{"id":2322054,"date":"2024-08-09T15:56:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T19:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/court-rules-mail-ballots-public-but-lets-pa-hide-vote-records\/"},"modified":"2024-08-09T15:59:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T19:59:46","slug":"court-rules-mail-ballots-public-but-lets-pa-hide-vote-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/court-rules-mail-ballots-public-but-lets-pa-hide-vote-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Rules Mail Ballots Public But Lets PA Hide Vote Records"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcourt-rules-mail-ballots-public-but-lets-pa-hide-vote-records%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2322054&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Pennsylvania election officials have been accused of\u200b attempting to keep public election records confidential, despite state laws mandating transparency. A \u2062recent ruling from the Commonwealth Court partially addresses this issue, but it still permits the state to withhold\u2063 certain records. The case began \u200bwhen Michelle Previte submitted a &#8220;Right to Know&#8221; \u2064request to\u2064 the Erie County Board of Elections for electronic copies of records from \u200cthe 2020 general \u200belection, including images of mail-in and absentee ballots. The county rejected her request, citing the state Election Code, which was\u200c established in 1937 and \u200ddoes not explicitly cover\u2064 modern \u200celectronic records. <\/p>\n<p>Previte&#8217;s appeal to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records led to a \u200druling\u200c that allowed access to outer envelopes and mail-in ballots, but Erie County continued to contest this decision.\u2063 Initially winning in the Court of\u200b Common Pleas, the county later lost in the Commonwealth Court,\u2062 which ruled\u200d that the images of completed absentee and mail-in ballots are public records. Attorney Thomas Berth, representing Previte, criticized election officials for their\u200c reluctance to share such records amid ongoing public skepticism regarding election integrity.<\/p>\n<p>The Pennsylvania Department of State has been instructing\u200d counties that \u2063they\u200b are not required to disclose copies of ballots, \u2063leading to further disputes. The case highlights ongoing tensions between public access to election \u2064records \u200dand claims of protecting voter \u2062privacy. Judge Patricia McCullough, in her opinions regarding these cases, reiterated\u2064 that completed ballots should not be exempt from public records requests once they have been digitized.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Pennsylvania election officials have been fighting to keep public election records under wraps, despite state law that requires transparency. A recent Commonwealth Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacourts.us\/assets\/opinions\/Commonwealth\/out\/814CD23_7-31-24.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">decision<\/a> partially solves the dispute, but still allows the state to conceal some records.<\/p>\n<p>The decision stems from an Aug. 1, 2022, &ldquo;Right to Know&rdquo; request Michelle Previte made to the Erie County Board of Elections.<\/p>\n<p>She asked the county to provide electronic copies of records from the 2020 general election, including the images of all mail-in and absentee ballots, images of all outer envelopes which contain each voter&rsquo;s signature and the date, and images of all ballots cast at polling places.<\/p>\n<p>The county said no, citing Section 308 of the state <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legis.state.pa.us\/WU01\/LI\/LI\/US\/HTM\/1937\/0\/0320..HTM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Election Code<\/a> as proof the documents were not public records. The code was written in 1937, long before computers or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pennsylvania-department-of-state-tells-counties-not-to-allow-outside-access-to-voting-systems\/\" title=\"Pennsylvania Department of State Tells Counties Not To Allow Outside Access to Voting Systems\">electronic voting systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The code specifies &ldquo;all official mail-in ballots, files, applications for ballots,&rdquo; envelopes with signatures, and &ldquo;all information and lists&rdquo; are public records. Section 308 lists other records open to public inspection, except for &ldquo;contents of ballot boxes and voting machines and records of assisted voters.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The county argued Previte&rsquo;s request fell under these exceptions because the images were the contents of voting machines and therefore &ldquo;shielded&rdquo; from the Right to Know law.<\/p>\n<p>She appealed the decision to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records. The office determined that the in-person ballots are not open to the public, but the outer envelopes and the mail-in and absentee ballots are open to the public.<\/p>\n<p>Erie County kept fighting. It appealed the Office of Open Records&rsquo; decision to the Court of Common Pleas in November 2022. The county won that round, with the court deciding none of the records she sought were for public eyes.<\/p>\n<p>Previte appealed, this time to the Commonwealth Court, which issued a decision July 31, two years after her initial request. By the time of her appeal, Previte had dropped the request for the envelopes. The county did not make electronic scans of the envelopes in that election, and she decided not to go through the original, individual envelopes by hand, her attorney said. Because of this, the higher court did not consider the envelopes.<\/p>\n<p>The Commonwealth Court reversed the lower court&rsquo;s decision. It decided images of completed absentee and mail-in ballots are public records that can be obtained through a Pennsylvania Right to Know request. The decision allows Previte to see images of the mail-in ballots but not the ballots from in-person voting.