As chairman of the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee, State Sen. David Argall, R-Schuylkill/Berks, listens to speakers from around the state discuss issues which are important to legislators and the districts they represent.

A hearing held by the committee this week, he said, was without question the most significant and closely watched in the committee’s history, thanks to a phone call from President Donald Trump and the in-person appearance of his attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

“I got to tell the President when he called into our committee hearing that 100 years from now, the capitol historians in Harrisburg will have this one on the record books,” said Argall, who lives in Rush Township.

The hearing, held on Wednesday in Gettysburg, consisted of Giuliani and about a dozen other speakers from around Pennsylvania, most of whom were concerned about the validity of mail-in ballots in the 2020 election.

The results of the presidential election in Pennsylvania were officially certified on Tuesday.

There were reports that President Donald Trump planned to attend the hearing in person, but instead he called in to the hearing to state his case.

“This was an election that we won easily. We won it by a lot,” Trump told the panel by phone.

The other speakers discussed some of the same issues which the Trump campaign has raised in federal lawsuits, including a lack of access to areas where mail-in ballots were counted.

The Trump campaign’s lawsuits to block the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results have been denied twice in the last week by Federal Judges. The president’s attorneys have pledged to appeal their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Many of the speakers at Wednesday’s hearing were registered Republican poll watchers who said they were denied access to view ballot counting in counties where Democrats hold a majority. Others had concerns about the security of new in-person voting machines which were used for the first time this year.

Argall said that it was important to provide a venue for the speakers because of the large amount of interest on a state and national level.

“We have received an enormous number of complaints on the conduct of this election. Our emails have set a new record. People have been stopping by the office. I can’t walk my dog without someone asking me about this,” Argall said.

On Tuesday, Argall received a request from Sen. Doug Mastriano to immediately hold a hearing of the Senate Majority Policy Committee to discuss the 2020 election. Mastriano led Normally, the committee’s events are set up well in advance.

The committee exists to research and recommend policy ideas to the Senate’s GOP Caucus. It conducts hearings around the state on a wide range of issues. It is not one of the 22 standing senate committees, and unlike those committees it doesn’t include any Democrats.

Argall said that Wednesday’s hearing was unlike any other that the committee has held during his tenure, not only because of the President’s participation, but because of the intense interest surrounding it.

Argall said that he’s certain that the testimony received will lead to changes in the way that Pennsylvania handles future elections.

“Because of all the information we received today, we will approve legislation in the House and Senate in the future to address some of these issues,” he said.