• Who paid for the Fulton County audit? (A county commissioner said he has no idea.)
• Why audit a county former President Donald Trump won by a 6-to-1 margin?
• And why is Wake Technology Services Inc., a tech company focused on the health-care sector, conducting election audits in the first place?

THE CONTEXT: A state-run pilot audit of Pennsylvania's 2020 election results confirmed in March that President Joe Biden was rightly declared the winner here but, as is typical of the medium, didn't reveal how well the election was administered on a county-by-county or precinct-level basis, Spotlight PA and Votebeat found.

Election oversight hearings were also convened in Harrisburg, with Republicans calling them a necessary endeavor post-2020 and Democrats a cover for voter suppression. 

Now, after six months of calling for changes to Pennsylvania’s Election Code, Republicans are finally set to unveil their proposals — stricter voter ID, earlier registration deadlines, and mandatory signature verification on mail ballots all possible.

Meanwhile, State Sen. Ryan Aument (R., Lancaster) on Friday announced he'll be introducing legislation to suspend no-excuse mail ballots, which he and other Republicans supported in 2019.

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GIFT BAN: For many state lawmakers, 2020 was a banner year for staying home — and eschewing people bearing gifts, at least according to their limited disclosure forms. Pennsylvania is in the minority of states with no limit on the size or number of gifts elected officials can accept. A renewed effort is pushing to change that by banning legislator gifts altogether. History says it faces a steep climb, per Spotlight PA.

RELIEF REQUEST: Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy DeFoor wants the authority and the money to hire private accounting firms to keep tabs on the $13.5 billion in federal aid state and local governments will soon receive, via City & State. Pennsylvania is set to receive its largest share of federal relief dollars yet through the American Rescue Plan, and DeFoor said it needs to be protected against waste and fraud.

CRISIS RESPONSE: Voters gave state lawmakers new power last Tuesday over a governor's disaster declarations, an ongoing pandemic order being front of mind for most. But the future of a years-old and still-urgent opioid epidemic-inspired declaration is also uncertain, with a GOP spokesperson telling Capital-Star that Republicans in the majority will work with Gov. Tom Wolf before deciding what to do.

RECENT HISTORY: U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa.) voted last week against a 9/11-style commission to study the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol. Pressed by a C-SPAN caller, Perry downplayed the violence, saying there were "no arms that came in as far as I know, other than the people who were armed at the Capitol as security." WITF reports that's far from true, according to federal charging documents tied to the attack.

STEP DOWN: A powerful union representing 36,000 Pennsylvania educators is calling for the resignation of every Public School Employees Retirement System board member appointed before January 2021, according to PennLive. The Pennsylvania chapter of the American Federation of Teachers says scandals swirling around the $64 billion pension fund have jeopardized the financial security of its members.