Authorize Third Party Hand Count Audit in PA

I am writing to you today as a deeply concerned citizen to formally request that you use the authority of your office to authorize an independent, third-party hand-count audit of the 2024 presidential election ballots in Pennsylvania. This request is driven by alarming, evidence-based inconsistencies that have eroded public trust and demand transparent, verifiable resolution. The most glaring of these inconsistencies was documented in Northampton County, where Precinct 760 reported a voter turnout of 435.98%—a statistical impossibility that indicates a profound failure in the vote tabulation system. This is not an isolated data point but part of a broader pattern of irregularities that call the integrity of our electoral process into question. As noted in recent public discourse, a lawsuit has been filed in the state over extensive election-related issues, and statistical experts have identified tens of thousands of anomalous ballot manipulations. Furthermore, the context of this request is critical. Prior to the 2024 election, a coalition of 22 computer scientists and election security experts sent a stark "Duty to Warn" letter to federal authorities. They cautioned that the illegal breaches of voting equipment software in 2020 and 2021, including in nearby Coffee County, Georgia, created serious vulnerabilities that could be exploited to manipulate elections. Their urgent warnings for the 2024 election went unheeded at the federal level, placing the onus for verification on state leadership. In this environment, the refusal by the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt to permit an independent audit is antithetical to the principles of transparent democracy. Silence and inaction in the face of such credible questions protect institutions at the expense of the people's faith. As Vice President Harris recently stated, "The people feel that the very institutions designed to support them have failed them. They are not wrong." Governor Shapiro, Pennsylvania must lead. I urge you to authorize a full, independent hand-count audit before the September 2026 deadline. This is the only way to provide the definitive, physical verification needed to either confirm the accuracy of our voting systems or identify and correct their failures. Restoring the shattered confidence of the electorate in our democracy depends on this decisive action. Thank you for your time and attention.