HARRISBURG — Across Pennsylvania, conservative activists are trying to stop the usage of electronic voting machines at the behest of former President Donald Trump and his allies who continue to claim without proof the 2020 election was stolen.

Activists began collecting signatures to get a referendum question on the November ballot to stop the use of electronic voting machines, following a directive from Mr. Trump and his top supporters, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Army intelligence officer Seth Keshel, who have made careers traveling the country to spread false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

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In the years since the 2020 election, Mr. Trump’s closest allies have demonized several components of Pennsylvania’s election system, such as mail-in voting, ballot drop boxes and now, the use of electronic voting machines. These fears have crept into county government centers all around Pennsylvania and across the country from newly engaged citizens demanding their county commissioners overhaul the state’s election system back to a pre-21st century one.

Gov. Tom Wolf in 2018 declared that all of Pennsylvania’s election systems must be decertified and replaced with ones that produce a paper record that could be checked and verified by the voter. Mr. Wolf took this executive action by recommendation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to prevent government interference in American elections. All of Pennsylvania’s election machines needed to be replaced to meet updated security protocols before the 2020 primary election, according to Mr. Wolf’s directive.

Since then, Pennsylvania has conducted two statewide recounts: One in November 2021 for a Commonwealth Court seat, and another in the Republican U.S. Senate primary in May 2022. Both recounts found few changes in vote counts, and did not change the outcome of the election.