Mastriano Backers File Wave of Recount Petitions in Pennsylvania Despite Wide Loss

Supporters of Doug Mastriano, the defeated Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor, are flooding county courts with petitions demanding hand recounts, even though he lost to Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro by nearly 15 percentage points, or about 781,000 votes.

The petitions rely on a little-known provision of state election law. Under it, a precinct's results can be recounted if three voters from that precinct pay $50 and file a petition in county court saying they believe "fraud or error" occurred. Recounts typically change election results very little, if at all.

According to interviews and court records, groups organizing over social media, some saying they are working with Mastriano's campaign, filed more than 100 petitions in at least a dozen counties over the past week. Election officials said they had heard of petitions in at least 17 more counties. Many use the same boilerplate legal document with blank fields for filers to complete. The Mastriano campaign did not respond to questions about its involvement.

Counties reported varying volumes. Bucks County saw 18 petitions within a day of the first filings, Allegheny received 12, Montgomery 37 over two days, and Chester 11. In Berks County, a group calling itself the Pennsylvania Liberty Fund said it organized 30. Sean D. Drasher, elections director in Lebanon County, said five precincts there had petitions, all dropped off at once by one person. "They're finding things in the law and they're using it to bog us down," he said.

The Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections, called the moves "a deliberate attempt to flout the will of the people as expressed in the election results." Officials worry the effort could sow confusion, tie up courts and disrupt the audit and certification work due by Monday's deadline.

Democratic elections lawyer Adam Bonin said the provision has mostly been used in small local races, including razor-thin school board and township contests. Some election officials have long feared it could be exploited in statewide races. Berks County's Republican committee is openly backing the push. Chairman Clay Breece said no one is alleging the election was stolen, and that the goal is a court order to open ballot boxes so people can verify the machines. Most other local GOP officials have avoided endorsing it.

Online calls for recruits spread quickly. A Facebook group called "We The People of Columbia County PA" said Audit the Vote PA, which has promoted election conspiracy theories and allied with Mastriano, would reimburse the filing fee when possible. Audit the Vote cofounder Karen Taylor filed her own petition in Westmoreland County. Few filers would discuss their motives. Barbara Canete, a Bucks County Republican committee person, cited a sense that "things happening that aren't really on the up and up."

Early court rulings have gone against the petitioners. A Butler County judge threw out several petitions Wednesday, including three from voters who had served as poll workers and signed off on their precincts' results days earlier. On Monday, Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen A. Skerda dismissed two petitions in Forest County, citing language requiring either specific evidence of fraud or error or petitions in every precinct where the election was held.

Local officials have already counted and checked results, recounted a sample of ballots as required by law, and are conducting a statewide risk-limiting audit, considered the gold standard for verification. Northumberland County Clerk Nathan Savidge, a Republican, called the requests "frivolous" and said the race was "way, way, way outside the margin of error." Mastriano conceded five days after Election Day.