Pennsylvania state lawmaker briefed colleagues on his plan for election audit: report

A Pennsylvania Republican state senator held a private meeting Wednesday with colleagues regarding his plans to launch an election audit in the state, The Associated Press reported.

Sen. Doug Mastriano (R), an ally to former President Trump, spoke with colleagues about having an election audit in Pennsylvania similar to the one held in Arizona.

Arizona’s state senate issued a subpoena to assess millions of ballots and ballot machines. Mastriano went to Arizona in June to see its audit for himself, according to the AP.

The AP also reported that he reached out to a law firm based in Philadelphia regarding the legality of the Senate Republican caucus using money from a private nonprofit to pay lawyers and consultants as part of an investigation into the results of the 2020 election.

In a letter dated Tuesday and obtained by the AP, lawyer Bruce S. Marks said, “While we cannot predict how the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would decide the issue, in our opinion, to a reasonable degree of legal certainty, Pennsylvania law does not prohibit the Caucus or Committee from accepting or benefiting from such financial support.”

Marks confirmed to The Hill that he wrote the letter.

The move by the Pennsylvania state senator echoes calls by Trump to look into the 2020 election based on the unfounded belief that it was rigged and widespread fraud had been committed.

Mastriano is not the only Republican state senator who would encourage an Arizona-style state audit of the state’s election results.

“It’s a very careful recount, forensic audit, so yeah, I don’t see the danger in it,” Pennsylvania state Sen. David Argall (R) said in June during a forum with reporters from Spotlight PA, a consortium of media companies from across the state. “I just think that it would not be a bad idea at all to proceed with an audit similar to what they’re doing in Arizona.”

The Hill has reached out to Mastriano’s office for comment.