This was the most passionate election in my lifetime. The voter turnout proves that. We could have had one or two results we were hoping for. Ort President Trump wins, Vice President biden, but what we did not want was a disputed election. Unfortunately, the actions of the department of state have brought that into question. They spent the last few months doing everything they can to ensure the security of the process. I have no knowledge of any voter fraud. I have no knowledge of any deed other than the process. Wins no matter who wins, you will have a population without faith in the result. That is unfortunate. We will allow that to play out in the court. If one of the candidates decides to go to court to seek remedies, we as legislators will monitor that. There is a rule for us to play regarding oversight. We are very disappointed that we , with all these issues at play because of the actions of secretary babar. It looks like they were just upset, or whatever. That there isate now this cloud over pennsylvania, which we did not want. When you take all the security measures, as they have done, up until election day, this is what you get. You have a lot of conspiracies out there. I am not saying any of the marcher. I have no knowledge. This country has had republican president s, democratic president s come and we all move forward. That is what i was hoping forward with this election. We did not want all these questions. You knocked on all these security measures as secondary over the last few months, to get to this point. As we willupon us forward as legislators to provide that oversight. So that no department of state works in such a fashion. I think the speaker is on the phone here. I would be happy to turn it over. Thank you. Thank you for everyone for joining us this afternoon. I think it is safe to say the eyes of the world are currently upon us and the people of pennsylvania have spoken. They have all expressed her wish is for the future of the state through their worlds through their votes. Today, my office has received multiple calls and eels regarding frustration with the process. And i think those calls are coming from all across the state , sometimes even from across the country. Most importantly, from both sides of the aisle. I think the leader correctly stated the count is ongoing. Overseas ballots are still arriving from all corners of the state, and they are also coming from provisional ballots. That process will begin next week. My understanding is there could be as many as 100,000 of pending provisional ballots. It is my own personal belief no results should be announced until the account is finalized. Prior to election day, just like the leader said, i think we all raised concerns over the current process, in terms of some of the issues occurring with the department of state and the court. Many of those concerns, now unfortunately, our proven to be valid. Problems with delays are coming to light, and others. Despite the courts opinions, some counties allowed voters to remedy their ballot, their mailin ballots, while others did not. You have disparate treatment of voters across the commonwealth. Second, we had an unprecedented number of provisional ballots. By their very nature, provisional ballots are people that had problems, maybe they were not on the rolls, they have requested a mailin ballot and and never got it. All of those ballots are individually reviewed in the adjudicator. That will likely take some time. Our department of sit was not fully compliant with the u. S. Supreme Court Decision to segregate the ballots. She issued conflicting that is to the counties which resulted in the county handling these ballots and the way they were being tallied, differently. In the last case, it was literally hours before the polls that the inconsistent guidance was issued. Chaos and confusion for many of our county officials. The representatives were not permitted to witness all of the canvassing and precanvassing taking place here in this commonwealth. That is a clear violation of the law. The election process must be open and transparent to the public. Anything but complete transparency diminishes the publics faith in our Current System of government and allow some to question the results. The source of all of these ongoing problems, in my opinion, rest solely on the actions of our state Supreme Court, our law as written, which we have modified four times in the last 18 months, have strong bipartisan support. In all of those cases. That law as written has been of health. Any points of confusion have come solely from the additions that the court made. The courts actions, some believe, were in violation of the federal constitution. That is currently being litigated, and that is ongoing. One sure the election process can be verified and accurate, without consideration of who wins the president ial race, and calling on government to produce a full audit of the 2020 election process. This is not unusual. It is the same thing we did in terms of the primary election. We have been actively managing the changes in our voting laws by collecting data and making decisions. Houseboat 2626 was a result of that. To the extent we were made aware of any discount of, we would act consistent to a pulled the law to make sure every legal voters in fact counted here in pennsylvania. No candidate, regardless of their party and at any level, should win because of misconduct or mismanagement. I urge Governor Wolf to begin the audit immediately so pennsylvanians and the rest of the world can have faith in our election process. Thank you for joining us. A lot of this has to do with how the process unfolds. We will have a final tally today wethe vote counts, then have to go through the provisional ballots, the overseas ballots, then we need to go through any contest that to thedidate may bring process. Any candidate has the right to ask