Court deals PA county a blow in dispute over 3rd party access to voting machines

In a 6-1 ruling Tuesday, a Pennsylvania court said the secretary of state can mandate the decertification of any voting machines that were examined by third parties.

The court said the Department of State cannot only mandate that the machines be blocked from "unauthorized third-party access," but it can also force counties to pay for new machines if they allow a third party to examine them The Associated Press reported.

The case stems from the 2020 election, in which Republican leaders maintained that the election was somehow stolen through electronic voting machines. In 2021, Fulton County, Pennsylvania, commissioners allowed Wake Technology Services Inc. to obtain data from the machines.

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The state elections leaders issued a directive that any machines breached by a third party would be considered to have compromised security. This meant that Fulton County machines were decertified, and they had to buy new ones.

During the case, Fulton County argued that it had the authority to control its machines, but Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer called this "an absurd and unreasonable result."

Writing for the majority, Jubelirer cited the Pennsylvania election code, making it clear the law "empower[s] the Secretary to issue directives instructing county boards of elections not to allow an unauthorized third party access to their voting equipment under risk of decertification of the voting equipment."

Republican Judge Patricia A. McCullough was the lone dissenting vote.

A lower court ruled in September that the Trump allies who ordered the investigation into the machines were individually on the hook for the $1 million in legal expenses and fees incurred by the Pennsylvania Secretary of State's office.