Election officials in multiple Republican-leaning states and counties that voted for former President Donald Trump resisted calls by state legislators to undertake election audits akin to the one now playing out in Arizona.
Election officials in Pennsylvania’s Republican-leaning Tioga and York counties shot down requests by GOP state Sen. Doug Mastriano to turn over election materials including ballots and voting machines, part of an effort to conduct a so-called forensic investigation of Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results.
The predominantly Republican commissioners in the two counties cited recent guidance from Pennsylvania’s secretary of state that directed counties not to comply with Mastriano’s request, saying their voting machines will be decertified if they turn them over and the state will not reimburse their replacement.
North Carolina’s State Board of Elections rejected a call Thursday from the state’s House Freedom Caucus to “access randomly selected voting systems” in the state to inspect them for potential security issues.
The board’s executive director Karen Brinson Bell defended the state’s elections and the safeguards in place to prevent fraud in a letter to lawmakers, quoting federal officials who said allowing access to voting machines “increases the risk of accidental or intentional damage, manipulation, or theft of assets.”
Oklahoma’s elections board rebuffed a request from Republican state Rep. Sean Roberts to audit the state’s elections, which he claimed was necessary based on allegations of election fraud in other states.
Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax said Tuesday such a review was likely not permissible under state law, and said “the time and expense of a post-election audit is not justified for an election that was conducted more than eight months ago.”
Big Number
$2.8 million. That’s how much Maricopa County, Arizona, will spend to replace its voting machines after they were turned over to private companies for their election audit, suggesting the hefty price tag that would come with complying with Republicans’ election investigation requests. Philadelphia county commissioner Al Schmidt told Reuters the county—which also received a request from Mastriano for election materials—would likely have to pay approximately $40 million in total to replace their election equipment, and Tioga County projected to the outlet their costs would be “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
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