{"id":196010,"date":"2026-05-18T22:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T22:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/196010\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T22:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T22:18:07","slug":"pennsylvania-supreme-court-ruling-on-cast-vote-records-creates-uncertainty-for-counties-spotlight-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/196010\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling on cast vote records creates uncertainty for counties | Spotlight Pa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on
\nvoting access and election administration across the U.S.
\nSign up for
\nVotebeat Pennsylvania\u2019s free newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a rare unanimous decision last month, the Pennsylvania
\nSupreme Court ruled that the public should have access to
\nsuper-granular election results data, making it easier for
\nresearchers to analyze electoral patterns and for those concerned
\nabout voter fraud to inspect the results.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s unclear how many counties will be able to release the
\ndata due to unanswered technological questions and concern about
\nkeeping ballots secret in some jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

The data, known as a cast vote record or CVR, is essentially a
\nlog of each ballot cast in an election and what candidates it voted
\nfor. It does not reveal the names of the voters who cast those
\nballots (election officials don\u2019t even keep that data), but it does
\ninclude the precinct where the vote was cast.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisclosure of CVRs allows the public to \u2018check the math\u2019 of
\n[Lycoming County] Voter Services to ensure the number of reported
\nvotes match the number of recorded votes,\u201d Justice Daniel McCaffery
\n
\nwrote for the majority<\/a>. \u201cSuch disclosure promotes fair, honest,
\nand transparent elections, which strikes to the heart of \u2018trust but
\nverify.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In October 2021, conservative activist Heather Honey, who is now
\nthe Trump administration\u2019s deputy assistant secretary of homeland
\nsecurity for election integrity, requested Lycoming County\u2019s cast
\nvote record for the 2020 election. The county initially denied her
\nrequest \u2014 a decision upheld by the state\u2019s Office of Open Records.
\nBut a local court overturned that ruling, only to be overturned
\nitself by the state\u2019s Commonwealth Court, a decision that was then
\noverturned by the state Supreme Court in late April.<\/p>\n

Court case hinged on technology, ballot secrecy<\/p>\n

The disagreement in the case stemmed from whether a cast vote
\nrecord counts as the \u201ccontents of ballot boxes and voting
\nmachines,\u201d which are exempt from disclosure under state law.<\/p>\n

While the Commonwealth Court ruled that cast vote records, and
\nthe ballot tabulation machines that create them, are the equivalent
\nof physical ballots in ballot boxes and voting machines, the
\nSupreme Court disagreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cCVRs are spreadsheets of raw data pulled from the cast ballots.
\nThey are not the physical ballots contained in the ballot box,\u201d
\nMcCaffery wrote. \u201cHere, Lycoming County\u2019s scanners constitute
\nvoting devices but not voting machines. Similarly, Lycoming
\nCounty\u2019s tabulators (which no party disputes are responsible for
\ngenerating the CVRs) are automatic tabulating equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The justices faulted the legislature for the confusion, noting
\nthe state\u2019s election code was written in 1937, long before
\nspreadsheets or electronic voting equipment were ever
\nenvisioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cCitizens should be entitled to expect their legislators to
\naddress and account for advances in voting technologies more
\nfrequently than on a centennial basis,\u201d Justice David Wecht
\n
\nwrote in a concurring opinion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The other issue the case dealt with is ballot secrecy.<\/p>\n

Under Pennsylvania law, voters are entitled to have their votes
\nkept secret. Lycoming County expressed concern that, if a cast vote
\nrecord is made public, it could be analyzed in conjunction with
\nother public documents to identify how specific people voted.<\/p>\n

To prevent this, Lycoming County\u2019s equipment randomizes the
\norder of the ballot data in the cast vote record, so that the order
\nof the ballots in the spreadsheet is not the same as the order in
\nwhich they were cast.<\/p>\n

The technique is not foolproof. Individual voters\u2019 choices could
\nstill be divulged if, say, everyone in a precinct votes the same
\nway in a given race. But the court pointed out that uncommon
\nscenarios like that already jeopardize ballot secrecy even in the
\nabsence of cast vote records. The court argued that voters\u2019 right
\nto a secret ballot needed to be balanced with the public\u2019s right to
\ntransparent data.<\/p>\n