<\/p>\n<p>Attorney Thomas Berth, a partner at Dillon McCandless King Coulter &amp; Graham, represents Previte in this case and told The Federalist it is &ldquo;mind boggling&rdquo; that election officials are reluctant to share public documents at a time of unprecedented skepticism about election integrity.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;These boards of election, and the secretary of the commonwealth,&rdquo; Berth said, &ldquo;have the ability to be transparent and to demonstrate to the public that the elections are being conducted in a fair and honest manner. They&rsquo;re choosing to try to put a cloak of secrecy over the information that&rsquo;s needed to really establish that we have fair, honest elections. &hellip; It&rsquo;s literally beyond my understanding.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Counties are taking guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of State.<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Marks, deputy secretary for elections and commissions, sent an Oct. 11, 2022 letter to all county election officials, suggesting they were not required to release copies of ballots or envelopes from elections.<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;It is the department&rsquo;s position that voted ballots are <strong>not<\/strong> subject to disclosure under the Election Code,&rdquo; Marks wrote. &ldquo;Unfortunately, there have been a few [Office of Open Records] decisions that have concluded that the Election Code potentially permits disclosure of said ballots.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Previte&rsquo;s case was one of three snubbed Right to Know requests that ended up in court.<\/p>\n<p>Heather Honey, executive director of the Election Research Institute and an analyst and election systems expert, requested the Cast Voter Record (CVR) from Lycoming County&rsquo;s Offices of Voter Services. The CVR includes an image of each cast ballot and a data file showing how the voting system counted the ballot, Honey explained to The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>Honey&rsquo;s case went through a similar series of appeals but ultimately, the Commonwealth Court sided with Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacourts.us\/assets\/opinions\/Commonwealth\/out\/57CD23_3-4-24.pdf?cb=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">denied<\/a> her access to the records. The Office of Open Records <a href=\"https:\/\/www.openrecords.pa.gov\/Appeals\/DocketGetFile.cfm?id=85455\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> the CVR is the same as the contents of the ballot box, and worried if someone had the data in the CVR, they could figure out &ldquo;information about individual voters.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s worth noting the voter&rsquo;s name appears only on the exterior of the mail-in ballot envelope, which is separated from the ballot before the ballot is scanned into the system.<\/p>\n<p>The law calls for absolute ballot secrecy. The Department of State approved the voting system. If people could figure out how individuals voted through the CVR, the Department of State could not legally certify the election, Honey said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The department used taxpayer money and resources to appeal the decision of a judge and go to the Commonwealth Court,&rdquo; Honey told The Federalist, adding that anyone with a third<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/oppressed-rapper-lizzo-twerks-while-playing-james-madisons-200-year-old-flute\/\" title=\"\u201cOppressed\u201d Rapper Lizzo Twerks While Playing James Madison\u2019s 200-Year-Old Flute\">-grade reading level<\/a> would understand that the code would include the data she requested. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a slap down of the Department of State trying to limit transparency. &hellip; It should have never been in court. The only reason that they had to go to court is because the Department of State was arguing the absurd.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In the July 31 opinion in the Previte case, the Commonwealth Court considered Honey&rsquo;s case in its discussion. <\/p>\n<p>Judge Patricia McCullough issued a dissent in the Honey case and reflected back to it in her concurrence in Previte&rsquo;s case, saying she continues to believe that Section 308 of the Pennsylvania Election Code does not shield completed ballots and digital copies from public records requests once those ballots have been scanned by an electronic voting system.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Erie County uses optical scanners to scan, tabulate, and create an image of each cast vote and are part of the County&rsquo;s electronic voting system,&rdquo; McCullough wrote in her Previte concurrence. &ldquo;By definition, scanners are not ballot boxes or voting machines. They are separate and distinct parts of the voting process, the purpose of which is to tabulate vote data.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Digital copies that have been scanned through a scanner are not shielded from public disclosure because scanners are not part of the voting machine, she said, and added there is no violation of secrecy in voting as no correlation could be made between the votes on a digital copy and the identity of the voter.<\/p>\n<p>Berth said there is a <a href=\"https:\/\/wwwsecure.pacourts.us\/assets\/opinions\/Commonwealth\/out\/555CD23_7-12-24.pdf?cb=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">third case<\/a> in which the requester asked for, and did not receive, both the CVR Honey asked for, and records similar to what Previte requested. He is involved in all three cases and expects to go back to court to show all the records, including ballots cast on election day, are public.