HARRISBURG — Rep. Martin Causer. R-Turtlepoint, on Thursday joined a majority of his House colleagues in approving a resolution calling for a non-partisan audit of the ballots canvassed in the 2020 general election.

“Pennsylvanians must be able to have faith in our election process and know their legal votes have been fairly counted,” Causer said. “Given the volume of concerns we have heard locally and across the Commonwealth, I believe the General Assembly has a responsibility to call for this audit to help restore the public’s confidence in our voting system and ensure the integrity of all future elections.

“This is not a reflection on our poll workers who I know worked hard to provide an accurate count of ballots cast in the 67th Legislative District. It is more about the last-minute and often conflicting directives from the Department of State and rulings by the state Supreme Court that caused a lot of confusion and mistrust among voters,” he added.

House Resolution 1100 directs the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to facilitate a risk-limiting audit of the election to examine the process of recording and counting ballots, both to confirm the accuracy of results and provide suggestions to improve the conduct of future elections.

Causer noted the LBFC was selected in part because it is non-partisan and comprised of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats from both the House and Senate. Also, with the 2019-20 Legislative Session set to end Nov. 30, the committee will continue to operate uninterrupted while we await new members being sworn into office in January.

While the Department of State also conducts an audit of every election, the LBFC risk-limiting audit would encompass much larger samples and require data sets, much like what was done for an audit report on the 2020 primary election.