PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania’s top election official has issued a directive that is seemingly intended to derail a Republican effort to cast doubt on the 2020 election.
Acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid has prohibited county election officials from providing third-party access to voting systems.
The directive comes two days after Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano asked for ballots and equipment from three counties — Tioga, York and Philadelphia — for what appears to be an Arizona-style partisan audit of the November election.
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Degraffenreid’s directive says third-party access undermines the security of voting systems and, thus, any county that violates the prohibition will lose certification of any election equipment it turns over to a third party and will not be reimbursed for replacing the equipment. That could cost the counties millions of dollars.
“Such access by third parties undermines chain of custody requirements and strict access limitations necessary to prevent both intentional and inadvertent tampering with electronic voting systems,” Degraffenreid said in a statement.
The directive notes that Pennsylvania’s election results have already been audited twice with no evidence of widespread fraud, and dozens of court cases have upheld the results.
“No counties should comply with these ‘demands,’ and if they do there will be substantial costs to counties and voters, including disclosure of personal data,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro added in a statement.
None of the counties have complied with the request. Philadelphia officials declined to comment.
Mastriano did not reply to requests for comment.