Ballots coming to a conclusion, this is the first part of the process. The count will finish, but then it goes to counties to certify to candidatesgo on either side to decide whether they want to challenge the results. Ballotshave provisional we will need to go through as well. I would ask you all to relax and let the process unfold in the way the constitution provides for it and hopefully we will get a result, but we are not there yet. , this election is , andficant in my lifetime the voter turnout proves that. Either trumppence or vice , but whatbiden wins we didnt want is the disputed election. State hasment of brought that into question, months taking few care of the security of the process. I have no knowledge of voter fraud, misdeeds. State ran the of selection. That is unfortunate. Wins, halfmatter who the population will contest the result, but we will allow that ifplay out in the courts they go to the courts to seek remedy. We will honor that. There is a role for us to play. We are very disappointed that we are here in a very tight election with all these issues at play. The actions of one person, which is why i cold for resignation for that persons resignation. Happeninglems were before the election, and now a cloud over pennsylvania, which is not what we want. If you look at the security measures, this is what you get. You have a lot of conspiracies out there. Im not saying they are true. I have no knowledge. Country hasthis had different president s and we have survived, and that is what im hoping for. What we did not want are these questions. Incumbent will be upon us as legislators to provide oversight in the future so that no department of state acts in such a manner. The speaker is on the line. I would be happy to turn it over. Thank you. Thank you for joining us this afternoon. Ofis fair to say the eyes the world are on us and the people of pennsylvania have spoken, expressing their wishes through their votes. My office has received multiple calls and emails regarding frustration with the process. I think those calls are coming from across the state, across the country, but from both sides of the aisle. The leader stated the leader stated that count is ongoing. Overseas ballots are still arriving, and theyre coming from provisional ballots. That process will begin next week. There could be as many as 100,000 outstanding provisional ballots, and it is my belief no result should be announced until the count is finalized. We have raised concerns over the process, in terms of the issues with the department of state and the court. Many concerns, unfortunately, are valid, problems that couldve been avoided had the Supreme Court followed the law as written. The first is that some counties allowed voters to remedy their mailin ballots, while others did not, so disparate treatment across the commonwealth. Second, an unprecedented number of provisional ballots, which are people who had problems, not on the voting rolls, requested in mailin ballot and did not get it, but all of those ballots are individually reviewed and adjudicated. That will take time. Third, the department of state was not fully compliant segregating ballots, and in fact, conflicting guidance was issued, which resulted in the ballots being tallied differently. In the last case, it was ours before the polls the inconsistent guidance was issued, creating chaos and confusion. Fourth, the Party Representatives were not permitted to witness all the canvassing and precanvassing, a violation of the law. It must be open and transparent to the public. Anything less diminishes the public faith in our government. The source of these problems, in my opinion, rests solely on the actions of our state Supreme Court. Strong as written had bipartisan support and signature of the governor. That law as written has been upheld in all cases. Any points of confusion have come from the additions the court made. Actions, some believe, were in violation with the constitution, currently being litigated and ongoing. To ensure the process can be accurate and without consideration to the president ial race in house races requesting a im full audit. This is not unusual. Been actively managing the changes in voting laws by collecting data and making decisions. 2626 was a result of that. To the extent we are aware of misconduct, we would act consistent to uphold the law to make sure every legal vote is counted. No candidate at any level should win because of misconduct or mismanagement. I urged the governor to begin this audit immediately so that all pennsylvanians and the rest of the world can have faith in our election process. Thank you. Thank you. Want the process to unfold. That will include the final tallies, then the provisional ballots, the overseas ballots, any candidatet may bring. Right todidate has the ask for recount or make claims of wrongdoing. Then wet is completed, will have who the winner is. Today, tor message allow the constitutional process to unfold, didnt getting to the winner of pennsylvania. I can take questions now. As you ask ation, question, give your full name and publication. Identify the news outlet. Thank you. I am from the daily times. This question is for you, jake corman. What ballots are you alluding to the could be counted in pennsylvania now . State,ecretary of choosing to follow it or not, governor,igned by the ends atection day 8 00 p. M. Tuesday, then they do not count. If there is a defect, there is , andmedy for that defect for the secretary state to send out guidance to allow voters to rectify the defect is not consistent with the statute in the Supreme Court decision that there is no remedy, so again, legal ballots will count. [indiscernible] ok. Nicholas . Unmute. , thank you. I appreciate you taking questions. Hows wondering if you know many counties in pennsylvania guidancemplement that for rejected mailin ballots to allow people to vote by provisional ballots instead, and how many counties did implement that . Also, do you think the final was count in pennsylvania altered by the secretary of states handling of that guidance . Do you think that clarification altered it . Thank you. I dont know