宾夕法尼亚州哈里斯堡。跟随亚利桑那州参议院共和党人的脚步，宾夕法尼亚州共和党控制的参议院正在考虑调查去年的总统选举选举由前总统推动的探索唐纳德·特朗普他毫无根据地声称欺诈是他在战场州失败的原因。

任何参议院发出的亚利桑那州式“选举审计”传票都将面临民主党人的强烈反对、法律问题以及几乎肯定会在宾夕法尼亚州法院面临的挑战，因为特朗普的谎言推动了摇摆州和国会围绕选举法的斗争。

参议院共和党人对他们的内部审议大多保持沉默。

参议员道格·马斯特里亚诺(Doug Mastriano)周三为共和党参议员举行了一次私人简报会，介绍他的计划。马斯特里亚诺是宾夕法尼亚州极端保守圈子中的一股新兴力量，他谈到了自己希望将亚利桑那州式的审计带到宾夕法尼亚州。

在亚利桑那州，州参议院利用其传票权，获得了200多万张选票和计票机器，以及计算机数据。

马斯特里亚诺还向费城的一家律师事务所寻求关于参议院共和党核心小组使用私人资金资助顾问和律师的法律建议。美联社获得了该律师事务所周二的回信。

在信中，该律师事务所讨论了使用一家私营非营利组织的资金“支付供应商费用，包括一名顾问和律师”的合法性，作为马斯特里亚诺主持的低调委员会领导的2020年选举“监督调查”的一部分。

律师布鲁斯·马克斯(Bruce S. Marks)写道:“虽然我们无法预测宾夕法尼亚州最高法院将如何在合理的法律确定程度上决定这个问题，但我们认为，宾夕法尼亚州法律并不禁止核心小组或委员会接受或受益于这种财政支持。”

信中说，“调查的目的是制定立法，加强选民参与和选举的完整性。”

马斯特里亚诺没有回电话。马克在周五的电话中证实了他写了这封信，但拒绝置评。马克在2020年大选后为特朗普竞选团队做法律工作。

马斯特里亚诺是参议院政府间行动委员会的主席，理论上他可以向拥有该委员会多数票的县发出传票。匹兹堡所在的费城和阿勒格尼县的民主党堡垒可能是主要目标。

可能需要投票机、选票和其他选举记录。这个过程可能要花费数百万美元。在亚利桑那州，参议院共和党人投入了15万美元来帮助支付审计费用，但主要承包商网络忍者和共和党人不愿透露谁或什么组织为剩余的操作提供资金或费用。

马斯特里亚诺曾帮助传播关于选举中普遍欺诈的阴谋论，他于6月前往亚利桑那州亲眼目睹了那里的审计。

马斯特里亚诺上个月对WEEO-FM的一名电台主持人说:“我们会把信息带回参议院领导层，我们会向他们简要介绍前进的道路，然后希望我们能在这里提出一种方法，以确保宾夕法尼亚州的每个人都可以放心，他们有一票，这很重要。”

共和党考虑在宾夕法尼亚州进行选举审计之际，特朗普的支持者一直在推动对政治战场上的选票进行审计和审查，以发现拜登胜利非法的证据。

没有一个县选举委员会、检察官或州官员对11月宾夕法尼亚州选举中任何形式的广泛选举欺诈表示担忧。宾夕法尼亚州是民主党人乔·拜登以超过8万张选票(略高于1个百分点)获胜的关键州。

特朗普推翻拜登胜利的努力遭到各级法院的全面拒绝，包括前总统任命的法官。特朗普的司法部长也表示，美国没有会改变选举结果的普遍欺诈行为。

华盛顿参议员巴托洛塔说，她周三收听了马斯特里亚诺的部分演讲。

“我不知道前因后果。我不知道谁来支付审计费用。我不知道会有多广泛，”巴托洛塔说。“我知道有数百万宾夕法尼亚人有疑问和担忧，他们缺乏信任。”

她说她不确定下一步会是什么。但是，她说，她想确保费用不由州纳税人承担。

巴托洛塔说:“我想绝对肯定，我们正在做的任何事情——如果有任何事情得到了解决——都是以合法的方式进行的，符合宪法。”

批评者说，选举审计是重复的，因为法律要求每个县和州审查选举结果的准确性，并调查任何差异。与此同时，民主党人指责特朗普和共和党人散布关于选举的谎言，这些谎言在选民中播下了不信任的种子。

宾夕法尼亚州参议院的官方规定授予其委员会向该州“任何公共机构”发出传票的广泛权力。

参议院少数党领袖杰·科斯塔(Jay Costa)说，他不知道参议院共和党的计划，但质疑马斯特里亚诺的委员会是否有权在选举主题上合法地发出这样的传票。传统上，不同的参议院委员会处理选举问题。

科斯塔说，参议院民主党人可以在州参议院和法庭上质疑传票。

Trump ally in Pennsylvania raises 2020 election audit plan

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Following in the footsteps of Arizona's Senate Republicans, Pennsylvania's Republican-controlled Senate is considering an investigation into how last year's presidentialelectionwas conducted, a quest fueled by former PresidentDonald Trump's baseless claims that fraud was behind his loss in the battleground state.

