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J.D. Prose|Pennsylvania State Capital Bureau

Roundtable on Mail-in Ballots in PA

Mail-in ballots have become an increasingly popular voting method among voters across Pennsylvania, but they also often remain a target of accusations of voter fraud.

Chris Ullery, Bucks County Courier Times

In the latest attack on Pennsylvanias mail-in voting option, 14Republican state House members filed a lawsuitasking a court to invalidate mail-inballoting by claiming it is unconstitutional.

Lawmakers argued in the suit filed late Tuesday in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Courtthat Act 77, under which no-excuse mail-in voting was allowed, violates the state and U.S. constitutions and should have been pursued through a state constitutional amendment, even though11 ofthemvoted for the legislation in 2019.

TheGOPlegislators on the lawsuit are:

"Last year, over 2.5 million Pennsylvanians embraced mail-in voting and other safe secure and modern forms of voting which Act 77 allowed for the first time in the commonwealth," said Lyndsay Kensinger, a spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.

"The fact that members of the General Assembly who voted for Act 77 and were chosen for office in elections in which it was in effect are now suing to overturn it is hypocritical and a betrayal of voters," Kensinger said. "We should continue to modernize our election system and make it more convenient for voters to make their voices heard. Instead these members are seeking to silence voters as they perpetuate false claims of a stolen election."

However, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a likely Democratic candidate for governor in 2022, said Thursday on Twitter: This lawsuit is not only the height of hypocrisy, but it also has real consequences and damages public trust in our elections.

After initially supporting mail-in voting, Republicans havefollowed former President Donald Trumps calls against the practice andlaunched several legal attacks on the process, althoughnone of them have been successful.

Trump began baselessly warning about mail-in voting fraud last year before the November election when it became clear that Democrats were flocking to mailed ballots amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 2.6 million Pennsylvania voters used mail-in voting in November with Democrats accounting for 1.7 million, nearly three times the number of Republicans.

More: Wolf, Democrats say Pa. already had election audits and Biden won

More: A bill overhauling Pa.'s election law could soon pass the House. What's the fight over?

As Trumps evidence-free claims continue, Republican lawmakers have repeatedly called into question the results of the presidential election, but not the races that theywon.

On Thursday, the state Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee announced that it has created a webpage for Pennsylvania voters to submit sworn testimony about theirvotingexperiencesand any irregularities they have witnessed.

The effort is part of what committee Chairman Sen. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson County, called an election integrity investigation.Testimony can be submitted athttps://intergovernmental.pasenategop.com/electioninvestigation/.

Dush recently replaced state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin County, as committee chairman after Mastriano was removed amid bickering with Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman over the committees efforts to subpoena records from York, Tioga and Philadelphia counties.

Mastriano has been at the forefront of the movement questioning the 2020 election results and was part of a Republican group that visited Arizona to review the GOP-led election audit there.

Dush also said that the committee will hold public hearings and request documents from counties and the Pennsylvania Department of State to conduct a comprehensive election investigationincluding potentially using the committees subpoena powers, according to a statement.

More: Here's why state Sen. Doug Mastriano says Pa. election audit 'stopped for the time being'

More: Mastriano: Democrats using 'scare tactics' in telling Pa. counties to ignore election audit

J.D. Prose is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Pennsylvania State Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jprose@gannett.com.

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GOP state lawmakers file lawsuit to have mail-in voting tossed out. Who is suing - GoErie.com