Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro filed a lawsuit against the state GOP this week to block Republican legislators from subpoenaing election officials for its forensic investigation into the 2020 presidential election.
Shapiro, a Democrat, asked the state’s Commonwealth Court to block state legislators’ subpoena, which requests the nonpublic personal information of every registered Pennsylvania voter, including partial Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.
Shapiro argued the information request is unconstitutional and irrelevant to lawmakers’ legislative responsibilities.
I just sued to stop Pennsylvania Republicans from subpoenaing the personal identification information of nine million Pennsylvanians.
Their “audit” is a sham. I promised I’d protect your private, personal information — and our democracy. I meant it.
See you in court.
— Josh Shapiro (@JoshShapiroPA) September 23, 2021
State Sen. Cris Dush, the committee of the state Senate’s Intergovernmental Operations Committee, said the voter information is necessary to investigate allegations that votes registered as living in a condemned building were cast illegally.
Dush encouraged Pennsylvanians to come forward with similar stories of voter fraud so the state Senate can investigate all allegations thoroughly.
Dush said the committee will soon schedule public hearings, create a website that contains updates about the audit and request documents from both counties and the state.
In response to Shapiro’s lawsuit, Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman accused the Democrat prosecutor of trying to “stop us from performing our constitutional duty of providing oversight of the executive branch.”
The Pennsylvania Democratic Party also sued state Republicans in an effort to stop the investigation.
This afternoon, we filed a lawsuit in court to keep Senate Republicans from obtaining Pennsylvania voters’ private information with subpoenas.
We will continue the fight to protect the identity of private citizens and their right to vote without intimidation. pic.twitter.com/ul7nAibLg1
— PaSenateDems (@PaSenateDems) September 17, 2021
