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Aug. 15, 2021 - Epoch Times
19:06
2nd Forensic Audit Officially Triggered; Senator Requests All 2020 Records | Facts Matter
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Good evening.
Two days ago, something almost unbelievable happened over in Washington, D.C.
A man who was convicted of murder and is still currently sitting behind bars, he won a local election, and he is therefore now a commissioner in our nation's capital.
Meanwhile, over in Pennsylvania, a state senator sent this letter to several counties and officially triggered a forensic investigation of the 2020 election, similar to what they're doing over in Arizona.
And lastly, over at the Wisconsin Supreme Court, they rejected hearing a lawsuit which was looking to ban the use of ballot drop boxes.
However, there's another similar case working its way up the Wisconsin chain, which might be heard and which might ultimately address the issue.
Let's go through these stories together.
This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
Now let's begin today's discussion over in Washington, D.C. But actually, just before we do, as a quick aside, I would like to mention that right there at the very top of the description box is a link to Epoch TV, which is our brand new no-censorship video platform where you can find all of the awesome Epoch Times video programs like The Larry Elder Show, American Thought Leaders, Crossroads, Life and Times, Counterpunch with Trevor Loudon, China in Focus, and our show Facts Matter.
And on there we'll publish exclusive episodes that, frankly, I just don't feel comfortable publishing here on YouTube due to the censorship.
So again, that link will be right there at the top of the description box.
I hope you check it out.
And now let's really move on over to Washington DC, where something almost unbelievable just happened.
Two days ago, a man who was convicted of murder and is still currently behind bars, he won a local election.
Again, let me just reiterate that.
This man, who is currently serving a sentence for murder, he was just voted into local office.
Now the man in question is Mr.
Joel Kasten.
He is 44 years old, and 26 years ago, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder when he ambushed and killed an 18-year-old young man.
He was 18 as well at the time.
And even though he is currently behind bars, voters elected him to be a commissioner on one of Washington, D.C.'s advisory neighborhood commissions.
These commissions, by the way, if you're not familiar with them, they're kind of a unique feature found in Washington, D.C. And what they do is that the different commissioners, they come together once a month and they meet with the local residents that they represent to resolve any kind of problems within the neighborhood.
And they also advise the local government on a plethora of issues related to the neighborhood.
Things like police protection, parking, zoning, liquor licenses, as well as trash collection.
Now, the neighborhood commissioner's role is unpaid, and they serve out two-year terms.
In a campaign video when he was running for this office, here's what Mr.
Mr. Kasten said, My platform will be used to restore the dignity of incarcerated people that will no longer be judged by our worst mistake and to establish equality for both the male and the female populations.
I will be your biggest advocate to make sure your voice and your concerns are heard.
Now, for your reference, while he was in prison, Mr.
Kasten took classes at Georgetown University through their prison program.
He mentored young men who were in jail, and he edited the prison newspaper.
He's also scheduled to be released sometime later this year or potentially next year.
And upon being elected, the chairman of the Neighborhood Commission, the chairman of the commission that Mr.
Kasten is now a part of, he came out and he made a statement, and here's part of what he said.
Representation is an important part of equity and inclusion.
I could not be more excited of a new colleague, a resident of the D.C. jail, joining the 7F Commission.
Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to Mr.
Kasten for comment, but we have yet to hear back.
However, we did get a chance to speak to someone who actually lives in this neighborhood, this neighborhood which Mr.
Kasten now represents, and this individual, he told us that he was generally supportive of Mr.
Kasten.
The man that we spoke with is Mr.
John Koufos, and he actually leads a reform effort aiming to help convicts reenter society.
In fact, here's a photo of him right there shaking hands with President Trump at the signing ceremony for the First Step Act, which was a criminal reform act signed during President Trump's first term.
And in regards to this election result, here's what Mr.
Koufos had to say.
Whenever people with criminal records can break barriers in a way that does not run counter to public safety principles, it is a good thing.
Mr.
Kasten's election will help show employers that people with criminal records can be valuable in leadership roles.
I do think that there are certain offices, especially in the states, where a person in prison would have difficulty executing the duties of office.
However, the Advisor Neighborhood Commission is not one of those types of offices, and Mr.
Kasten's election is a reflection of his desire to better himself and his community.
Now, if you would like to read more about this election over in Washington, D.C., the link to that article will be right there in the description box below this video for you to check out.
And also, I would love to hear your thoughts about this issue.
Do you think that a man who was convicted of murder and is still currently serving a sentence behind bars should he be allowed to serve as a local official?
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Please leave them in the comments section below this video.
I'll be reading them later tonight as well as tomorrow.
And now, before we move on over and talk about the forensic audit of the 2020 election that was just started two days ago over in Pennsylvania, I would like to take a quick second and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, and I'll do so from the sound booth.
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Now, Roman in the studio, back to you.
And now, let's move on over to Pennsylvania.
Two days ago, a Pennsylvania state senator announced that he has officially triggered a forensic investigation into both the 2020 and 2021 elections.
