A Pennsylvania court Monday declined to block a subpoena for election records issued by Republican lawmakers in their quest to investigate the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The Commonwealth Court issued a seven-page order announcing that Democrat lawmakers and Attorney General Josh Shapiro failed to persuade the court that the subpoena issued by the Republican-controlled Senate in the Keystone State lacked legitimate legislative purpose, according to the Associated Press.
The subpoena issued in September requested the release of election records, including registered voters’ driver’s license numbers, addresses, last four digits of the Social Security numbers, and a list of those who voted in person or via mail. Although most of the records requested are public, the subpoena further asked for the release of information the state attorney general’s office claimed is protected by privacy laws.
“Voters’ private and sensitive information is also being requested. We will do everything within our power to protect Pennsylvanians’ personal data,” Shapiro said in September.
The court did not mention how the process of releasing records, perhaps those protected by privacy laws, will be released.
However, Pennsylvania Senate’s highest-ranking member, Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, applauded the court’s decision, “Today’s ruling upholds the legislature’s authority to provide oversight of our elections. Despite the baseless fearmongering of Attorney General Shapiro, Governor Wolf and Senate Democrats, we will prove that we can safeguard voter information effectively.”
“Attorney General Shapiro, Governor Wolf and Senate Democrats have spent months raising numerous red herrings about this investigation, and I am grateful the Commonwealth Court saw through their propaganda and put those false narratives to rest,” Corman added in a press release.
“The time for political showmanship is over. The people of Pennsylvania deserve a real, honest review of our elections so we can improve our voting system in the future, and this ruling paves the way for a thorough and forthright investigation to move forward as quickly as possible,” he concluded.