DOS responds to Republican lawmakers' claim of election numbers discrepancy

[IceWizard]

DOS responds to Republican lawmakers' claim
of election numbers discrepancy


by WJAC Staff
Monday, December 28th 2020







HARRISBURG, Pa. (WJAC) —

A group of Republican lawmakers say they’ve performed an extensive
analysis of election day data and they’ve found “troubling” discrepancies.

According to State Rep. Frank Ryan (R-Lebanon), 17 lawmakers sponsored
and participated in the analysis.

Ryan, who is a certified public accountant, says they discovered
discrepancies between the numbers of total votes counted and total
number of voters who voted in the 2020 General Election which is
making them question how the results could have been certified
by Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar.

According to Ryan, the analysis compared official county election
results to the total number of voters who voted Nov. 3, as recorded
by the Department of State.

Ryan says they found that 6,962,607 total ballots were reported as
being cast, while DoS/SURE system records indicated that only
6,760,230 total voters actually voted.

Among the 6,962,607 total ballots cast, 6,931,060 total votes were
counted in the presidential race, including all three candidates on the
ballot and write-in candidates, according to Ryan.

He says the difference of 202,377 more votes cast than voters voting,
together with the 31,547 over- and under-votes in the presidential race,
adds up to a discrepancy of 170,830 votes, which is more than twice
the reported statewide difference between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

Pennsylvania’s election results were certified Nov. 24 and Gov. Wolf
issued a certificate of ascertainment of presidential electors stating
that Biden received 80,555 more votes than Trump.


The group of lawmakers released the following joint statement:

“We were already concerned with the actions of the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the Executive branch,
and election officials in certain counties contravening
and undermining the Pennsylvania Election Code by
eliminating signature verification, postmarks, and
due dates while allowing the proliferation of drop
boxes with questionable security measures and
the unauthorized curing of ballots, as well as the
questionable treatment of poll watchers, all of which
created wholesale opportunities for irregularities
in the 2020 presidential election.”

“However, we are now seeing discrepancies on
the retail level which raise even more troubling
questions regarding irregularities in the election
returns. These findings call into question the
accuracy of the SURE system, consistency in the
application of the Pennsylvania Election Code
from county to county, and the competency of
those charged with oversight of elections in our
Commonwealth.

“These numbers just don’t add up, and the alleged
certification of Pennsylvania’s presidential election
results was absolutely premature, unconfirmed,
and in error.”


State Rep. Frank Ryan (R-Lebanon) indicated that state
legislators sponsoring and participating in the analysis
were himself and Reps. Russ Diamond (R-Lebanon),
Dave Zimmerman (R-Lancaster), Barb Gleim (R-Cumberland),
Stephanie Borowicz (R-Centre/Clinton), Dan Moul (R-Adams),
Paul Schemel (R-Franklin), Dawn Keefer (R-York/Cumberland),
Eric Nelson (R-Westmoreland), Mike Jones (R-York),
Rob Kauffman (R-Franklin), David Maloney (R-Berks),
David Rowe (R-Snyder/Union), Kathy Rapp (R-Warren/Crawford/Forest),
Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler), Jim Cox (R-Berks/Lancaster) and
Brett Miller (R-Lancaster).

The Pennsylvania Department of State released the following
statement in response to the Republicans' claims:

"In today’s release Rep. Ryan and others rehash, with the same
lack of evidence and the same absence of supporting documentation,
repeatedly debunked conspiracy theories regarding the November 3
election. State and federal judges have sifted through hundreds of
pages of unsubstantiated and false allegations and found no evidence
of fraud or illegal voting.

"Now, the legislators have given us another perfect example of the
dangers of uninformed, lay analysis combined with a basic lack of election
administration knowledge.

"For instance, it is quite common to have significant "undervotes"
for down-ballot races in a presidential election, particularly when there
isn't a U.S. Senate race on the ballot. In 2000, Sen. Santorum received
200,000 more votes than President Bush, but the US Senate race
still had more than 100,000 fewer votes than the presidential race.

"We are unclear as to what data the legislators used for this most
recent “analysis.” But the only way to determine the number of voters
who voted in November from the SURE system is through the vote
histories. At this time, there are still a few counties that have not
completed uploading their vote histories to the SURE system. These
counties, which include Philadelphia, Allegheny, Butler and Cambria,
would account for a significant number of voters. The numbers certified
by the counties, not the uploading of voter histories into the SURE system,
determines the ultimate certification of an election by the secretary.

"This obvious misinformation put forth by Rep. Ryan and others is the
hallmark of so many of the claims made about this year’s presidential
election. When exposed to even the simplest examination, courts at
every level have found these and similar conspiratorial claims to be
wholly without basis.


"To put it simply, this so-called analysis was based on incomplete data."




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DOS = Department of State