New study debunks allegations of election fraud in Pennsylvania
WASHINGTON — A new study by two Stanford University academics found no evidence of voter fraud in Pennsylvania or other battleground states during the 2020 presidential election.
The 85-page report looked at claims leveled by former President Donald Trump, his lawyers and allies, about voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election. The outrage over a supposedly stolen election led to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection by supporters of the former president.
The report’s conclusion: “In each instance, we find that these claims fail to provide any evidence of fraud, illegality, or even an abnormality. One reason that the claims fail is that they are not based on facts. We find that many claims misstate turnout histories, incorrectly characterize candidate’s performance, or are just simply mistaken.”
For example, a lawsuit filed by Texas in December 2020 asking the U. S. Supreme Court to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania and three other states mischaracterized a study by economic consultant Charles Cicchetti and used the false narrative as the basis for challenging the vote tallies, the report said. U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly, R-Butler,
Guy Reschenthaler, RPeters, and Glenn Thompson, R-Centre, all backed the lawsuit, which was thrown out by the high court. The three also voted to reject Pennsylvania’s certified electoral votes after the Capitol riot.
And the report debunked claims by then-state Rep. Frank Ryan, R-Lebanon, who said that the process for obtaining absentee ballots “was so defective that it is essential to declare the selection of presidential electors for the commonwealth to be in dispute.”
What really happened was that voters who hadn’t gotten them yet “could go to a county election office, have their mail-in ballot printed, vote the ballot, and then return the ballot,” the report said.
“These voters are merely ensuring they obtain their ballot before the election, as the law allows,” the report said.
In other Washington news:
Thompson, Deluzio target Pennsylvania’s 27,000 abandoned oil wells
U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio and Mr. Thompson are pushing to streamline the process to plug abandoned oil wells across the country, including at least 27,000 in Pennsylvania and more
than 200 in Allegheny County alone.
Mr. Thompson and Mr. Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, introduced legislation to remove states’ requirements to conduct methane emissions tests beforethey can obtain federal grants to help plug abandoned wells. The bill “removes unnecessary burdens on state agencies … which will maximize federal dollars and lead to more wells being plugged,”they said.
Unplugged or improperly plugged wells can contaminate water, spew methane into the atmosphere, and release other pollutants.
Western Pennsylvania has one of the highest concentrations of abandoned
wells in the U.S., Mr. Deluzio said.
“Abandoned, non-operating oil and gas wells are dangerous to the public, the environment, and people’s livelihoods,” he said.
“Pennsylvania’s oil and gas sites ushered in the modern petroleum industry, which helped lead the United States to become a global power and energy producer,” Mr. Thompson said. “Now, we must ensure these sites are properly and safely restored.”
President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law allocated $4.7 billion to help address the problem withunplugged wells.
Democratic U.S. Sens.
Bob Casey and John Fetterman, have co-sponsored a similar bill.
The legislation also calls for a federal study of the impact that plugging and remediating wells could have on economic development, housing, water quality, and other concerns.
Rep. Lee on abortion rights in 2024: ‘Stakes are clear’
Rep. Summer Lee marked the 51st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion by vowing to fight efforts to outlaw the procedure in Pennsylvania and nationally.
The Supreme Court overturned the decision in June 2022, catapulting abortion rights to the forefront of issues in that fall’s midterm elections and energizing Democratic turnout. It carried over to 2023.
Some Republicans are calling for a national abortion ban and former President Trump, who fulfilled a campaign promise by nominating three justices who overturned the right to abortion, is running for the White House again.
“The stakes in 2024 and beyond are clear and they’re as high as they’ve ever been,” Ms. Lee, D-Swissvale, said at a press conference last week with other supporters of abortion rights.
She said the threatened loss of abortion rights nationally is particularly harmful to minority communities.
“We know that there’s so much at stake, particularly in Western Pennsylvania, as we think about how we are the leading voices for reproductive justice because of our life experiences where we have some of the worst Black maternal and infant mortality rates in our country in our country in the developed world,” she said.