宾夕法尼亚州共和党领导人周五没有加入唐纳德·特朗普总统和他的亲密盟友指责政府选举官员的欺诈，但确实站出来呼吁对选举进行审计。
共和党控制的立法机构的两名领导人表示，他们对民主党国务卿凯西·布克瓦(Kathy Boockvar)的行为感到担忧，他们说，凯西·布克瓦在最后一刻发布了一系列修改选举规则的指示，超越了她的职责。不久之后，布克瓦下令审计。
宾夕法尼亚州参议院多数党领袖杰克·科曼(Jake Corman)在一次关于对选举管理的担忧的电话采访中告诉记者:“除了国务院在这次选举中的运作过程之外，我不知道任何选民欺诈行为，也不知道任何不端行为。”
宾夕法尼亚众议院议长布赖恩·卡特勒说，只有审计才能使“宾夕法尼亚人和世界其他地方的人对我们的选举过程有信心。”
胡利奥·科尔特斯/美联社
正如其他共和党人在法庭上表达的那样，立法者的主要关切是选举前几天给予布克瓦的一系列便利。在她的指导下，一些县采取措施帮助选民修复提交时有错误的选票——这一过程被称为纠正。他们说，并非所有县都按照她的指示行事，导致选民受到“完全不同”的待遇。
布克瓦周五下午宣布了审计计划，类似于该州6月初选后进行的审计。
国务卿一直与共和党领导人意见不一，因为他没有与该州民主党州长达成协议，允许选举官员在选举日之前开始处理选票，就像许多其他州加快计票一样。
“他们不喜欢延迟计票，因为他们不喜欢任何允许更多合格选民获得选举权的东西，”她说。
Pennsylvania Republicans leaders dismiss Trump fraud claims, but call for audit
Pennsylvania Republican leaders on Friday did not joinPresident Donald Trumpand his close allies in accusing the state’selectionofficials of fraud, but did step forward to call for an audit of the election.
Two leaders of the Republican-controlled legislature said they had concerns about the conduct of Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat, who they say overstepped her role by issuing a series of last-minute instructions that revised election rules. Soon after, Boockvar ordered an audit.
"I have no knowledge of any voter fraud and I have no knowledge of any misdeeds, other than the process [by] which the Department of State ran in this election," Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, told reporters on a Zoom call about concerns with the administration of the election.
Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler said only an audit would enable "Pennsylvanians and the rest of the world [to] have faith in our election process."
The lawmakers' chief concern, as other Republicans expressed in court, has been a series of accommodations Boockvar granted in the days before the election. On her guidance, some counties took steps to help voters fix ballots that had been submitted with errors -- a process called curing. Not all counties acted on her instructions, leading to "disparate" treatment of voters, they said.
Boockvar announced plans Friday afternoon for an audit, similar to the one conducted after the state's June primary.
The secretary of state has been at odds with GOP leaders for having failed to reach an agreement with the state’s Democratic governor to allow election officials to start processing ballots ahead of Election Day, as many other states did to speed up their vote counts.
"They don't like the late counting of ballots because they don't like anything that allows more eligible voters to be enfranchised," she said.
