An internal fight among legislators over a forensic election audit is spilling into public after Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg, accused leaders in his own party of stonewalling his investigation.
Mastriano sent letters to officials in three counties last month - Tioga, York and Philadelphia - requesting a trove of documents related to the elections in November 2020 and May 2021 for an Arizona-style audit of the ballots.
Gov. Tom Wolf and Attorney General Josh Shapiro, both Democrats, told counties not to participate in Mastriano's "Fishing expedition." The Department of State bolstered this warning with a directive to all 67 counties to block unauthorized third party access to their voting machines, lest they face decertification.
Fulton County Commissioners hired attorneys last week to appeal the state's decertification of their voting machines after they gave an outside company access to their equipment earlier this year at Mastriano's request.
In his statement Friday, Mastriano said "a majority of my members" on the Intergovernmental Operations Committee that he chairs supported his decision to send the letters.
"Rumors are rife of a plan, on the part of Senate leadership, to move the investigation from my committee to a different committee," Mastriano said.
In a statement, he said he was replacing Mastriano as the lead on the effort with Sen. Cris Dush, R-Wellsboro, describing him as "An Air Force veteran who has led numerous investigations in the military and headed the delegation in visiting the Arizona audit." Dush, Mastriano and Rep. Rob Kauffman, R-Chambersburg, met with Arizona legislators in Phoenix in early June to discuss the state's forensic audit.
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