On Friday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Pennsylvania state Senate Democrats have filed a lawsuit against the GOP's planned "audit," which will seek to gather information on voters.
"Democrats had said they would sue within days after the Republican-controlled Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee voted Wednesday to issue a subpoena for detailed state election records, including the names of who voted in last year's presidential election, their birth date, address, driver's license number, and the last four digits of their Social Security number," said the report. "The 53-page lawsuit, filed by all 21 Senate Democrats, contends that the Senate Republican bid to investigate the election illegally treads on the court's duties, violates state law over election audits and seeks information that is barred from public disclosure."
"The unprecedented maneuver of collecting the sensitive personal information of millions of voters without their consent, including Social Security information and driver's license, for political purposes is unjustifiable and a gross misuse of taxpayer resources," said Senate Democrats in a statement. "The fact that they will not share how that personal information will be stored, used or who will have access to it is astonishing."
Democrats used harsh language to describe what they see as motivating the subpoena.
"Simply put, Senate Republicans seek to go on a fishing expedition for clearly partisan purposes, despite the fact that the Secretary of the Commonwealth, working in concert with the county Boards of Election, has undertaken a thorough review of the election, as has the bipartisan Senate Special Committee on Election Integrity and Reform," they charged.
The move comes as Arizona Republicans wrap up their controversial partisan "audit," which drew national scrutiny as the pro-Trump Florida-based "Cyber Ninjas" company conducting the checks pursued conspiracy theories like hunting for bamboo fibers in ballots to prove they were Asian forgeries.