for a recount or make any claim of any wrongdoing. Once that is all completed, then we will have a determination of who the winner is. That is all that our message is today, a lower constitutional process to unfold, and thefully, we will complete pennsylvania election. Happy to take any questions. The first question is from marley. Theou ask a question, if reporter would please give their full name in the publication the are with. Also in the chat, if you could also identify the news outlet you are with, thank you. Marley, you are up. This is marley. This question is for you, senator cornyn. You mentioned you want all legal ballots to be counted. Votes or ballots are you alluding to that could be in pennsylvania right now . The effort is that we follow the law. If this secretary of state cannot follow the law, that the speaker referred to, [indiscernible] election day by 8 00 p. M. If your ballot is not here by 8 00 p. M. On tuesday, other than that overseas and military ballots, then they do not count. Defect, there is a there is no remedy for the defect. For the secretary of state to set up guidance to allow counties to call voters and come in and rectify that defect, that is not consistent with the statute and that is not consistent with the supreme Court Decision as authored, that there is no remedy here. Again, legal ballots were counted. Every legal ballot should sound]cation okay, next, we have nicolas. Nick, do you want to unmute . Thank you so much reporter thank you so much. Appreciate you taking the question. I wonder if you know how many counties in pennsylvania did not theement that guidance, for rejected mailin ballots, to allow people to vote by provisional ballots, instead, and how many counties did implement that. And also, based on those numbers, to you think the final vote count in pennsylvania that we will see in the projections, before it is certified, was altered by the secretary of states handling of that guidance, then the november 2 clarification . Do you think that altered it . Thank you so much. I dont know the specific amount of counties, how many did and did not. I know many did not. Many did. Maybe 5050. I dont have the exact number. I dont know what the final vote count could be. That is what i ask everyone to listen to the process and if candidates want to go to the courts to seek remedy, they have that right to do so. We will let that unfold. Why the speaker calls for this audit, so we can investigate how many counties did this, at the guidance of the secretary of state, how many did not. How many voters may have come in these are things we dont know, that we want to know, before a final decision is made. Think the important part is the fact that we even have to ask that question. Because the law was consistently applied across the commonwealth. And that goes, ive heard anecdotally from both republican and democrat counties, different individuals handled it differently. Some still allowed the ballots to be remedied. Others, such as my own in lancaster county, simply said no. The Supreme Court was clear, those ballots are to be segregated and not be counted. Then you have the secretary issuing the that is thereafter that, at best, muddied the waters and created a lot of confusion. The electoral laws need to be applied uniformly across the commonwealth. Manyed to find out how counties did and did not do this. Then we have got to ask the governor to follow through and understand why that occurred, because since we are a commonwealth, a lot of this activity doesnt happen at the county level, which is different than many other states. We understand that, because we live here and we recognize that not everybody that might be listening this afternoon does, however, because there is a large decentralization in the commonwealth, where a lot of these functions are carried out locally. In this particular one, it is important that it is not only carried out locally, but consistently. To give you an example, my home county, state or some, the thisity commissioner, process started without his knowledge. They tried to correct some of these ballots without his knowledge. Without any kind of a vote or process as to what we are going to do. It continues to put a cloud on this process. The secretary if the secretary had just followed the law, this would be very clear and easy, but she didnt. Oflastly, the important part the processing part, that is called precanvassing under our laws. Both sides should have been able to have their people there to witness all of that, which is another important component. And that was carried out without the ability of any candidates to actually monitor the process. And the leader and in the leaders case, too. They sent out that november 2 guidance that set the provisional ballots be allowed for people who had rejected mailin ballots, when that was sent out on november 2, the clarification, do you have reason to believe it was only sent to certain counties, or every county . That november 2 email . You and we would both have to check with all of the counties. That is certainly something that should be covered in the audits. I know our county commissioners in lancaster received it. They were the ones who notified me of it. They recognized it was not consistent with the agreement and the supreme Court Decision previously. That is the u. S. Supreme court. Justice alito was very clear, he said i will issue an order on the second parties can agree. Unless the parties can agree. What was agreed to was then later modified. Next up, we have bob mayo. Bob . Reporter hi. Two things briefly number thatis there consensus now in future elections, that local election offices should have more time for precanvassing . Is that something that either both of you would be committing as changes in the law Going Forward . First question. I dont think this is the place to talk about where we are going