https://uncoverdc.com/2021/10/19/pa-ag-quash-these-17-election-investigation-subpoenas/
PA AG: “Quash” These 17 Election Investigation Subpoenas
ennsylvania’s Democrat state Attorney General Josh Shapiro has filed an 80-page explanatory memo in his suit against election integrity subpoenas from the state’s Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee (SIOC):
The corresponding press release from Shapiro stated:
“These Senators are using their position of power to demand voters’ personal information, all so that they may continue to lie about our elections. It is time for public officials to move past the Big Lie and to start reminding the public that our elections are accurate, fair, and secure.“
The 17 subpoenas from SIOC claimed authority to compel the Pennsylvania Department of State (DOS) to provide “critical information,” including voter data from the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system by Oct. 1 as part of a review of the 2020 General election. AG Shapiro filed suit in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania on Sept. 23, saying the subpoenas are illegal. ACLU has filed a motion to intervene, arguing a violation of privacy and Pennsylvania law.
As the Oct. 1 deadline came and went, SIOC Chair Senator Cris Dush responded to AG Shapiro’s lawsuit and claimed that the subpoenas violate privacy in an Op-Ed:
“Many Pennsylvania Democrat Leaders have made wild accusations about what will happen to this data. Senate Democrats said personal information would be exposed. The politicians who are telling these tall tales know there is a better chance of a Pennsylvanian being struck by a meteor. Many members of the media have bought into their false narrative and created doubts in the minds of good, honest citizens.
The reason why the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee subpoenaed this information is to cross match and verify whether or not our voter registration system has duplicate voters, dead voters, and/or illegal voters. Former Auditor General Eugene DePasquale—a Democrat—asked for the same information for the same purpose in 2019, when he documented major concerns with the SURE system and the existence of hundreds of thousands of problem records in the system.
Do you remember the outcry from Attorney General Shapiro, PA Senate Democrats, or the media about privacy concerns related to this request in 2019? Me neither. But, what you may not know is that this same crowd prevented him from getting the records after realizing what he was going to find out. Will Governor Wolf and his administration ever let anyone outside his control check on registration integrity?“
Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman voted for and made a statement about the summonses that claimed “clear authority” and called SIOC’s overarching investigation “thoughtful, responsible and legally sound.” He added that “every necessary step will be taken to ensure [voter data] is completely secure” and that his committee would not “leave this information vulnerable like the Wolf Administration during their contact tracing data breach earlier this year.”
Personal information about voters is not all that the subpoenas demand, but it is not near enough for some. As AuditTheVotePA explains:
“This is a total joke. No actual look at ballots. No actual look at machines. Just state department data that we either already have or we can easily get from a ‘Right To Know’ request. Thank you, RINO Senators in Pennsylvania. You have officially sold out your constituents, and you don’t care about having free and fair elections…sickening.“
Prior to filing his lawsuit, AG Shapiro said, “the majority of this information is publicly available and doesn’t require force to be compelled.” He added, “Instead of a bombshell, [the subpoenas] highlight how Republican leaders in our Commonwealth continue to try and manufacture controversy out of nothing.”
Senator Doug Mastriano, former SIOC Chair, was the man who led a post-election hearing on election irregularities in November 2020 with Rudy Giuliani. In July, he had issued a request to three counties for a wide variety of materials needed for a forensic audit of both machines and ballots that had grassroots support, including AudittheVotePA. The counties were not required to respond to Mastriano’s request, as they would only have become subpoenas with the force of law by a majority vote from SIOC.
That vote never occurred because Corman removed Mastriano from his position as chair in August. His replacement was Dush
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