Delco Ballot Envelope Signature Case Kicked To Common Pleas Court— Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Justice Michael H. Wojcik ordered, this afternoon, July 11, the case to see envelope signatures from the May 16 primary be heard in Delaware County Common Pleas Court.
Defendants were Al Schmidt, secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; Delaware County; Delaware County Park Police Department; Delaware County Director of Elections James Allen; and Delaware County Park Police Chief John S. Diehl.
Schmidt is off the case now.
Plaintiffs were originally Republican County Council candidate Joy Schwartz; and certified poll watchers Gregory Stenstrom, Leah Hoopes and Paul Rumley. Four other Republican candidates have joined, however.
The county and state were represented by lawyers while the plaintiffs represented themselves.
The government lawyers claimed that Commonwealth Court was not the proper venue as allowing access to the records was solely a county responsibility and the secretary of the state could not compel action.
If the state government was involved Commonwealth Court would be the venue.
The plaintiffs say there is a 14,289 ballot disparity between what was observed being counted at the county’s Wharf Centralized Counting Center and the 24,289 recorded the night of the May 16 election.
A request to examine the ballot envelopes was fought by the county before it conceded to it. This June 2 examination was called off, however, when the county insisted on covering the envelope signatures with masking tape. These are not just public records but the only way to determine if the envelope came from a legitimate voter.
Stenstrom said that Allen initially told the plaintiffs that signatures were covered at Secretary Schmidt’s direction but changed his statement in an email claiming it came from attorney Manley Parks acting on advice from the Secretary.
Parks, who represented Delco today, said that the state merely offered a suggestion and didn’t order action.
Stenstrom, in his presentation, pointed out that the Pennsylvania Department of State fined Fulton County millions of dollars after they made a preliminary audit of its voting machines when it failed to follow “a suggestion”.
He also said in open court that Delco has actively destroyed records regarding elections from 2020, 2021 and 2022. He said they have evidence.
Mrs. Hoopes said that she worked a decade in geriatric health care. If a tragedy occurred because she followed advice from her superior, the superior would be sued as well as herself, she said.
Judge Wojcik emphasized the case was not dismissed. He would have taken a big step in restoring trust in our elections, though, if he simply told Allen to let them look at the freaking names.
Our judges really better start taking election concerns seriously. Wojcik used a technicality to punt on an issue which should not be an issue.
Why is Allen and the county fighting this so hard? It’s not about privacy. These names are given to thousands of non-government people every month.
Voter rolls are obviously public record.
It should also be obvious that the envelope signatures cannot reveal how a vote was cast.
There is no honest answer either as to why the county is fighting so hard a right-to-know order from a state arbiter.
They (meaning the “powers” that oversee our selections) ALWAYS fight any request to see anything that might blow the lid off of what they are concealing. Unfortunately, they get a lot of support from the administrative agencies and the courts who almost always find a way block the efforts of anyone who tries to enforce their rights regarding monitoring elections. Seeing these public documents (the outer envelopes) without the names, signatures and dates, is useless and they know it and that’s why they are pushing this absurd procedure. Your readers get it, so this is preaching to the choir. The problem is the unwashed (read that uninformed) masses, who remain comfortably clueless. If the average American spent as much time following what our government is doing as they do their favorite sports teams, we would still have a country… Go Eagles!
–Your readers get it, so this is preaching to the choir. The problem is the unwashed (read that uninformed) masses, who remain comfortably clueless. —
It’s important to share the stories — especially the social media places inhabited by uninformed.
That would be you Facebook and Instagram.
So the corruption continues!
Thanks for a very interesting article. It has become routine for election departments to hide corruption by using the privacy argument.