Pa. GOP aims to advance election ‘investigation’ with subpoenas

The top Republican in Pennsylvania’s state Senate is pushing forward what the GOP calls a “forensic investigation” of last year’s presidential election, calling Friday for a Senate committee to issue subpoenas.

Democrats have vowed to fight any subpoenas in court.

The GOP’s undertaking comes as former President Donald Trump continues to make baseless claims that the election was rigged against him.

Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman and fellow Republicans continue to perpetuate the idea that Democrats cheated by distorting the actions of judges and state officials leading up to last year’s election.

Corman, R-Centre, said he wants the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee to meet Monday to vote on subpoenas, since officials from Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration declined to testify before the committee.

What Republicans called a “full forensic investigation” has been ardently pressed by Republican senators vowing to bring an Arizona-style election “audit” to Pennsylvania, but has sown discord among Senate Republicans and brought sharp criticism from Democrats.

Democrats say it is a stunt to erode the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s victory — he won Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes, according to certified results — and an extension of a national campaign to attack voting rights.

The widely discredited “audit” by the Arizona Senate GOP does not even remotely resemble any kind of audit that is accepted by the election administration community.