Pennsylvania Republicans call for Arizona-style election audit

Republican lawmakers from Pennsylvania are calling for their state to conduct an Arizona-style audit of the 2020 presidential election, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. 

During a visit to Phoenix on Wednesday, three GOP Pennsylvania state lawmakers toured an audit site and met with Arizona Republican lawmakers to discuss issues with the elections, according to Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers (R), the Journal reported.

Two state senators and one member of Pennsylvania’s House met with Arizona legislators at the state Capitol before visiting the audit site for a briefing, The Associated Press reported.

The Republican-led Arizona Senate has hired auditors to hand-count 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County. President Biden won the state by 10,000 votes out of more than 3.3 million cast, in part due to a narrow victory over former President Trump in Maricopa County.

Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt (R) said on CNN’s “New Day” on Thursday that the Arizona audit aims to “reach a partisan political conclusion.”

Arizona’s audit is “directed by partisan political operatives to reach a partisan political conclusion, which is not an audit,” Philadelphia GOP City @Commish_Schmidt says.

It can’t have people trying to “indulge in some…paranoid fantasy that the election was stolen” pic.twitter.com/PHxptR21Lf

— New Day (@NewDay) June 3, 2021

“I know how important audits are. But what is going on in Arizona is not an audit. It is funded by partisan political benefactors, it is directed by partisan political operatives to reach a partisan political conclusion, which is … not an audit,” Schmidt said. 

Schmidt added that it’s “completely reckless” that his state’s GOP lawmakers visited the auditing site, adding that he doesn’t know why legislators want to repeat what’s going in Arizona, citing what’s going on there as being led by people who don’t have any experience in election administration.