Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
The head of Bucks County Republican party signed an invalid election certificate that was sent to the federal government in 2020.
Documents obtained through a records request from the left-leaning American Oversight group that made headlines recently show so-called “alternate” election certificates from Republicans in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and New Mexico. The documents were sent to the National Archives. The Keystone State-related documents were also sent to Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat.
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Bucks County Republican Committee Chairperson Pat Poprik signed the Pennsylvania document. She did not return a call for comment.
It appears Bucks County resident Ted Christian, a former high-level advisor for former President Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016 and 2020, also signed the document. The current director of a government lobbying firm did not respond to a request for comment.
The Republican election certificate was additionally signed by several other high-profile Pennsylvania Republicans, including candidates for governor Lou Barletta and Charlie Gerow.
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The alternate certificates claimed the electors who signed were casting Electoral College votes for then-President Donald Trump, a Republican.
The real qualified electors in Pennsylvania followed the popular vote and cast their ballots for Joe Biden, a Democrat, who was then sworn in on January 20, 2021.
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The documents, which appear similar but different from the real ones, were signed on December 14, 2020, which when the qualified Electoral College met at a state auditorium in Harrisburg to sign the real certificates.
Biden received 306 electoral college votes and Trump 232 in 2020. In 2016, Trump won the election and received 304 electoral votes to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 227.
Unlike the Republican certificates from several other states, the Pennsylvania Republican documents noted the votes were being cast in the case legal challenges by Trump’s team were successful.
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In the end, the Trump campaign’s efforts failed and, despite continuing claims by the former president, there has been no evidence of widespread election fraud.
At the time, the statewide Republican party released a statement the signatures were collected due to the legal claims. However, they did not mention the documents were being submitted to the federal government.
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“This was in no way an effort to usurp or contest the will of the Pennsylvania votes,” Bernie Comfort, who served as the Pennsylvania chair for the Trump campaign, said at the time in a statement.
Democratic and Republican party officials who spoke with LevittownNow.com on background said they could not recall alternate certifications being signed by the losing candidate’s party when former President Barack Obama and Trump’s previous elections were certified in Harrisburg.
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
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The New York Times reported in December 2020 the alternate electors had no standing.
“Various constitutionally enshrined rights and laws would preclude state legislatures from changing the rules and nullifying the popular will after the fact in pursuit of a different outcome,” the newspaper reported.
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“The 59th Pennsylvania Electoral College met on Dec. 14, 2020, during which the commonwealth’s 20 electors unanimously voted for Joseph R. Biden for president and Kamala D. Harris for vice president of the United States, in accordance with Pennsylvania’s popular vote results in the Nov. 3 election,” said Wanda Murren, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections and the certification process.
Murren called the Republican certificates for Pennsylvania “false documents.”
Attorneys general offices in Michigan and New Mexico have referred the documents from their states to federal prosecutors. The certificates from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin claimed the documents were from the “duly appointed electors,” which is untrue.
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Certificates for Pennsylvania and New Mexico note the electors may only be valid if court cases succeeded, which could stop any potential legal trouble, according to reporting from LNP Media Group in Lancaster.
Credit: PA Internet News Service
The Pennsylvania Department of State did not comment on whether the matter was being looked into further or had been referred to law enforcement.
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“These ‘fake ballots’ included a conditional clause that they were only to be used if a court overturned the results in Pennsylvania, which did not happen. Though their rhetoric and policy were intentionally misleading and purposefully damaging to our democracy, based on our initial review, our office does not believe this meets the legal standards for forgery,” a statement from Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office said. Shapiro is a Democrat running for governor.
Reporting, statements from officials, and documents made public have revealed Trump’s campaign had been seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 after it started to become clear the incumbent had lost. The unprecedented moves had impacts on elections nationally and sowed doubt in the process.
In the days after the 2020 election, Poprik joined with Bucks County Democratic Committee Chairperson John Cordisco to say county election officials were “fair, transparent, & accountable.” She has not contested Biden’s 2020 win in published interviews with reporters.
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