a company called Wake TSI conducted an off-the-books audit of roughly 1,000 mail-in ballots in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.
A group of Republican Pennsylvania state senators–– including Sen. Doug Mastriano, who traveled to Washington, D.C. on the day of the insurrection–– helped facilitate the audit, pressuring county officials to agree to have the private company scrutinize ballots for free, going around the existing state process.
President Biden carried the Buckeye State by over 80,000 votes, a roughly 1.2% margin, according to official results.
That same company, operating under a contract from pro-Trump lawyer and election conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell, was also hired as a subcontractor on the hand recount portion of the election audit effort underway in Maricopa County, Arizona, which has been sanctioned by Republican Arizona Senate President Karen Fann. Mastriano visited the site of that audit last week, where he told a reporter that he would like to see a similar audit happen in Pennsylvania. Trump issued a statement praising Mastriano, saying “The people of Pennsylvania and America deserve to know the truth.”
The Arizona audit has generated significant pushback, including from the Republican-led Maricopa County Board of Supervisors:
Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Republican Arizona Senator John McCain, said the audit was “ridiculous.”
While almost certainly unlikely to succeed in changing the results, the audits are part of a wider playbook to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the 2020 election and clear the field for more restrictive voting laws.
Additionally, Powell recently speculated that the former President could be reinstated, an idea that Trump himself has reportedly begun echoing, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman:
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