Pennsylvania election officials have been fighting to keep public election records under wraps, despite state law that requires transparency. A recent Commonwealth Court decision partially solves the dispute, but still allows the state to conceal some records.
The decision stems from an Aug. 1, 2022, “Right to Know” request Michelle Previte made to the Erie County Board of Elections.
She asked the county to provide electronic copies of records from the 2020 general election, including the images of all mail-in and absentee ballots, images of all outer envelopes which contain each voter’s signature and the date, and images of all ballots cast at polling places.
The county said no, citing Section 308 of the state Election Code as proof the documents were not public records. The code was written in 1937, long before computers or electronic voting systems.
The code specifies “all official mail-in ballots, files, applications for ballots,” envelopes with signatures, and “all information and lists” are public records. Section 308 lists other records open to public inspection, except for “contents of ballot boxes and voting machines and records of assisted voters.”
The county argued Previte’s request fell under these exceptions because the images were the contents of voting machines and therefore “shielded” from the Right to Know law.
She appealed the decision to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records. The office determined that the in-person ballots are not open to the public, but the outer envelopes and the mail-in and absentee ballots are open to the public.
Erie
