HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Pennsylvania\u2019s high court ruled Tuesday that spreadsheets of raw data associated with every ballot are public records, providing access to the \u201ccast vote records\u201d that had been requested by an election researcher hired by the Trump Administration last year.<\/p>\n
The Democratic-majority Supreme Court said its unanimous decision was a way to \u201csatisfy the voting public that our elections are safe, secure and accurate\u201d while preserving the state constitution\u2019s requirement that votes remain secret.<\/p>\n
The Lycoming County elections director in Williamsport had denied Heather Honey\u2019s<\/a> request for digital copies from the 2020 presidential election<\/a>, 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\u2019s choices are made electronically or scanned.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n As Honey did not live and vote in Lycoming County, she was succeeded in the litigation by three Williamsport area residents \u2014 a local businessman, a retired state trooper and Republican state Rep. Joe Hamm. <\/p>\n Their lawyer, Thomas Breth, said the data will allow people to review what happened in the hotly contested 2020 election.<\/p>\n \u201cIn short, it\u2019s not solely about the past,\u201d Breth said. \u201cIt\u2019s about the future. This significantly improves election integrity moving forward in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n Lycoming elections chief Forrest Lehman said Tuesday he does not believe the records, which contain randomized data, will reveal any secret ballot information and that he is ready to provide the records upon request.<\/p>\n \u201cThe court made its decision, and anybody who wants it can have at it,\u201d Lehman said.<\/p>\n The Supreme Court ruled that the cast vote records \u201care spreadsheets of raw data pulled from the cast ballots. They are not the physical ballots contained in the ballot box.\u201d Therefore, they are public records, the justices concluded: \u201cThis interpretation does not destroy the secrecy of the vote any more than a tally of all votes from a specific election.\u201d<\/p>\n