Now, the senator in question, his name is Doug Mastriano, and he is the chairman of the Senate's Intergovernmental Operations Committee, and he sent this letter...
Copies of this letter right here to several counties requesting both information as well as physical election materials, including ballots, in order to begin conducting an audit similar to what's taking place over in Arizona.
And to start with, you might find that Mr.
Maestriano looks familiar.
That's because in a previous episode, we discussed how he had actually visited the forensic audit that's happening over in Arizona, he toured the facilities, and then afterwards he made this statement.
We have a lot of the same concerns and issues unresolved in Pennsylvania.
When you have about 47% of the state's population questioning the reliability of the election, that's the significance of your problem.
And so the only way I could see ahead of this putting this all to rest, and let the cards fall where they may, do a scientific forensic audit like Arizona's doing.
And that looks like what he is initiating in Pennsylvania right now.
That's because two days ago, he sent copies of this letter right here to election officials in three different counties, in Philadelphia, York, and Teoga counties.
And for your reference, according to the official reports, Joe Biden won Philadelphia County with more than 81% of the vote, while President Trump won both York and Teoga counties with 62% and 75% of the vote, respectively.
In the weeks leading up to the election, the Pennsylvania Department of State repeatedly altered the manner in which Pennsylvania's election was conducted.
The constantly changing guidance delivered to counties contradicted election code language that the department is obligated to uphold.
Those who voted in person were held to a higher standard than those who mailed in their ballots.
Signatures required for mail-in ballots were rendered meaningless as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that ballots could not be rejected based on an analysis of the voter's signature.
In the letter, he stated that in the year 2016, there were only 236,000 mail-in ballots.
However, in 2020, that number increased to 2.7 million mail-in ballots.
He then went on to list in this letter some of the other issues that came up in the 2020 contest, such as right here.
Just hours before the polls opened on November 3rd, the department changed the rules again by providing last-second guidance on how to help voters whose mail-in or absentee ballots were incorrectly completed.
The late release of this guidance resulted in inconsistent application across the Commonwealth.
Some counties contacted voters as directed, while others did not.
Now, thus far, we've only discussed the anomalies that occurred in the 2020 election.
However, there were also issues present just a month and a half ago when Pennsylvania held their 2021 primary elections.
We actually discussed some of those problems in more depth on an exclusive episode of this program that you can find over on Epic TV.
However, to summarize what happened, here's what this letter says.
Quote, During the May primary, multiple poll locations ran out of their supply of ballots.
In some precincts, voting machines improperly labeled the headers of Republican ballots as Democrat while the GOP races still appeared.
In one county, a printing issue caused both Democratic and Republican ballots to be rejected.
These errors occurred in a lower turnout election, where mistakes should be least likely to occur.
Now, it's worth noting that he did not say that any of these anomalies were necessarily indications of fraud.
But he did say, in their totality, that they undermined the faith of the citizens in their election system.
And in fact, in this letter, he cited a poll which was conducted by Molenberg University, which found that 40% of Pennsylvania voters were not confident that the final results of the 2020 contest were an accurate reflection of how people actually voted.
Mr.
Matriano then concluded his reasoning by writing this, quote, It is critical to the health of our republic for people to trust in the election system.
Now, after he laid out the arguments for why a forensic audit was warranted, he then made a request from these three counties.
And before I get into the request itself, I just want to mention again that this senator, Doug Mastriano, is the chairman of the Senate's Intergovernmental Operations Committee.
And for your reference, this committee is, among several other things, responsible for the oversight and has investigatory responsibilities across the state, which includes oversight into the administration of elections.
That's what at least he claims.
Furthermore, and this is something that is cited in this letter as well, according to Pennsylvania law, specifically according to Senate Rule 14, subsection D, it says that, In order to carry out its duties, each standing committee is empowered with the right and authority to inspect and investigate the books, records, papers, documents, data, operation, and physical plant of any public agency in this Commonwealth.
And that appears to be exactly what the senator is requesting.
That's because pinned to the back of this letter is a fairly comprehensive list of 45 types of items that should be handed over to be forensically examined.
And it is, in fact, a really comprehensive list.
It includes all of the tabulation machines, the servers, the SIM cards, the logs from all of the routers and different machines that were used, the voter rolls, all of the mail-in ballots, as well as the envelopes that they came in, and so on.
The list is actually quite long and comprehensive.
He's basically requesting every single item related to the 2020 and 2021 elections.
Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to Senator Mastriano, and here's what he told us.
It's distinct from an audit or forensic audit.
It's a big, deep dive, like we saw in Arizona, but even deeper.
It takes a hard look at software, machine scanners, in addition to looking at all the ballots themselves to see if they were hand-filled in or copied by a machine.
So a scientific approach to get to the bottom of what happened, what went right, what went wrong in an election.
It takes out all bias.
Now in terms of the next steps, this letter gives these three counties until July 31st, the end of this month, to either comply or indicate their willingness to comply.
And if these counties don't comply by that date, Mr.
Matriano said in this letter that he's willing to go back to the committee and make a request for formal subpoenas to be issued for these materials.
And so, we'll just have to wait and see whether these counties will ultimately comply or not.
