Pennsylvania court grants public access to voting data in dispute from 2020 election's aftermath

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Associated Press

Pennsylvania court grants public access to voting data in dispute from 2020 election's aftermath


FILE - A polling judge, right, helps guide a voter's ballot into a voting machine during the Pennsylvania primary election, at Mont Alto United Methodist Church in Alto, Pa., on May 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File) Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By Mark Scolforo, The Associated Press
Posted Apr 28, 2026 06:33:38 PM.
Last Updated Apr 28, 2026 07:03:46 PM.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Pennsylvania's high court ruled Tuesday that spreadsheets of raw data associated with every ballot are public records, providing access to the "cast vote records" that had been requested by an election researcher hired by the Trump Administration last year. ... The Democratic-majority Supreme Court said its unanimous decision was a way to "satisfy the voting public that our elections are safe, secure and accurate" while preserving the state constitution's requirement that votes remain secret.

The Lycoming County elections director in Williamsport had denied Heather Honey's request for digital copies from the 2020 presidential election, saying that would amount to letting her review the contents of a ballot box, one vote at a time. Cast vote records are created when a voter's choices are made electronically or scanned.

Pennsylvania election law provides wide public access to county election records, except for the contents of ballot boxes and voting machines and records of assisted voters. Lycoming Voter Services had argued its scanners and tabulators constitute voting machines and the cast vote records are the contents of ballot boxes.

As Honey did not live and vote in Lycoming County, she was succeeded in the litigation by three Williamsport area residents -- a local businessman, a retired state trooper and Republican state Rep. Joe Hamm. ... Their lawyer, Thomas Breth, said the data will allow people to review what happened in the hotly contested 2020 election. ... "In short, it's not solely about the past," Breth said. "It's about the future. This significantly improves election integrity moving forward in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."

{snip}

Read more: https://halifax.citynews.ca/2026/04/28/pennsylvania-court-grants-public-access-to-voting-data-in-dispute-from-2020-elections-aftermath/

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Reposted by 8647 Hat
https://bsky.app/profile/kenwhite.bsky.social

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Democracy Docket
‪@democracydocket.com‬

NEW: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that election officials in Lycoming County must hand over 2020 voting records to an election conspiracy theorist who's helping to lead the DHS.

The ruling could allow the Trump administration to use the data to push false voter fraud claims.

Court gives DHS conspiracy theorist access to 2020 election data
The ruling is a key win for election deniers and anti-voting activists, who frequently seek access to raw election files in order to push false conspiracies about mass voter fraud.
www.democracydocket.com
5:44 PM · Apr 28, 2026
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NEW: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that election officials in Lycoming County must hand over 2020 voting records to an election conspiracy theorist who’s helping to lead the DHS.

The ruling could allow the Trump administration to use the data to push false voter fraud claims.

— Democracy Docket (@democracydocket.com) 2026-04-28T21:44:29.344Z

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/court-gives-dhs-conspiracy-theorist-access-to-2020-election-data/

Court gives DHS conspiracy theorist access to 2020 election data

By Matt Cohen
April 28, 2026


Heather Honey, a conservative election researcher, leaves the federal courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa., Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo, File)

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that election officials in Lycoming County must hand over 2020 voting records to Heather Honey — an election conspiracy theorist currently serving in a leadership role at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The ruling is a key win for election deniers and anti-voting activists, who frequently seek access to raw election files in order to push false conspiracies about mass voter fraud. And it could allow the Trump administration to make use of the data for a similar purpose.

Honey filed a public records request in 2021, while she was a Pennsylvania-based anti-voting activist, seeking a digital copy of every vote cast in the 2020 election Lycoming County. The county denied Honey’s request, saying state election code did not allow for public citizens to gain access to ballot boxes and voting machine data.

{snip}

[AverageOldGuy]

1. Some comments

We retired and built a house in a rural VA county in 2008. In 2025 we sold the house and moved into an apartment in northern VA close to our children.

In the 17 years we lived in the rural county we did a LOT of volunteer work. I was an EMT and later captain of a volunteer rescue squad as well as serving 15 years on the county electoral board.

The "cast vote record" as a favorite target of the "voter fraud investigators." It is a digital record made in the machine software that lists: date/time ballot cast, ballot serial number, and selections on the ballot. It can be extracted only by technicians from the manufacturer and it serves as the digital representation of how voters voted and is used for tabulating election results, conducting audits, and verifying election outcomes. The "voter fraud investigators" like to portray the CVR as some mysterious something that is manipulated by those of us who stole the election.

As for the photo of the election official helping a voter insert her ballot into the machine. Note that the ballot is turned face down so the election official cannot see how the voter voted. We -- and every other municipality I know of -- give the voter a blank ballot in a privacy sleeve (we used manila folders). Voter marks ballot, slips it back into the sleeve with the top sticking out showing only the header, not the marked portion, slip the top of the ballot into the voting machine which pulls the ballot out of the privacy sleeve and into the machine to be tallied. I suspect in this case the voter was having problems with the privacy sleeve and the election official was helping. I've done it from time to time, careful not to look at the voter's ballot.

I've dealt with a lot of the "election fraud investigators" and discovered that they are accusing us of criminal activity because they themselves are the ones who are lying, cheating, and stealing.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. That rural county has a population less than the section of Philly that I live in.

The 2020 results for that county (after a hand recount) were almost 3 to 1 for 45 (red county) -

(snip)

Lycoming’s original results, tabulated by machines, showed 59,397 votes cast in the presidential contest, with 41,462 going to former President Donald Trump and 16,971 going to President Joe Biden. The hand recount resulted in a total of 59,374 votes in the presidential race, with Trump receiving 7 fewer votes and Biden receiving 15 fewer votes compared with the original tally.

(ship)

From here - https://www.votebeat.org/pennsylvania/2023/1/12/23552766/lycoming-hand-recount-2020-election/

[paleotn]

3. Let them spin their wheels with it. Such goobers.