Chesco Using Technicality In Attempt To Derail Election Investigation — Here is the latest regarding the attempt to get Chester County, Pa. Republican Recorder of Deeds candidate Brian D. Yanoviak — and others — access to digital copies of various election records including ballots, unredacted outer envelopes for mail-in ballots, unredacted poll books and the cast vote record for the central tabulator from the November 2023 election.
After Common Pleas Judge Anthony Vewrey denied the request, he was told there were serious errors of fact in his decision including that he cited arguments they did not make; invoked standards that were not applicable; and incorrectly cited state law. The appellants protested and Vewrey gave them 21 days from Dec. 18 to clarify their objections.
The appellants did so. The complaints were not addressed and so they appealed to Commonwealth Court.
The appellees — which are Chester County and the Chester County Board of Elections — are claiming the appellants failed to meet Vewrey’s deadline.
Commonwealth Court has asked for an explanation.
The appellants point out that Chester County cut off access to the electronic filing system so they were forced to use the United States Postal Services overnight priority mail on Jan. 7 which was 20 days after Vewrey’s order. They also emailed the appellees the documents the day of the deadline along with the postal receipts.
The documents mailed “overnight” were not picked up until Jan. 11.
Why is the county fighting this? Election integrity is an ever growing concern and every battle to obstruct transparency makes it grow faster. The county could have resolved this in November with far less money and effort.
Chesco Using Technicality In Attempt To Derail Election Investigation
2020 Vote Fraud Now Issue In Pennsylvania Attorney General Race — State Rep. Craig Williams has made the 2020 Election an issue in this year’s Pennsylvania Attorney General race.
Williams, of Glen Mills, Delaware County, represents the 160th District, and is a former federal prosecutor.
He is running to be the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania’s A.G. against ex-Delaware County D.A. Kat Copeland and York County District Attorney Dave Sunday. The primary election is April 23.
Ms. Copeland had served in the Delaware County district attorney’s office before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2011.
She was appointed Delaware County District Attorney in 2018 to fill the remainder of Jack Whelan’s term after he was elected judge. She lost the 2019 election to Jack Stollsteimer and returned to her federal job. The guy in charge was now Bill McSwain. She became chief of the Criminal Division.
Williams X-posted a challenge to her, Saturday, Jan. 20, regarding an allegation her ex-boss made that then U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr squashed an investigation into vote fraud in the 2020 election, which would have been on Ms. Copeland’s watch.
This is the post:
@McSwainPA said he had evidence of election fraud that DOJ shut down. AG Bill Barr said that was not true. The President called McSwain a coward. Kat Copeland was Criminal Chief under McSwain, responsible for prosecuting election fraud. She owes us the truth.
Is Craig hoping to put Kat on the spot? Is this just a gambit to either make her look like a conspiracy nut or to drive a rift between her and McSwain?
Ms. Copeland should chime in, regardless. Huge numbers of Americans think our election system has become rigged and the numbers are growing.
And with reason.
University of Michigan professor and well-regarded cyber-security expert J. Alex Halderman, just this Friday, demonstrated to U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg in Atlanta the ease at which Dominion voting machines could be hacked and tallies changed.
And if Craig and Kat can be persuaded to recognize that distrust in our elections is becoming a serious matter, maybe they can find time to ask why Delaware County is fighting so hard to keep its correspondence with ballot-printer Fort Orange Press a secret.
Maybe it’s just petty bureaucrats trying to show they are big deals. We certainly hope that all that it is.
Chesco Judge Accused Of Errors In Decision — Chester County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Vewrey has been blasted in a filing regarding his Dec. 18 denial to allow Republican Recorder of Deeds candidate Brian D. Yanoviak — and others — access to digital copies of various election records including ballots, unredacted outer envelopes for mail-in ballots, unredacted poll books and the cast vote record for the central tabulator.
Yanoviak is being assisted by Greg Stenstrom, a Delaware County poll watcher and election integrity watchdog.
Others are being represented by attorney Renee Mazer.
