Spencer Finley

News Editor

sjf5814@psu.edu

On Tuesday, November 9, the Pennsylvania State Senate approved a resolution which would allocate up to $270,000 to conduct a forensic investigation into the results of the 2020 election. According to a statement from State Republican spokesman Jason Thompson quoted in WESA,  the NPR member station in Pittsburgh, the investigation has been approved for a six-month long period, but this time period can be extended if more time is required by the investigator. Only one more step is required for the State Senate to begin its forensic audit, and that is for the Chief Clerk of the State Senate to sign the contract signed by the firm conducting the investigation, Envoy Sage, and State Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward.

According to WESA, the decision to conduct this forensic investigation into the election results has been the subject of much controversy for some time, with detractors arguing that the effort is costly, unnecessary, divisive, unsecure and would violate voters’ privacy rights, while supporters of the forensic investigation have argued that the investigation will help to ensure the integrity of the 2020 election and will better inform upcoming voting legislation. Republicans in the State Senate had said that they would wait on the results of litigation surrounding a subpoena seeking private voter records, as this would be information critical to carrying out the investigation, and promptly ignored this commitment. This is significant because this investigation might be considered illegal if the court rules against Senate Republicans. The matter is being litigated because the investigation requires sensitive information from voters, including names, partial social security numbers, dates of birth, and addresses. 

The election legislation that the audit is designed to inform is H.B. 118, which would make sweeping changes to the PA electoral system, including putting in place new voter I.D. requirements, moving up the deadline to apply for and return mail-in ballots, and allowing counties to prepare mail-in and early voting ballots for counting up to five days before an election. The legislation passed the State House of Representatives by a 105-90 vote. This legislation has faced criticism from activists who say that the window to apply for, receive and return a mail-in ballot is unduly small and that this piece of legislation is an attack on voting rights inspired by the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was swayed by mass voter fraud.  However, proponents of the legislation argue that it brings many necessary changes to the election process, making them safer and allowing election results to come in quicker. 

In a statement quoted by WESA, PA Senate minority Leader Jay Costa lambasted the Republican decision to move forward with this investigation, saying that “They agreed to wait, and then went ahead with hiring their own firm to carry out this political, unnecessary and costly witch hunt.” 

The firm that the State Senate has chosen to hire to conduct the forensic investigation is a firm based out of Dubuque, Iowa called Envoy Sage. According to WESA, it is not known how much experience the firm has with investigating elections, although the company’s website apparently touts experience in the private sector including investigating fraud in the oil industry, corporate mergers and fraud in other private companies. Per WESA, the firm currently has six employees. According to WESA, the firm was chosen because of its connection to State Senator Cris Dush, who chairs the Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Operations. Dush said that he found the firm through contacts in veterans’ groups and contacts at the Defense Department. State Senate Democrats had no role in selecting the firm to conduct the audit.