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As a state that is so fundamentally important to the outcome of presidential elections, we have an obligation to the country to do it correctly, do it transparently, and do it in a fashion that we&rsquo;re proud of,&rdquo; Berth said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m personally embarrassed. I think we all should be embarrassed at the confusion and uncertainty of, quite honestly, the circus that surrounds elections in the last few years in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We should do better. We have an obligation to do better.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Department of State did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lara-logan-challenges-media-to-ask-certain-questions-about-afghanistan\/\" title=\"Lara Logan Challenges Media To Ask Certain Questions About Afghanistan\">award-winning investigative journalist<\/a> with decades of media experience.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pennsylvania election officials have been attempting to keep public election records confidential, despite a state law mandating transparency. A recent ruling from the Commonwealth Court addresses part of this issue but still permits the state to withhold certain records. This ruling originated from a &#8220;Right to Know&#8221; request made by Michelle Previte on August 1, 2022, directed at the Erie County Board of Elections. She sought electronic copies of documents related to the 2020 general election, including images of all mail-in and absentee ballots, as well as images of outer envelopes containing voters&#8217; signatures and dates.<\/p>\n<p>The county denied her request, referencing Section 308 of the state Election Code as justification for claiming these documents were not public records. This code was established in 1937 before modern electronic voting systems existed and states that &#8220;all official mail-in ballots, files, applications for ballots,&#8221; along with signature envelopes and various information lists are considered public records. However, it also specifies exceptions for &#8220;contents of ballot boxes and voting machines&#8221; and records concerning assisted voters.<\/p>\n<p>The county contended that Previte&#8217;s request fell under these exceptions since the requested images represented contents from voting machines and were therefore exempt from disclosure under the Right to Know law. Previte subsequently appealed this decision to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records which ruled that while in-person ballots are not publicly accessible, outer envelopes along with mail-in and absentee ballots should be available.<\/p>\n<p>Erie County continued its opposition by appealing this decision in November 2022 at the Court of Common Pleas where it prevailed; thus none of Previte&#8217;s requested records were deemed public. She then took her case to Commonwealth Court which issued a ruling on July 31\u2014two years after her initial request\u2014where she had already withdrawn her demand for envelope images due to their unavailability in electronic form during that election cycle.<\/p>\n<p>The Commonwealth Court overturned the previous court\u2019s ruling stating that completed absentee and mail-in ballot images are indeed public records accessible via a Pennsylvania Right to Know request. Consequently, while Previte can access mail-in ballot images now approved for release by this court decision; she is still unable to obtain those pertaining specifically to in-person votes.<\/p>\n<p>Attorney Thomas Berth representing Previte expressed disbelief over election officials&#8217; reluctance towards sharing such public documents amid growing concerns regarding electoral integrity: \u201cThese boards&#8230; have an opportunity for transparency&#8230; yet they choose secrecy over providing necessary information.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Counties have been following guidance from Pennsylvania&#8217;s Department of State which indicated through an October letter sent by Deputy Secretary Jonathan Marks that they aren&#8217;t obligated under Election Code provisions regarding disclosing voted ballots or their envelopes\u2014a stance he noted has faced some conflicting interpretations within prior Office decisions.<\/p>\n<p>Previte\u2019s situation is one among three similar cases involving denied Right-to-Know requests leading into legal proceedings; another being Heather Honey who sought Cast Voter Record (CVR) data from Lycoming County but was ultimately denied access based on concerns about voter privacy linked with potential identification through CVR data analysis post-election scanning processes.<\/p>\n<p>In light of these developments surrounding transparency issues within Pennsylvania elections\u2014especially given its critical role during presidential elections\u2014Berth emphasized an obligation towards conducting fair practices openly: \u201cWe should do better&#8230; I\u2019m personally embarrassed.\u201d The Department did not provide any comments when approached regarding these matters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":2322055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mail-in-application-.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[4733,37707,5836,37708,32570],"class_list":["post-2322054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-court","tag-mail-ballots","tag-pennsylvania","tag-public-records","tag-voting-rights"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mail-in-application-.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2322054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2322055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2322054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2322054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2322054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}