Court sides with state over Pennsylvania county's handling of voting machines after 2020 electio

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 12:57 PM EST, December 31, 2024


HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania court on Tuesday ruled 6-1 that the secretary of state has the authority to direct counties not to allow “unauthorized third party access” to voting machines or risk having those machines decertified and unable to be deployed for elections.

The Commonwealth Court said the Department of State does not have to reimburse counties when they decertify machines, a defeat for Fulton County in a dispute that arose after two Republican county commissioners permitted Wake Technology Services Inc. to examine and obtain data from Dominion voting machines in 2021.

That led the state elections agency to issue a directive against such third-party access based on concerns it could compromise security. Fulton’s machines were decertified as a result of the Wake TSI examination and the secretary of state was sued by the county as well as Republican county commissioners Randy Bunch and Stuart Ulsh.

Fulton had argued it had broad authority over the voting machines, while the secretary of state said that “would mean that every county board of elections can do whatever it wants” with electronic voting systems under their authority to inspect elections, “an absurd and unreasonable result,” wrote Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer for the majority.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/pennsylvania-voting-machines-fulton-2020-7f2130b82d582aab34afd504b444dc0c

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The cases for this county have been going on endlessly since 2021 after they allowed multiple 3rd parties to "audit" their machines (the first being a vendor associated with Wake TSI - the ones who screwed around in AZ). The court said STOP! after that first time and they ignored the order and eventually had 2 more 3rd parties come in to "review" (tamper). This is one of the most rural and reddest counties in the state but also one of the few who also had Dominion machines.