However, there has been some indication of pushback from the state.
For instance, Pennsylvania's Attorney General, Mr.
Josh Shapiro, he's a Democrat, he wrote this on Twitter.
Furthermore, the Department of State, they issued a statement encouraging these counties to...
Refused to participate in any sham review of past elections that would require counties to violate the trust of their voters and ignore their statutory duty to protect the chain of custody of their ballots and voting equipment.
And so, just like what happened out in Arizona, it looks like a legal battle might be brewing in order to get this audit off the ground.
If you'd like to read more about this development over in Pennsylvania, including this full letter right here, the link to that will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
And by the way, that is that same little description box that is right below that like button, that I hope that you take a moment to vote with your finger and smash.
Because it goes without saying that videos that are like this, talking honestly, factually, and openly about what is happening in this world right now, are routinely censored by big tech giants like YouTube.
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And now let's move on over to Wisconsin.
About a week ago, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin rejected a lawsuit which was seeking to ban the use of absentee ballot drop boxes.
Now, this case was first filed by a conservative businessman named Jerry Favik.
And back in March, he petitioned the court to ban the use of these drop boxes, arguing that they were violating Wisconsin state election laws.
However, in a 4-3 ruling, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, they threw out the case, claiming that the arguments contained within the lawsuit were not clearly presented, although they did know that the lawsuit raised important questions.
Here's what part of their ruling said.
the best that I can make out with my understanding is that the majority opinion is that the question raised is legitimate, however the way that it was brought to the court was not correct.
However, in a dissenting opinion, one of the justices argued that the court's majority was avoiding urgent lawsuits.
Here's what the dissenting opinion said.
They are issues that cry for judicial resolution by the Wisconsin Supreme Court before the 2022 elections begin.
We need elections whose results the public will accept because citizens believe that the elections were conducted fairly.
Now, if you've been following this topic, you know that this is not the first time that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has avoided hearing an election-related lawsuit.
After the 2020 contest, they have issued several of these 4-3 rulings, just like this one, that declined to hear lawsuits filed on behalf of President Trump, with the majority of justices arguing that these legal challenges should have been submitted before the 2020 election.
However, this issue of ballot boxes still might get its day in court in the very near future.
That's because even though that particular lawsuit was dismissed by the Supreme Court, there is another case right here that's currently working its way up through the Wisconsin court system.
This lawsuit was filed by a conservative non-profit law firm, and it challenges Wisconsin's use of ballot drop boxes.
This new lawsuit, it argues that according to Wisconsin state law, only delivering your vote via either the Postal Service or by hand delivering your ballot in person to a municipal clerk is allowed.
They are arguing that the use of ballot drop boxes is in fact not allowed by Wisconsin state election laws.
In fact, here is what part of this new lawsuit says.
A dropbox is not the municipal clerk.
It is an unsupervised inanimate object.
Allowing ballots to be cast by placing them into an unsupervised inanimate object invites the fraud and abuse that the legislature was attempting to prevent by requiring strict compliance with the requirement that absentee ballots could only be cast by the two methods allowed.
However, this filing then goes on to say that prior to the 2020 election, the Wisconsin Elections Commission, they sent memos to election clerks throughout the entire state, encouraging them to use drop boxes.
Those memos that were sent out, they further said that absentee ballots did not need to be mailed out by the voter, nor delivered in person to the clerk.
Instead, they can be placed in these drop boxes.
However, the plaintiffs in this case, they argued that this memo, the memo from the Elections Commission, which was sent prior to the 2020 contest, it went directly against Wisconsin's own election rules.
In fact, here's what the lawsuit says on this point specifically.
Quote, both the March 2020 memo and the August 2020 memo are incorrect statements of the law by the Wisconsin Election Commission and have led to local election officials in Wisconsin administering elections incorrectly under Wisconsin law.
They further went on to say that they are not challenging the results of the 2020 election, but instead they want Wisconsin state law to be enforced during the upcoming 2022 midterm elections.
And so we'll have to ultimately wait and see whether the Wisconsin Supreme Court takes up this case or not when it inevitably reaches them.
Although given their track record thus far, it seems a bit unlikely, but you know what?
You never know.
If you'd like to read more about either this lawsuit that was just dismissed or about this new lawsuit that's working its way up through the Wisconsin court system, all those links will be down there in the description box below this video for you to check out.
And lastly, as we've already mentioned in several previous episodes, on the very same day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, YouTube made the unilateral decision to demonetize our program.
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I mean, of course, we do occasionally get sponsors, usually companies run by patriots that support a channel like ours, but when YouTube decided to demonetize us, they're essentially snuffing out our ability to monetize our content.
However, we here at the Epoch Times, we took action, we did not take this lying down, and we created something very cool.
It's called EpicTV.
It's our brand new no-censorship video platform where you can find all of the awesome Epic Times video programs, like The Larry Elder Show, Crossroads with Joshua Phillip, Counterpunch with Trevor Loudon, China in Focus, Life and Times, and our show Facts Matter.
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And now, really, lastly, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times.
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