Butler County does not expect a letter from a state lawmaker who on Wednesday began issuing requests to counties for information regarding the state's 2020 presidential election.

Although state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-33rd, issued letters to Philadelphia, Tioga and York counties Wednesday as part of his recently launched “forensic investigation” of the state's election, county commissioners chairwoman Leslie Osche said she doesn't believe Mastriano would in the future send a letter to Butler County.

“I can't say for certain, but the fact that we ... went ahead and convened a commission, and there was data in that report along with a very obvious timeline of the issues and challenges that we faced, I don't suspect that” Mastriano would send a letter to Butler, she said.

The Associated Press on Wednesday reported Mastriano's letters to the three counties sought a plethora of information, threatening them with subpoenas if they do not reply by July 31.

In a recent interview with political strategist Steve Bannon, Mastriano outlined which steps he wished to take to “audit” the election as well as May's primary election. “As we go through the ballots, my desire is to recount them, but also forensically analyze with photographic material whether the ballots were copied or filled in by a human,” Mastriano told Bannon, saying he planned to study which type of paper was used, look for what he called software “shenanigans” and review the chain of custody for the ballots.

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party called Mastriano a “rogue” state senator, depicted his efforts as a “fraudit” and likened his plans to the audit currently occurring in Arizona.

“It's unclear what authority Mastriano has to take this action, who Mastriano thinks will pay for the audit — which could cost millions — and there are serious privacy concerns,” the party said in a statement. “The people of our commonwealth deserve greater transparency and information from Mastriano on his attempt to overturn a fair election.”

But U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, said the state legislature should investigate what happened during last year's election, and the counties should have nothing to fear.

“Millions of Pennsylvanians are skeptical of the way our state government administered the 2020 election, so it's important that we look into these questions,” Kelly said. “The state legislature has a right and a duty to ensure that elections are administered with integrity, and if the counties in question fulfilled that responsibility, they have little to fear from cooperating with an oversight investigation.”

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, suggested on Wednesday his office would challenge a subpoena and said Mastriano is requesting confidential and privileged information “in continued efforts to pay homage to former President Trump and further spread misinformation about our elections.”

Messages left with state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-11th, and Sen. Elder Vogel, R-47th, were not returned. Phone calls to the office of state Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-21st, who serves as vice chairman of the Intergovernmental Operations committee, on which Mastriano serves as chairman, were not answered.

Osche said the county is pleased with the commission it convoked to study last year's election, but noted she does not know the specifics of Mastriano's requests to the three counties.

“Our goal was to try to look at what worked, what didn't and to make what we thought were valuable suggestions — not only internally, but also to the state legislature,” she said. “I feel that's important for counties to do.”

Osche added she is supportive of an additional type of audit for last year's election, rather than a risk-limiting audit, which counts a limited number of ballots.

“We also think that it would be wise for us to engage in a straight-up audit, using some sort of a demographic representative of a couple of precincts that are demographically representative of the whole,” she said.