The plaintiffs say that Vewrey cited arguments they did not make in their complaint; invoked standards that were not applicable; and incorrectly cited state law, among other things.
“With regard to Judge Verwey’s characterizations of Pro Se Plaintiff’s Yanoviak’s and attorney Mazer’s statements at the close of the one-hour hearing, Judge Verwey either misheard or plainly misstates, what they said and neither Yanoviak or Mazer said there was no fraud, rather they were not alleging any “specific” fraud,” the complaint reads.
The complaints claim that there are legitimate concerns of fraud or errors. This is enough under state law to allow for the relief being sought.
Raffensperger Fears Testifying About Georgia Voting System — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is appealing an order from a judge that he defend under oath Georgia’s computerized voting system.
A lawsuit is seeking to find before the presidential primary if it’s vulnerable to hacking.
Raffensperger was ordered to defend it by U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg and Raffensperger is asking the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to please don’t make him.
Raffensperger is the Republican who infamously rejected President Trump’s request to act on obvious election discrepancies in the 2020 election that would have flipped the state from Biden.
A tape of Trump’s phone call to him was leaked to the public, distorted by the mockingbirds and is now being used in the indictment against The Donald alleging that he committed racketeering by questioning the election.
Judge Totenberg is a Democrat appointed by Barack Obama.
Which gets us to one huge, glaring, unpleasant question which has only one huge, glaring unpleasant answer.
Why is Raffensperger afraid to testify under oath about Georgia’s election system?
And why are the powers that-be desperately fighting the simplest and most reasonable attempts to investigate our elections?
Dominion officials refused to tesify before the Pennsylvania House just after the 2020 election, an action that was either defended or ignored by the establishment media.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in March 2022 that neither Fulton County nor the Pennsylvania Senate can audit Dominion voting machines, a ruling that was just peachy with those who still give many Americans their news.
That’s kind of unexpected, don’t you think?
The traditional media defending business instead of election transparency? A corporation instead of voters?
So we ask why and are left with one huge, glaring unpleasant answer.
People get ready. People get mad, ask questions and demand answers. You are allowed.
Why afraid, Brad
Raffensperger Fears Testifying About Georgia Voting System
What Happened at the Northhampton County Election Board — Someone described as is very active in Northampton County (Pa) politics sent this to our friend Kim Kennedy who sent to us.What we find puzzling is the claim by the board’s solicitor that it is mandated to certify electionsby a deadline. Certify, after all, has a meaning:
To confirm formally as true, accurate, or genuine.
intransitive verb To guarantee as meeting a standard.
A boardcan’t declare something to be true if it believes it isn’t, unless the board knows its lying. The mandate makes our entire election system a lie.
Overview of Nov. 21 Northampton County (Pa.) Election Board Meeting
The Board meeting had to be moved to the cafeteria due to well over 100 citizens participating in the meeting, spilling into the hallway. I arrived about 2 pm to meet with people I had emailed to come early in order to strategize and pass out an agenda, issues to raise and PIN materials by Bill Rodebaugh. A press table was set on the side for 4 staff, including LV Live News and Armchair writers, MCall, Bernie O’Hare and a young man who was quite busy on the phone. I made connections for the future with all plus a photojournalist, passing my card out to them and all in the room who was interested. (There was some conflict initially with a few in the audience decrying the reporters putting their pictures in the news. The answer was that “it is a public place and photos are allowed. Call my editor.”)
Eventually it became very warm in the room as the meeting dragged on for four hours till seven pm. Many left after the “Courtesy of the Floor”. I noted to a lawyer that the certifying of the election came before the comments and he was unconcerned, stating the certification was mandatory implying that comments would not change that. I spoke to a Republican Board member and asked this to be changed and it was, not only due to my input but aided by it.
Notable persons in the audience I saw: Glenn Geissinger, Ryan and Milou Mackenzie, Annamarie Robertone, Tom Giovanni,, Andrew Azan, Tom Carroll, Charles Dertinger, Kevin Danyi, Matt Munsey, and Dr. Tom Little. It was largely a mix of LVTP, PIN, and NCRC members with about ten Democrats and several unattached voters.