How the cast vote record decision will affect Pennsylvania
\ncounties<\/p>\n

The decision means Lycoming County will now have to release its
\ncast vote record.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court has made its decision that the CVR is a public record
\nand anyone who requests it, we will provide it,\u201d Lycoming County
\nElections Director Forrest Lehman said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear, however, how many other counties will have to
\nrelease cast vote records as a result of the ruling. That\u2019s because
\nthe randomization process that protects secrecy in Lycoming County
\nis specific to tabulation machines manufactured by the company
\nClear Ballot, which is used by
\nonly seven other counties in the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe acknowledge Voter Service\u2019s concern that not all counties
\nmay follow the same randomization procedures that are established
\non this record,\u201d McCaffery wrote. \u201cWe recognize that, under certain
\ncircumstances, it is possible that a county\u2019s method of generating
\nCVRs may violate the secrecy mandate. But that is a question to be
\naddressed on a case-by-case basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Votebeat and Spotlight PA review of the voting equipment used
\nby Pennsylvania\u2019s other 59 counties found that most are capable of
\nrandomizing the data in cast vote records, but some may not be. The
\n
\nmost recent software certifications<\/a> for the equipment used
\nthroughout the state don\u2019t mention randomization, and the
\nDepartment of State did not answer a question about whether all of
\nthe state\u2019s vendors randomize their data.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also unclear whether the specific randomization processes
\nused by machines other than Clear Ballot\u2019s would pass the court\u2019s
\ntest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pennsylvania Department of State is reviewing the court\u2019s
\ndecision and is working with our county partners to provide
\nappropriate guidance,\u201d a spokesperson for the department said in a
\nstatement.<\/p>\n

Most Pennsylvania counties, including Philadelphia and
\nAllegheny, use tabulation machines manufactured by Election Systems
\n& Software. A spokesperson for ES&S told Votebeat and Spotlight
\nPA that the CVR data is randomized twice, eliminating any
\nconnection to the voter.<\/p>\n

At least two less commonly used companies are also capable of
\nrandomization. Margia Hansen, the Warren County election director,
\nsaid Liberty Vote, which serves Warren and 11 other counties, told
\nher that their equipment does randomize the data.<\/p>\n

And Jim Allen, the Delaware County election director, said his
\ncounty\u2019s Hart equipment \u2014 which is used by three other counties \u2014
\ngenerates randomized cast vote records as well. He plans to make
\nDelaware County\u2019s cast vote records available once he gets official
\nguidance from the Department of State.<\/p>\n

Allen applauded the Supreme Court\u2019s decision as a win for
\ntransparency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s an excellent ruling in terms of setting the record
\nstraight and in terms of transparency and giving voters one more
\nway of verifying election results,\u201d he said. \u201cAs long as we can
\nrandomize them sufficiently to make it impossible to associate a
\nballot with one individual, this is stuff we should get out
\nthere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen, as well as the court\u2019s opinion, noted that some places,
\nsuch as counties in Colorado and Wisconsin, have been releasing
\ncast vote records for years.<\/p>\n

Some election officials still have privacy concerns about cast
\nvote records<\/p>\n

However, some smaller counties might not even have cast vote
\nrecords to provide. Matthew Repasky, the Columbia County elections
\ndirector, said his county opted not to buy additional software that
\nwould generate cast vote records for its Unisyn equipment because
\nthey didn\u2019t feel it was a worthwhile expense.<\/p>\n

He also worried that there was no way to protect the secrecy of
\nvoters in especially small jurisdictions, such as Centralia, which
\nhas only four voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you randomize that?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Even in more populous precincts, an election with low turnout,
\nlike a primary, could make it easier to identify voters. As a
\nresult, election directors may not release the cast vote records
\nfor precincts with low turnout so as to not violate secrecy
\nrequirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to be able to give those out, and people are
\ngoing to be angry,” Repasky said.<\/p>\n

Sean Drasher, the Lebanon County elections director, also raised
\nthe possibility that a person could theoretically bribe or threaten
\nsomeone else to vote a certain way, and then use the cast vote
\nrecord to confirm they voted that way.<\/p>\n

The cast vote record might also contain information other than
\nvotes, he said, such as machine-testing records that could look
\nconfusing to viewers if they\u2019re presented without explanation \u2014 or
\neven images of ballots, which could raise new legal questions about
\nbeing \u201ccontents of ballot boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen these decisions come down, you have to be really careful
\nto look at every word in every paragraph to see what is the
\nfallout,\u201d Drasher said, adding that he will be consulting closely
\nwith the Department of State and his county attorney before
\nreleasing any cast vote records.<\/p>\n

Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with
\nSpotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@votebeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13437,13438,11546,10655,13439,7202,856,3703,28,30,29,50,13440,3702,13436,85,13441,13442,4500],"class_list":["post-196010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-bradford","tag-centre","tag-clinton","tag-columbia","tag-lycoming","tag-montour","tag-national","tag-northumberland","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-politics","tag-potter","tag-snyder","tag-spotlight_pa","tag-state","tag-sullivan","tag-tioga","tag-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}