to go Going Forward. Precanvassing has not been an issue in this election. We were here on friday finalizing things, but that is not the problem. A decision we can happily discuss. That is an issue for another day. Todays issue is how the department of state has handled the handled this election. So all voters can have confidence in the results. Unfortunately, they did not. Speaker, do you want to weigh in on that . That is something our chamber did debate. It did pass with bipartisan support here in this chamber. I think the other position we maintained consistently throughout the last 18 months, w e passed out of our chamber a total of six pills and one constitutional amendment after having not touch the Election Code in 80 years. Managing, prior to the pandemic, remember, 77 predated the pandemic. Act 77 predated the pandemic. Those rules were agreed to prior to the election commencing and knowing who some of the candidates would maybe even be. That is important. That was the agreedupon rules for the next upcoming election contest. As we move forward from that, there have been a host of court cases that have otherwise modified that. I think that is unfortunate. Because of that, that is with the leader and they are concerned about. Its led to confusion. Our law providing clarity has been consistently upheld. Confusion is a direct result of the courts decisions. I think it is fair to say we could certainly look at a beginning next session. The public here in pennsylvania has chosen at this point while the votes are ongoing, the grow. Tys able to i think we will continue to have bipartisan support and hopefully the governors support. As we identify the issues, we try to address the many timely manner. Obviously, having a pandemic impacted this in a way that nobody could anticipate. You dontoes not mean have to manage according to the law. That is our concern right now. Reporter informing her ballot had not been counted. The number that her call came message, ofongoing the trump of victory team. Are you aware of the party reaching out to voters, notifying them their ballots had not been counted . Are you aware of such allegation . What the basis or resource of that would be . No, bob. I would be happy to get that information, although that mary situation actually highlights the problem the leader and they are looking at. Precanvassing is supposed to be public. In this case, it was not. I assume you are referring to a precanvassing ballot. Allowing voters to remedy the problems. And because that was not permitted in the law, you have a series of issues where the counties have all done it differently. Some of them may have directly content it themselves, perhaps delegated to the parties. That has to be looked at. This is an important component of act 77. Individuals need to recognize, we have already moved the time for precanvassing once the cycle. It could be that you could not open any ballots until the polls had closed. At that time, we moved it back to 7 00 a. M. On election day, where they could begin the process. , inprerelease of results this case, precanvassing, would be a violation of the law. If the county undertook that activity, that is a problem. Paul. T, we have reporter hi, with wtae. Leader cornyn, the post office filed 1700 pennsylvania ballots throughout the state. Concerns about that . Should those ballots be counted . Obviously, as we go through every election, we go back and states, weut the law and here it is not here prior to that, it does not count. You can bring in your ballot as quickly as possible. Every voter has the same opportunity to get their ballot here by 8 00 p. M. On election day. That is the law. It. You dont get to change 8 00 p. M. Ot here by on election day, it does not count. Okay, next we have cynthia fernandez. Reporter you have been talking about a recount and the possibility of a recount, especially in philadelphia. Thinked to ask you, you recount wouldk a yield results that change pennsylvania, or do more harm than good . Thanks for the question. First of all, im going to go back to when we started making these changes to the law. We made them prior to any of the ballots being cast. Unless more concerned with the actual process unless theres more concerned with the actual process. People have to believe the process is fair. Byvisions are all governed the law. Our statute is equally clear. My own position, i certainly dont want to speak for later qanon, but i want that law followed just like i want the voting loss to be followed. I dont believe there is any harm. Whether it be the president of the u. S. , a statehouse or state senate candidate, once they recount. Theres nothing wrong with that. If that is what they so choose. In philadelphia, there were many questions about the process. People areount where able to what the process, people have more faith in the result. It could actually do a lot of good. Love each candidate to follow the law, follow the constitution, and we will determine a winner. Ben sigel is up next. Reporter thank you both for doing this. Wondering if your comments, majority leader, from september, religion how the electorate from pennsylvania will be appointed. Theres been some calls in some corners of the media and some conservative lawmakers about the process of the , and republican state legislatures republicanled state , im wondering if your previous comment on that still stands . If the popular vote reflects that joe biden wins pennsylvania and also vice . Let me say this i dont like to get into hypotheticals. We are far away from any involvement. The process hopefully will reveal a winner, the popular vote winner, as the law states will be certified in those electors will be named by the governor as they were submitted from the party. Any usefulnk theres discussion of electors. Process onor the certainly we want to stay with tradition, the popular vote winner