Pennsylvania Delaware County Midterm Elections Challenge

Lawsuit brought by a failed Republican candidate for the Pennsylvania state House, Nicole Missino, and two poll watchers against the Delaware County Board of Elections and Delaware County Bureau of Elections. The plaintiffs note that they have filed other lawsuits against the county noting “gross irregularities in handling ballots.” According to the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that the defendants “cannot certify to the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that it has completed its [logic and accuracy] testing, nor has it identified the system configuration, which includes testing whether the scanners can read the ballots, and checking if the software works Properly” and assert that ballot scanners were “not tested in ‘election mode’” but rather in testing mode. The plaintiffs allege that the defendants “have significantly deviated from Federal and State law” by allegedly failing to “ensure that mail in and absentee ballots are properly and securely tested, verified, only mailed to ‘eligible / qualified voters’” and, as a result, ““60,0000+ mail in ballots were unlawfully sent out by the Defendants.” The plaintiffs allege that these “deviations” jeopardize “election integrity and the security of the citizenry’s right to vote.”

The plaintiffs argue that the “elected and hired officials owe its citizens the highest duty to ensure that their voting franchise is not compromised or rendered unnecessarily diluted by the introduction of improper and, frankly illegal, ballots. If permitted to conduct canvassing of absentee and mail-in ballots using untested machines and paper ballots, the potential for tampering with ballots and criminal manipulation of voting data will cast a cloud over November 8, 2022.” The plaintiffs request that all mail-in ballots from the Nov. 8, 2022 elections are segregated and that all envelopes are opened by hand and seek a jury trial “to assess accountability and a meaningful financial judgement, that a jury will decide, that will hopefully remind them Defendants that the citizenry is watching them, they will act, and they will be held accountable, as they should be.” On Nov. 7, the court denied the plaintiffs request. On Nov. 16, the plaintiffs filed another request for a temporary restraining order pending a hearing for a preliminary injunction. On Nov. 22, the plaintiffs’ request for relief was denied and the court held that the “plaintiffs failed to provide credible evidence to support” several of their arguments.

Last updated: January 13, 2023 12:08 pm EST