Keystone Today

Investigative hearings into both the 2020 general election and the 2021 state primary in Pennsylvania begin next week in Harrisburg.

The chair of the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee, Sen. Cris Dush (R-Pine Creek Township), said that he has invited officials with the Department of State to testify Thursday, Sept. 9, at the Capitol Building, according to Pennsylvania Senate Republicans. The topic, Dush said, will be the potential influence that last-minute guidance provided by the department had on the Nov. 3 elections.

Controversial decisions by Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar leading up to Election Day led Senate Republican leaders to demand her resignation.

Sen. Cris Dush | Pennsylvania State Senate

In a Nov. 3 statement, then Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Brockway) and Majority Leader Jake Corman (R-Bellefonte) – now Senate president --  said that Boockvar had “fundamentally altered the manner in which Pennsylvania’s election is being conducted. The constantly changing guidance she has delivered to counties not only directly contradicts the Election Code language she is sworn to uphold, but also conflicts her own litigation statements and decisions of both the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court.”

One infraction, the leaders said, involved telling told the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 28 that ballots received after 8 p.m. Nov. 3 would be segregated. “But she changed the rules on Nov. 1 and directed counties to canvass those ballots as soon as possible upon receipt.”

She then changed the rules again Nov. 2, they said, by providing “last-second guidance directing counties to provide information to help voters whose mail-in or absentee ballots were incorrectly completed so those voters could vote on a provisional ballot. The late release of this “guidance” resulted in inconsistent application across the counties -- some of whom contacted voters as directed and some who did not. There is no basis for this guidance in current law. The secretary created this new process out of thin air.”

Boockvar resigned in February over an unrelated matter; her office failed to advertise a proposed constitutional amendment.

The Intergovernmental Affairs Committee has also established a website for voters to come forward if they have witnessed voter irregularities or other election improprieties firsthand.

Dush said that the information will help lawmakers develop potential improvements to state law to bolster election security. Pennsylvanians can share their stories and contact information at Election Investigation Sworn Testimony.

Democratic critics say the only reason Republican lawmakers have called for election changes is because former President Donald Trump, who carried Pennsylvania in 2016, lost the state by about 80,000 votes in 2020. Trump has falsely charged that voter fraud caused his defeat to now-President Joe Biden.