HARRISBURG, Pa. — The saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Is it though, worth 80,555 votes?
That's the difference in tallies which gave President Joe Biden a win over former President Donald Trump in last November's election. Yet, when a picture surfaced of three Pennsylvania legislators -- State Sens. Doug Mastriano (R-Adams, Franklin, York, Cumberland) and Cris Dush (R-Clearfield, Jefferson, Cameron, Elk), and State Representative Rob Kauffman (R-Franklin) -- it became clear, seven months after Biden's win, lawmakers continued to call its legitimacy into question.
"There is no way anyone in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania can tell you what the vote count was," Dush said, citing what he says were unconstitutional actions by the Department of State and Pa. Supreme Court in allowing later arrival of ballots.
Dush, along with Mastriano and Kauffman, saw what Arizona was doing and decided to visit. Senate Republicans there are independently auditing the results of their 2020 election, where Biden won by slightly more than 10,000 votes.
While there, they toured the arena facility in Maricopa County alongside Arizona legislators.
"I have more people on the street talking to me about this than any other. This is something they are passionate about," Dush said. "I want the audit. I want the results out there. If there are court cases let them decide."
However, the audit Dush wants he likely will not get.
Seth Grove, State Representative in York County and chairman of the House State Government Committee, said the clock to recount Pennsylvania votes expired months ago. The Trump Campaign, or any other groups, had the opportunity to audit the election results in the days and weeks after Joe Biden was declared the winner of Pennsylvania.
"In order to prepare election machines for the next election they get wiped clean. There is no data sitting on any machine of the 2020 election anymore. It's not there," Grove said.
Even so, Pennsylvania election officials say an audit already occurred, as it does after every election, in all 67 counties, before the votes are officially certified.
And in terms of the courts, those have already been involved as well. More than 60 cases nationwide, heard by conservative and liberal judges, including some appointed by the former president, determined there were no instances of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
"Some Republicans are using taxpayer money here and across the country so that they can spew dangerous lies about what happened," said Governor Tom Wolf. "These are lies that divide people and do nothing more than spread doubt."