Mastriano Responds to Efforts By Gov Wolf and AG Shapiro to ‘Obstruct’ PA Election Audits

We previously reported that Pennsylvania Republican State Sen Doug Mastriano has been tangling with the state’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro in regards to his election audit request.

Since then, Shapiro has continued to appear on news outlets like MSNBC, even tweeting a clip today of an appearance with Joy Reid.

“Our democracy is under attack right now. Whether you’re an Attorney General, a member of Congress, or an American citizen concerned about our future — it is on every one of us to fight like hell to defend it,” Shapiro said in the tweet that included the clip.

Our democracy is under attack right now.

Whether you’re an Attorney General, a member of Congress, or an American citizen concerned about our future — it is on every one of us to fight like hell to defend it. pic.twitter.com/4Blp80P6rK

— Josh Shapiro (@JoshShapiroPA) July 12, 2021

Last week, the acting Secretary of State in the commonwealth, Veronica Degraffenreid, issued a “directive concerning access to voting machines” and warned of “consequences of such access.”

Those consequences included that counties would be forced to pay for new voting system equipment and prevented from seeking reimbursement from the State Department.

Degraffenreid was appointed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who said that it is a “disgrace to democracy” that Mastriano is trying to launch the “sham election audit” which he called a “profound waste of time and taxpayer money,” in addition to being a disgrace.

Mastriano addressed both Wolf and Shapiro in a statement today that he released and criticized them for the aforementioned efforts and stated:

The General Assembly is in fact directly involved in the manner and conduct of elections across the Commonwealth as it is responsible for reforming and amending all election laws. 

Nowhere in statute is the Secretary of State mandated to make a predictive finding, automatically retire voting systems after third party access, and force counties to pay for that decision.  

The authority of such a directive from the “Acting” Secretary is also in question as she has yet to go before the Senate to be officially confirmed.  The inclination of the Acting Secretary to act outside of the scope of her constitutional powers is deeply concerning and will certainly be considered during her confirmation process.

The scare tactics last week did not just emanate from the Acting Secretary.

Attorney General Shapiro has made numerous tv appearances and social media statements to threaten costly legal action and make baseless claims about how much an investigation would cost to taxpayers.

Perhaps the AG’s time could be better spent on important law enforcement issues rather than nightly CNN/MSNBC appearances, childish name calling, and tweets of incessant broad, yet empty platitudes. 

Mastriano then listed issues that Shapiro could be addressing instead, including:

Investigating sworn affidavits from the 2020 November election

Protecting the personal data of PA citizens by investigating the Wolf Administration’s contact tracing data breach which exposed the personal health data of over 72,000 Pennsylvanians

Coming up with actual solutions to stem the rising tide of violent crime in PA cities and standing up to progressive district attorneys

Investigating the deaths of 16,000 of our dearly loved elderly resulting from the Wolf Administration’s directive to send COVID-positive patients back into long term care facilities.

Mastriano concluded:

What we are seeing is a convergence of scare tactics from Wolf Administration and the Attorney General to intimidate county officials and obstruct a forensic investigation.

Governor Wolf and AG Shapiro are standing in the way of the constitutional authority of the General Assembly.  For people who once lectured the state about transparency and accountability, we all ask, what do they have to hide?

The Intergovernmental Operations Committee will press forward in the pursuit of a forensic investigation.