The process of counting the votes was delayed till that very day due to the “machine glitch”. The county’s 300-plus machines in all 156 precincts flipped “yes” and “no” selections for the two candidates on the printout that voters reviewed on the machine before taking the final step to cast their ballots. No other contests on the ballot were affected, swore Executive McClure at the prior Council meeting. Counting the provisional ballots — about 2,400 total — occurred over the previous few days. 44,791 votes were cast on voting machines and 25,587 by mail. Votes statewide must be certified at the county level by Nov. 21 and submitted to the state no later than Nov. 27, which may have accounted for most of the passion in the room.
There were 45 persons signed up to speak, but three left early. Many of the 45 were quite upset with the county-wide election irregularities that were unable to be fixed and the county having had no backup plan. Voters are at their “peak of mistrust” with the voting system. “ The third speaker complained of switched poll books and machines at Williams Township. I spoke after her and was unable to fully get through Frank DeVito’s two page comment, so the applause surprised me. Others addressed issues including lack of emergency ballots (10 to 25 at most at the polls.), one and a half hours of locked doors at Forks Twp. (a federal offense actually!), people told not to vote at Hanover Twp., that Republicans are the usual victims of error, lack of transparency , and poor communication with election judges. Representative Milo Mackenzie was very passionate about this unAmerican election and demanded McClure’s resignation or there will be national repercussions in 2024. She stated “This is not a Communist country.
It was noted that the “glitch” proved the machines could be programmed to commit fraud. Many demanded paper ballots be used. Glenn Geissinger, NCRC chairman, noted that turning people away from the polls constituted voter suppression and implored the Board not certify the election and not to use these machines again. Geissinger said his research would result in a lawsuit if he finds large numbers of voters were disenfranchised by the machine failures. One asked for a do-over election and about seven who had either won their elections or had their Saucon Valley candidates elected asked to certify the election. Since there was only one microphone to be passed among 8 persons at any time, there was further delay in hearing all the issues, explanations and apologies.
It was obvious that the election judges lacked training in some cases. The decision was made to train every judge, clerk and poll worker in person for the next election. Even though Judge Sam Murray gave a Court order to follow early in the day, communication was poor and not all were able to follow the orders. All provisional ballots were said to have been counted.
Only party chairs were informed of the L&A (logic and accuracy) testing and apparently no Republican showed up, only County and Election Systems and Software (ES&S) staff.
The ES&S VP, Alex Carbullido, apologized profusely and said there would have been no way to fix all the machines on election day. In 2019 the problem was the touch screens were too sensitive which made it difficult to vote one’s choice. In both elections the problem was blamed on human error.
The Board stated they were not consulted on procedures, not informed at the moment and their previous recommendations to Council had been ignored. Scott Hough whose term ends the end of this year along with the other four members, was especially incensed, had many questions and was the only Board member to refuse to sign the certification of the election, so it passed 4 to 1 over many objections. He said there was no way to know how many voters were turned away which put the election results in question. Hough said he had also requested a special meeting for the public to be heard but his request was denied by the Registrar, Christopher Commini. He also asked again for a special meeting to thrash out solutions and Dertinger promised to look into it.
Board member Daniel Lopresti also wanted a written report from ES&S on what had happened, provision of enough paper ballots and better communication with the poll workers.
Board Solicitor Richard Santee explained it was mandatory for the Board to certify the election and send the results to Harrisburg by the 11/27/23 deadline as they had no discretion or authority in the matter. The process is controlled by the administration. The Board spent hours taking the heat for an election they did not actually run. The District Attorney could act on election complaints from the Board, but only a Common Pleas Judge could overturn an election.
It was also noted that the Nazareth area will be split into four voting districts.
(Dertinger has since resigned and I’ve been speaking with others who believe other races were fixed.)
Mostly I read the Delco Times, Jewish Currents, and National Geographic and a smattering of articles, other magazines, the internet, and poems, but usually don’t invest my time in a book.