Any Senate-issued subpoenas for an Arizona-style “election audit” will face strident opposition from Democrats, legal questions and almost certainly challenges in Pennsylvania's courts, as battles over election laws rage through swing states and Congress, spurred on by Trump's falsehoods.

Senate Republicans have been mostly silent about their internal deliberations.

Sen. Doug Mastriano, a rising force in Pennsylvania’s ultra-conservative circles who has talked of his desire to bring an Arizona-style audit to Pennsylvania, led a private briefing Wednesday for Republican senators on his plan.

In Arizona, the state Senate used its subpoena power to take possession of more than 2 million ballots and the machines that counted them, along with computer data.

Mastriano also solicited legal advice from a Philadelphia-based law firm about the Senate Republican caucus using private money to finance consultants and lawyers. The law firm’s response letter, dated Tuesday, was obtained by The Associated Press.

In the letter, the law firm discussed the legality of using money from a private, nonprofit organization “to pay expenses for vendors, including a consultant and counsel” as part of an “oversight investigation" of the 2020 election led by the low-profile committee that Mastriano chairs.

“While we cannot predict how the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would decide the issue, in our opinion, to a reasonable degree of legal certainty, Pennsylvania law does not prohibit the Caucus or Committee from accepting or benefiting from such financial support," lawyer Bruce S. Marks wrote.

The letter said “the purpose of the investigation is to develop legislation which will enhance voter participation and election integrity.”

Mastriano did not return phone calls. In a phone call Friday, Marks — who did legal work for the Trump campaign after the 2020 election — confirmed he wrote the letter, but otherwise declined comment.

Mastriano, who chairs the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee, could theoretically issue subpoenas to counties with a majority vote of his committee. The Democratic bastions of Philadelphia and Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, could be prime targets.

Voting machines, ballots and other election records could be demanded. The process could cost millions of dollars. In Arizona, Senate Republicans kicked in $150,000 to help pay for the audit, but the lead contractor, Cyber Ninjas, and Republicans won’t say who or what organizations are funding the rest of the operation or how much it is costing.

Mastriano, who has helped spread conspiracy theories about widespread fraud in the election, traveled to Arizona in June to see the audit there firsthand.

“We’ll bring the information back to the Senate leadership, we’ll back-brief them on the way ahead and then hopefully we can come up with an approach here to make sure every person in Pennsylvania can rest assured they have one vote and it counts,” Mastriano told a radio host from WEEO-FM last month.

Republican consideration of an election audit in Pennsylvania comes as Trump supporters have pushed for audits and reviews of ballots in political battlegrounds in a bid to turn up evidence that Biden's victory was illegitimate.

No county election board, prosecutor or state official has raised a concern over any sort of widespread election fraud in November’s election in Pennsylvania, a crucial state that Democrat Joe Biden won by more than 80,000 votes, or just over 1 percentage point.

Trump’s efforts to overturn Biden’s victory has been roundly rejected by courts at every level, including by judges appointed by the former president. Trump’s attorney general has also said there was no widespread fraud in the U.S. that would have changed the results of the election.

Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Washington, said she tuned in for part of Mastriano's presentation Wednesday.

“I don’t know the ins and outs. I don’t know who’s going to pay for an audit. I don’t know how extensive it might be,” Bartolotta said. “I do know that there are millions of Pennsylvanians who have questions and concerns and there is a lack of trust.”

She said she was not sure what the next step might be. But, she said, she wanted to ensure the cost is not borne by state taxpayers.

“I want to be absolutely certain that anything we’re doing — if anything gets done — is done in a legal way and is constitutional,” Bartolotta said.

Critics say an election audit is duplicative, given the legal requirements for each county and the state to review election results for accuracy and investigate any discrepancies. Democrats, meanwhile, blame Trump and Republicans for spreading lies about the election that have sown distrust among voters.

The official rules of Pennsylvania's Senate grants its committees broad authority to issue subpoenas to “any public agency” in the state.

Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, said he was unaware of a Senate Republican plan, but questioned whether Mastriano's committee had authority over the subject matter of elections to legally issue such subpoenas. Traditionally, a different Senate committee has handled election issues.

Senate Democrats can challenge the subpoenas in the state Senate and in court, Costa said.

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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/timelywriter and Mark Scolforo at www.twitter.com/houseofbuddy