{"id":588155,"date":"2021-07-11T08:05:30","date_gmt":"2021-07-11T12:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=588155"},"modified":"2021-07-11T08:56:09","modified_gmt":"2021-07-11T12:56:09","slug":"pennsylvania-department-of-state-tells-counties-not-to-allow-outside-access-to-voting-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pennsylvania-department-of-state-tells-counties-not-to-allow-outside-access-to-voting-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Department of State Tells Counties Not To Allow Outside Access to Voting Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpennsylvania-department-of-state-tells-counties-not-to-allow-outside-access-to-voting-systems%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=588155&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Directive comes after state senator initiated forensic investigation into 2020, 2021 elections<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-pennsylvania\">Pennsylvania<\/a> agency in charge of elections has issued a new directive telling counties not to let outside parties access electronic voting systems or components of such systems, such as tabulators and ballot printers.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/20987075-pa-department-of-state-directive\">directive<\/a> from the Pennsylvania Department of State says that county boards of elections \u201cshall not\u201d provide any access to third parties that are seeking to examine the systems or system components.<\/p>\n<p>If the counties do allow access, the voting equipment that is examined \u201cwill be considered no longer secure or reliable to use in subsequent elections\u201d and the department will withdraw its certification for the equipment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuch 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,\u201d said acting Pennsylvania Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid, appointed in February by Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf, in a statement. \u201cIt also jeopardizes the security and integrity of the systems and will prevent electronic voting system vendors from affirming that the systems continue to meet Commonwealth security standards and U.S. Election Assistance Commission certification.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, a Republican, said in a response that the directive \u201cis an attack on the General Assembly\u2019s power to review, investigate, and legislate in matters within its legislative authority, which includes Pennsylvania\u2019s election system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Legislature has clear authority\u2014both statutorily and constitutionally\u2014to provide oversight and issue subpoenas. This directive tramples those rights which were specifically put in place to prevent potential abuses and overreach by the Executive Branch,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>State Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-doug-mastriano\">Doug Mastriano<\/a>, a Republican, added that the directive was an example of a \u201cdisturbing pattern\u201d of obstruction and violation of constitutional powers of the Senate that dates back to March 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The move comes in response to Mastriano\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/pennsylvania-senate-chairman-initiates-forensic-probe-of-2020-2021-elections_3890927.html\">triggering a probe of recent elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mastriano sent letters to Philadelphia, York, and Tioga counties that cited the abnormalities in the 2020 election, including how the number of mail-in ballots jumped by over 2 million compared to four years prior.<\/p>\n<p>The chairman of the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee requested all ballot production, processing, and tabulation equipment that was used during the election, as well as forensic images of all election equipment and software from the equipment, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/20987076-sen-mastriano-letter-to-philadelphia-county\">the letter<\/a> to Philadelphia County, which was obtained by The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3895588\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/mastriano-in-2020-1200x800-1.jpg\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3895588\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/mastriano-in-2020-1200x800-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pennsylvania Sen. Doug Mastriano attends a hearing of the Pennsylvania State Senate Majority Policy Committee in Gettysburg, Pa., on Nov. 25, 2020. (Julio Cortez\/AP Photo)<\/figure>\n<p>Officials were asked to provide the documents by July 31. If they do not, then Mastriano plans to go to his panel and hold a vote that would give him the authority to issue subpoenas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s just find out what happened and get to the bottom of it and do what we got to do to either safeguard our elections or celebrate how perfect the election was,\u201d Mastriano told The Epoch Times in a recent interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe bottom line is, we\u2019re always asking for transparency in government, constantly, and regardless of who won the election, last year was unparalleled in so many ways. \u2026 And so if there\u2019s ever a time to do a forensic analysis of an electorate, this is the time to do it. There\u2019s so many things that kind of were disruptive last year. And so I don\u2019t know why anyone could be opposed to this, unless you have something to hide,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The Office of City Commissioners for Philadelphia told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that it received the letter and was reviewing it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are in receipt of Senator Mastriano\u2019s letter. Our office is reviewing it and have no comment about the requests at this time. We do want to be clear, however, that Senator Mastriano\u2019s letter reiterates claims about the November 2020 election that have been resoundingly rejected by courts. The repetition of baseless claims by elected officials poses a real challenge to our democratic processes. We are committed to continuing the hard work of ensuring that Philadelphians are able to exercise their right to vote,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>York and Tioga county officials confirmed to The Epoch Times receipt of letters from Mastriano but declined further comment.<\/p>\n<p>Mastriano last month visited <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/arizona-senate-conducting-new-count-of-maricopa-county-ballots_3895508.html\">the audit taking place in Maricopa County, Arizona,<\/a> and has said his investigation is aimed at going even deeper than that election review. He would like to hire the firms conducting the Arizona audit, pending support from Pennsylvania Senate GOP leadership.<\/p>\n<p>The Pennsylvania Department of State noted that Maricopa County has opted not to use the machines that were examined by auditors and said it would not reimburse Pennsylvania counties for the cost of obtaining replacement equipment for which it withdraws certification if outside access is granted.<\/p>\n<p>It also referenced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/election-assessment-in-pennsylvania-county-uncovers-five-issues-of-note_3855230.html\">an elections assessment<\/a> that took place in Fulton County, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe already have seen systems compromised in Fulton County and in the state of Arizona,\u201d the agency said in a statement last week. \u201cIn both cases, the politically motivated reviews turned up absolutely no evidence of any fraud or discrepancies. Those partisan exercises did, however, prove to be very costly for local officials and taxpayers when election administrators were forced to lease or purchase replacement equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Directive comes after state senator initiated forensic investigation into 2020, 2021 elections The Pennsylvania agency in charge of elections has issued a new directive telling counties not to let outside &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2314426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/mastriano-in-2020-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Pennsylvania Department of State Tells Counties Not To Allow Outside Access to Voting Systems","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-588155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/mastriano-in-2020-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Pennsylvania Department of State Tells Counties Not To Allow Outside Access to Voting Systems","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2314426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}