The Parallel Election by Leah Hoopes and Gregory Stenstrom is the only book I’ve read this year.
However, after buying a copy from Leah at the 2023 Bill of Rights Banquet, ostensibly for a friend, I decided to at least start the book. Four hundred pages later, I realized how extensive the level of fraud was in 2020. I was truly gobsmacked.
Now in one of my my previous lifetimes, volunteering for the Greens, Independent, and Libertarian candidates, we knew the Democrats and Republicans would fight every signature to keep us off the ballot. They would use every means, financial and legal and— If we finally made it on the ballot, we had exhausted all our financial and volunteer resources and could not win, except for occasional Judge of Election races, but nothing that could change the dynamics of uniparty rule. Period, end of sentence, as they used to say in South Philly.
But this book reveals a whole new level of cheating, shall we say the “Super Bowl of Cheating”. Much better than either Northeast or South Philly, where the dead continued to vote, but only for “the right Party.” This was the attack of the “Uniparty”, both Democrat and Republican.
The evidence here was shocking. Yet the evidence couldn’t be presented nor the results definitively challenged.
How is our system different from a totalitarian regime?
Consider an example of cheating in a non political world.
That happens, too.
The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2017 World Series through a unique sign-stealing plan. Major League Baseball finally (January 2020) confirmed this even though the record books still list the Houston Astros as the winners in the 2017 World Series. Steps were taken to prevent this happening again and, presumably, are effective.
Let me end this, not with an answer, but with a question.
Having said all that, how do we approach changing the rules of the 2024 Primaries as opposed to changing the results of the 2020 Election?
Pennsylvania Quashes Poll Pad Pact — Pennsylvania quashed its $10.7 million contract, Dec. 4, with KNOWINK.
The firm had been tapped to replace the benighted Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system for managing the state’s 8 million voters’ registration information.
“Unfortunately, the department has concluded that the vendor will not meet those timelines and contractual standards,” said Deputy Secretary for Elections and Commissions Jonathan Marks in an email to county officials.
Fort Orange Press, What’s The Secret Delco? — Robert Mancini of the good-government group Delco Deepdivers sought, in December 2022, records concerning Delaware County’s dealings with ballot-printer Fort Orange Press.
Mancini of Media wanted emails between the county and the Albany, N.Y. printer along with the names of those requesting the ballots.
Delco said no, the people may not see!
Considering the suspicion that is dividing our nation regarding elections, that was probably unwise but maybe there was a legitimate reason.
Perhaps the correspondence contained nuclear codes. Perhaps there were plans for an invasion of Russia. Who are we to judge?
There is a way to appeal via the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, however, and Rob did so in January 2023.
The Office said let the people see.
At this point, a sane and competent government would have conceded, grudgingly or not, and the people would see.
But why do it? It does make one go hmmmmm, after all. Really, what’s the big secret? There is a logical explanation, of course, but it’s not one the county should want its citizens to reach.
The hearing scheduled for this month has been postponed.
Rob says the contract with Fort Orange specifically says the dealings are subject to right-to-know.
Why Does Delco Fight Election Questions? — A hearing was heard yesterday, Dec. 6, to open ballot drop boxes and do a recount of the Nov. 7 election in 13 election districts in Delaware County, Pa.
“(It) essentially enables them to audit the vote in each precinct,” said a letter signed by Manley Parks and Nick Centrella, attorneys for the county Board of Elections.
There are 54 plaintiffs including Joy Schwartz and Bill Dennon, who were Republican candidates for County Council; Pat Bleasdale and Kathryn Buckley, who ran for Rose Tree Media School Board; and poll watchers Gregory Stenstrom and Leah Hoopes.
Most of them were representing themselves with a few being represented by attorney Renee Mazer. Stenstrom did most of the speaking for the pro se people.
It was emphasized that fraud was not being alleged nor were the results being challenged.
The issue was the county’s alleged reluctance to follow state law — which allows for by-right ballot checks — and its strange reticence for election transparency.
The plaintiffs had two hearings this week with the first being Dec. 4 with regard to the recounts.