specifically how many did and did not. It may be 5050. How much it was altered. Thats why if candidates want to seek remedy, they have to right to do so. We will let that unfold. That is why the speaker cold for this audit, so we could investigate how many counties did this at the guidance of the secretary of state, how many did not. These are things we dont know that we want to know. Nicholas, the important part is that we have to ask that question is what causes concern, because the law was not consistently applied across the commonwealth. Frome heard anecdotally republican and democratic counties that different individuals handled it differently. Some allowed the ballots to be remedied. Others strictly said the Supreme Court was clear, those ballots are to be segregated and not counted. And you have the secretary issuing guidance that, at best, muddied the waters, at worst, created confusion. The electoral laws need to be applied uniformly across the commonwealth. You are correct. We need to find out how many counties did or didnt, and as the governor to understand why that occurred. A lot of this activity does happen at the county level, which is different than many states. We understand that because we live here, and i recognize not everybody listening does, because there is a large decentralization in the commonwealth where these functions are carried out, and this one is important it is not only carried out locally, but consistently. County, the minority commissioner is the chair, and this process started without his knowledge, trying to correct ballots without his knowledge, the chairman of the elections board, without vote or process. This has had a major impact, but it puts a cloud over this project. If the secretary would have followed the law, this would have been easy, but she didnt. Lastly, that processing part is cold precanvassing. Both sides should have been able to have their people there to witness that. That was carried out without the ability of candidates to monitor that process, and even the leaders on county commissioner, who was chairman of the board. Was the state department sent out that guidance that said the provisional ballots should be allowed for people who had rejected mailin ballots, sent out on november 2, the clarification, do you have reason to believe it was sent to certain counties or every county , the lastminute november 2 email . And we would have to check with the counties. Bet is something that should in the audit. We have those in lancaster who received it, because they notified me of it. The justice was clear, saying i will issue an order, unless the parties can agree. The original set of instructions were later modified that work, too. Next up, bob . Hi. Two things. Briefly. There consensus now that in future elections that local election offices should have more time for precanvassing . Is that something you would be committing to endorsing as changes in law Going Forward . First question. I dont think this is the time or place to talk about where we are going to go. Precanvassing has not been an issue in this election. We are here on a friday, but that has not been a problem. It is an issue we can discuss. Unfortunately the governor said is anld veto it, but that issue for another day. Todays issue is how the department of state has handled this election process for all voters. , there is ay problem. Does the speaker want to weigh in on that . We debated that. It passed with bipartisan support in this chamber. Thing is that we passed six bills and one constitutional amendment, after not having touched the code in 80 years. That is important. Act 77 predated the prior to theeed to election. That is important. Ruleswere the agreedupon for the next contest in june 2019. As we move forward, there have been court cases that have modified that. That is unfortunate. Because of that, that is what we are concerned about. It has led to confusion. The confusion is a direct result of the court decisions. In terms of what additional changes could occur, we could look at him beginning next session. Them beginning next session. There is the potential to grow them. We will manage this with our colleagues and across the aisle and have bipartisan support and hopefully the governors support. We tried to address these issues in a timely manner. Having a pandemic impacted this in ways that no one could anticipate, but that does not mean you dont have to manage according to the law, and that is our concern now. On the other matter briefly, and to get this out now before moving on, our newsroom was contacted by a trump supporter who said she received a call from someone representing the Republican Party informing her her ballot had not been counted. The number her call came from messageutgoing identifying itself as pennsylvania Trump Victory team. You aware of the party reaching out to voters, notifying them there ballots have not been counted . Are you aware of any such allegation . Are you aware of such allegations . No, bob. I would be happy to follow up on it. That situation highlights the problem we are looking at. Precanvassing was supposed to be public. It was not in this case. I assume this was a county allowing voters to remedy their problems, and because that was not permitted in the law, you have a series of issues with the counties have done it differently. Some may have done it themselves, delegated it to the party that is why they all need to be investigated. This was an important component , we have move the time for precanvassing once this cycle. It used to be you couldnt open any ballots until the polls closed. Tothat time, we moved it 7 00 a. M. On election day, and any prerelease of results would be a direct violation of the law , so if that county undertook the activity, that is a problem. Ok. Next up. Hi. Wtae. As you may know, the Postal Service to close they found 1700 pennsylvania ballots during a sweep of Postal Centers throughout the state, concerns about that and should those ballots be counted . Well, as we go through every but the law review, states, again, we dont choose which laws we adhere to and which ones we dont, the law says 8 00 