Day: July 14, 2023

Delaware County Concedes, Will Let Auditors See Ballot Envelope Signatures — Delaware County, Pa. has agreed to allow Republican candidates and poll watchers to count mail-in ballot envelopes from the May 16 primary election and see the signatures on them, according to Greg Stenstrom who is one of the poll watchers.

Stenstrom received an email yesterday, July 13, from county Director of Elections Jim Allen saying “the envelopes are going to be available for review unredacted.”

Stenstrom requested that the two-day audit be scheduled for the middle of next week.

Stenstrom; fellow poll watchers Leah Hoopes and Paul Rumley; and Delaware County Council candidate Joy Schwartz requested to see the envelopes shortly after the election but were stonewalled by the county.

Facing legal challenges, the county conceded but demanded that the envelope signatures be hidden. They began taping over them. This prompted the audit to be cancelled with the petitioners appealing to Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.

Commonwealth Court is the venue for civil suits against the state.

The taping had been done after consultation with the Department of State.

Commonwealth Court Justice  Michael H. Wojcik  heard the petition, July 11. He accepted the county’s argument that his court was not the appropriate jurisdiction because the secretary of the state could not compel action.

Fulton County, we hope you are reading.

Wojcik sent the case to Delaware County Common Pleas Court.

Sometime between then and yesterday some authority in Delco took a sane pill and agreed to an unredacted audit. Pointless legal expenses will be end and, hopefully, election trust will increase.

Envelope signatures are no different than voter rolls which are obviously and necessarily public records. How one voted cannot be learned from the envelope.

Now Delco, end the stupid fights about the right-to-know requests.