None of the 54 showed up as the Office for Judicial Support failed to properly notify them. They only learned about it when they were asked by a Daily Times reporter why they hadn’t attended.
The Office for Judicial Support is run by the county and not the judges, noted Capuzzi.
Plaintiffs not being notified — and obviously they weren’t else at least some would have appeared — is rather problematic.
Ms. Hoopes told the court the county purposely intimidates those expressing election concerns. She noted the large number of uniformed law enforcement in the courtroom.
“This doesn’t happen in other counties,” she said. “This is why people are afraid to come forward about elections.”
Soon after she made the point most of the law enforcement personnel left.
One of the big issues concerned the status of the Wharf building in Chester where the county counts the mail-in and dropbox ballots.
Was it an election district? The county says no, as no one votes there. The plaintiffs said yes as that’s where votes are tallied.
Poll watchers and candidates may challenge votes at election districts. The county prohibits challenges at the Wharf, so poll watchers can’t check signatures or flag suspicious activity.
“Who gets to see ballots at the counting of mail-in ballots,” Mrs. Schwartz said. “Who is oversight for citizenry at the Wharf.”
Post-election challenges require a $50 bond per precinct. One would have to put down $20,000 — nonrefundable –for a recount of ballots at the Wharf as each of the county’s 428 election districts would need a $50 bond.
Which leads to another issue.
The 428 figure is what Delco officially touts. Mrs. Schwartz noted, however, that the counting center computers display 430 election districts and correspondence with Fort Orange Press of Albany, N.Y., which prints the ballots, indicates that there are 429.
Could one of the extra districts be the Wharf?
Centrella said that the extra precincts might concern machine testing. He said he wasn’t certain, though.
Mrs. Schwartz said, however, that she is a regular observer at testing and that a machine numbered 429 or 430 has never been tested. She said the county has spare machines and she has never seen these tested either.
The county is required to do 2-percent audit of votes. The mail-in ballots are not included in this, Mrs. Schwartz said.
According to the law they should, she said.
Centrella said mail- ballots can be included in recounts because they are recorded by precinct.
That principle, however, is not being applied to the 2-percent audits says Mrs. Schwartz.
The most concerning testimony came from Kathryn Buckley who noted that she won in-person vote but lost due to mail-in ballots
“Where is chain of custody,” she asked
She reiterated the point that poll watchers were not allowed to observe counting at the Wharf and told a story concerning her experience as a poll watcher in 2022.
She said arrived for a 10 a.m. to noon shift the day after the primary election and found it nearly vacant as counting had stopped at 1 a.m.
As the county ballot counters meandered in, she heard one say “I have to get ballots from my car.”
She immediately protested and was just as immediately escorted from the premise by sheriff deputies, she said.
She brought her issue before the Board of Elections and was ignored.
So she filed a complaint with the District Attorney’s office.
She called a week later and was told the matter was resolved. She was not told how.
Mrs. Buckley asked for her report and was told it had been sealed.
She said she has been trying to get her report since.
Mrs. Bleasdale noted that contrary to claims by the defendants, Delco routinely ignores right-to-know requests.
She said she had sought dropbox surveillance video from the county via right-to-know and was denied. She then appealed to state’s Office of Open Records which ruled in her favor.
Rather, that cut their losses, however, Delco appealed to Common Pleas Court which upheld the county’s claim.
Mrs. Bleasdale never got the video.
That does not help increase trust in government or elections.
Bill Dennon noted ballots appeared to be have been dumped as municipal waste at Wharf.
Leah And Stenstrom File RTK Request With Delco DA — Leah Hoopes and Greg Stenstrom submitted, Nov. 15, right-to-know requests to the Delaware County, Pa.’s District Attorney’s Office seeking all non-privileged records regarding criminal investigations pertaining to them initiated in November 2020.
They also want, among many other things, all sworn or non-sworn statements made pertaining to them by anyone involved with D.A.’s office
The D.A. responded by saying they needed until Dec. 28 to comply with the request.
