Honey v. Lycoming Cnty. Offs. of Voter Servs., 2024 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 71, 2024 WL 899749 (March 4, 2024) (Ceisler, J.).
The majority opinion stated that under the Election Code, Section 308, records are discoverable “except the contents of ballot box and voting machines and records of assisted voters”. The question is whether that exception applies. The Code is not a model of clarity with regard to what constitutes a “voting machine”. That is not defined in the statute. However, the court, in continuing to strictly enforce the right-to-know law, and in this Lycoming County case, found that EVS components that are used directly in the processing and recording of votes must be considered voting machines under the Election Code. CVR is digitally equivalent to physical ballots. It would be absurd if physical ballots were protected from public disclosure but digital analogues of those same ballots were freely available. Consequently, the Common Pleas Court erred by ruling that the word “contents” was ambiguous in this instance, that the CVR was not contents, in digital form, of ballot boxes and voting machines, and that CVR was thus not exempt from public disclosure. The Common Pleas Court was therefore reversed.