p. M. , after that does not count. The governor put on a campaign about getting your ballots in as quickly as possible. Every voter has the same opportunity to get there ballots here by 8 00 p. M. On election day, so that is the law. You dont get to change it in the middle of the game. P. M. Onnot here by 8 00 election day, it will not count. Ok. Next. Hi. You are talking about the possibility of a recount, philadelphia, with joe bidens a recount isthink a lengthy and expensive process that would change the course of pennsylvania . Thank you. I will start. When we started making these changes to the laws, we made them prior to ballots being cast, so i am less concerned with the ultimate winner than i am the process. For people to believe the outcome, they have to believe the process was fair. Our statute is equally clear. I dont want to speak for the leader, but i want the law followed just like i want the voting laws to be followed. I dont believe there is any harm whether a candidate, the president , state candidate, they have that ability. Philadelphia, there were a lot of questions about the process. Recount so people have more faith in the result. It could do a lot of good. Allow each candidate to follow the law, the constitutional rights, and we will determine a winner. N, can you bee unmute . Thank you. If your comments posted are still valid . Will that reflect the popular vote, there have been calls by some about the process of the republicanled state legislatures to select their own electors if the president is behind after these boats votes are counted . Reflects yourat stand . Thank you. They do. I dont like to get into hypotheticals. We are far away from that. Lets go through the process. Reveal the will winner, as the law states, certified, and they will be named by the governor, as they were submitted from the party. I dont think there is any useful discussion of that. It is not our role. Oversights to provide , ask for answers, but we want to stay with the tradition of the popular vote winner gets election. Think it is important to know our focus to june 2019 has been to put a system in place to manage the election. The process has been derailed by activist activities, individuals who could not get legislatively what they tried to get judiciously, and that is unfortunate. Our focus continues to be to follow the law. We will wrap up the mailin today. We will have the provisionals next week. That will be our process. Byhave a member here who won one vote. We have had the majority hinge on less than 30 votes. The process worked previously. We just wish it were followed again this time. Up, alan with the new york times. Hi, thank you. Bensted to follow up on question. Youve mentioned a couple of processes. Each candidate can challenge these matters in court, but then you mention the legislature has an oversight role. Can you confirm now the Pennsylvania Legislature will award the states electors states electors to whichever candidate wins the popular vote . , going by my , itrstanding of the law states the winner is certified by the department of state, then the governor submits that. That is how i understand the law. We will follow the law. That is all we have asked for all along, whether it comes to how we vote, we just want everyone to follow the law. That is my understanding of the law. Others may have different opinions of it. At the end of the day, let the process unfold and we will all follow the law. We are governed by law. We dont choose. We will follow the law. Im sorry. One second. I want to make sure i understood what you said. Certified bys in, the department of state, then the governor, correct . Correct. 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. We are trying to get the vote tabulated and get a winner. Party submits electors to the governor. The secretary of state will certify the winter. Each party can challenge that. Challenges will go through the court process. Once that process ends, then certification stands, reversed, then the governor appoints those electors. That is how i understand the law. We will follow the law. Ok. We are running short on time. One last question from tyler. Tyler . Hi, can you hear me . Tyler olson with fox news. You talk about how people have the right to bring claims in , these arengs serious accusations being thrown around by the trump campaign, so what proof or facts should be brought forward, and what forms are appropriate . Do you want to go . I did not want to cut you off, leader. In terms of arguably, we have the first batch of provisional ballots, individuals who claim they never requested mailin ballots, but got them anyway, which is why they were unable to vote in person. They will all be individually adjudicated. Checkedbe likely they the enrollee every time, rather than one and done. If someone thinks their vote was stolen, and someone alleged that to me earlier, they need to , whoeveraw enforcement has oversight of that. That is really where they need to go. Processn focused on the ensuring an orderly accounting of the votes and making sure that as we go through that process it is not prematurely ended in terms of the outstanding provisional ballots, which will likely take some time , overseas military ballots, and have until next week to come in. Ok. That is all the time we have. Addresses out in the chat space. If you have questions or want to follow up, reach out. Thank you to everyone for joining us. We may be doing this in the future to keep everyone updated. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. This is a live look inside an Election Center in philadelphia as votes are counted, 98 of votes have been counted in pennsylvania, and joe biden is leading President Trump by 15,000 votes. Use your mobile devices, laptop or phone to follow the Election Results at atpan. Org alexion, mavs cspan election. Go to cspan. Org election. Georges secretary of state have a News Conference this afternoon on the status of the general election. The georgia secretary of state gave a brief update, saying the race is too close to call, and that they are committed to full transparency. He reiterated there were most