gets the electors. I think it is important to note that our focus dating back to june of 19 is to put a system in place in which to manage the election. We have been focused on the andess and implementation, fort unfortunately it has been derailed by activist activities and individuals that could not get legislatively what they could get judicially and that is unfortunate. Our focus continues to be on lets follow the law. We will wrap up the mail and today. We will have the provisionals next week, which will all be individually adjudicated because that is our process. For folks not familiar with pennsylvania politics, we have a member here who one by one vote. Weve had the majority in house hinge on less than 30 votes. The process we have had in place worked previously, we just wish they were followed again this time. Have alan with the New York Times co. New york times. I wanted to followup on ben siegels question its a simple question. Youve mentioned a couple of processes number one, the vote gets counted. Number two, each candidate should they choose, can challenge these matters in court, but the legislature has an oversight role. Sort of a basic yes or no question, can you confirm now that the Pennsylvania Legislature will award the states electors to which ever candidate for president wins the popular vote . Again, im not a lawyer, but going by my understanding of the law, that is the Election Code law. The winner of the popular vote is certified by the department ,f state and then the governor andelectors are presented that is how i understand. What we will do, very clear, we will follow the law. That is all we have asked for in this process all along. Whether it comes to how we vote or how we tabulate this vote, we just want everyone to follow the law. That is my understanding of the law. Others may have different opinions of it, but at the end of the day, lets let this process unfold and follow along. We are governed by law. We dont get to choose which ones we adhere to and which ones we dont. We are governed by law and we will follow the law. Just one thing i want to make sure i understood what you it is the vote comes in, certified by the department of is yourrst, understanding, then it goes to the governor, and then what role does the legislature get to play in this . Under normal circumstances, none. Under any circumstance you are going down a rabbit hole we dont need to go down today. We are trying to get the votes tabulated and get a winner. Submits electors to the governor. The secretary of state will certify a winner. Now each party has a chance to challenge that and if there are challenges, that will go to the Court Process. Once that Court Process ends, that clarification stands or is reversed and at that point, those electors of that party are submitted. And as i said, we will follow the law. We are running very short on time. We are going to take one last question from tyler. Can you hear me . Yes. Tyler olson with fox news. Peoples talk about how have a right to bring claims and contest things, these are some serious accusations being thrown around, in particular by the trump campaign. What kind of proof or facts do you think folks need to be bringing here and what forms are appropriate for them to do that . What forums are appropriate for them to do that. Of any allegations of voter issues, arguably, we have the first batch in the provisional ballots. There are individuals who claimed they never requested mailin ballots but got them they wereich is why there to vote in person. Its likely to be found many of individuals accidentally it checked the vote every time box. If someone think their vote is stolen, they need to contact Law Enforcement in their local , whoever has because thatthat is really where they need to go. We remain focused on the process, ensuring orderly counting of the votes and making sure as we go through that process that it is not prematurely ended in terms of any of the outstanding provisional ballots, which will likely take some time as they are individually decayed as well which arerseas ballot federally adjudicated and have until next week to come in. That is all the time we have today. I did put my email address and mike, who is the contact for speaker cutler. The chatss is in space. If you want to followup, fees please feel free to reach out. We may be doing this again in the future to keep everyone updated. Thank you so much. Thank you. Votentinue to follow the counting on cspan. Org election. Use our interactive Election Night map for the status of the president ial rate president ial race. See the results of every house and senate race and the current talents of power in congress. Watch statements from President Trump and joe biden as well as key victory and concession speeches and those from past elections. Find it all at cspan. Org election. As we await the final results of the president ial election, today, President Trump released a statement saying we believe the American People deserve to have full transparency into all vote counting in election certification and this is no longer about any single election, this is about the integrity of our entire election process. From the beginning, we have set all legal ballots should be counted and all illegal ballots should not be counted, yet we have met resistance to this basic principle by democrats at every turn. We will pursue this to guarantee people have confidence in our government. I will never give up fighting for you and our nation. That statement from President Trump this afternoon. The Biden Campaign has announced joe biden will address the nation tonight. There is no set time for that address. It is also unclear what he plans to talk about. We will carry it live on cspan when it starts. Earlier today, Election Officials in philadelphia held a briefing to give reporters the latest on the vote count in philadelphia