Went down a rabbit hole about Delaware County, Pennsylvania this morning. Several Republican poll watchers there were quick to act the day after the election obtaining a court order (for all of the good it did) to allow them access to where the ballots were being counted. They kept going back to court to try to get the judge to act further since his order was being ignored. Again to no avail.
Anyway I was reading the pleadings and came across a few allegations that raised my eyebrows. From a pleading filed in the Court of Common Pleas on December 22, 2020: Full pleading
HEREBackground
Quote:
1 On November 4, 2020, Delaware County Republican Executive Committee ("DCREC") filed an Emergency Petition seeking an Order granting access to canvassing of official absentee and mail in ballots, to grant access to and permit DCREC's watchers and attorneys to be present in all areas of the offices of the Board ofElections ( BOB ) where pre canvassing sorting, opening counting and recording of absentee and mail in ballots is occurring and taking place for the returns of the November 3, 2020 General Election
2 The Honorable Judge .101m Capuzzi granted this Petition
Other Republican election watchers and a candidate for state office sought to intervene claiming although not the original plaintiffs they were similarly situated and intended beneficiaries of the Judge's standing order. Keep in mind that the election cases from PA were still pending before SCOTUS at that time.
Quote:
21 Rather than heeding these mandates and duties, the BOB arbitrarily and capriciously denied the duly appointed observers meaningful access to observe and monitor the electoral process by not allowing them to visibly see and review all envelopes containing official absentee and mail in ballots either at the time or before they were opened and/or when such ballots were counted and recorded 22 The observers were repeatedly denied access to back rooms where the absentee and mail in ballots were canvassed and resolved The BOB kept the observers in a small cordoned off area too far awayto see, too far away from the areas where the inspection, opening, and counting of absentee and mail in ballots were taking place.
29 Judge Capuzzi s Order states that observers are permitted to be present wherever ballots are resolved at all hours when the ballots are resolved Yet the BOB, in violation of the first paragraph of Judge Capuzzi s Order only allowed observers to enter the back room where mail in and absentee ballots were being resolved for 5 minutes every two hours, and too far from the ballot resolution process to have a meaningful opportunity to investigate/view the resolution process 30 The canvassing and resolution process of the absentee and mail in ballots went on all through the night and the observers were granted very minimal access even after Judge Cappuzi's Order was issued
Quote:
34 Stenstrom reports that he saw Jim Savage the Delaware County voting machine warehouse supervisor plugging USB drives into vote tallying computers The bag containing those drives was not sealed or secured, and the voting machine cartridges were not present with the drives Mr Savage had no paper tapes or ballots at that time 35 Stenstrom reports I immediately objected and challenged the uploading of votes from the unsecured drives, reporting what he saw to Deputy Sheriff Mike Donahue Donahue retrieved Ms Hagan, who told Stenstrom that he could only observe the process but could not make any comments or ask any questions While Mr Savage was directly in front of them loading USB sticks, and the display monitors above the computers reflected that they were being updated
36 Stenstrom responded that he was observing a person plug USB sticks into the computer without any apparent chain of custody andwithout any oversight. No one stopped the upload and Mr Savage was permitted to continue this process and he was then allowed to walk out without any interference or examination by anyone 37 Stenstrom returned at 8 30 a m on November 5 2020 with Ms Hoopes The sheriff again barred entry in defiance of the court order.
And about that order from Judge Alito:
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44 A shocking number of mail in ballots have inexplicably appeared in counties sinoe the November 4 ballot reports For instance in Delaware County the county' 5 Wednesday November 4 report indicated that Delaware County reported it has received about 113 000 mail in ballots and counted approximately 93 000 voted baliots
45 On the next day November 5 the Secretary of the Commonwealth s 4 30 report reflected that Delaware County had received about 114 000 ballots Several hours later, the Delaware County solicitor reported to an observer that the County had received about 126 000 mail in ballots and counted about 122 000
46 As of Sunday November 8 2020 the Department of State 5 website reflects that the County has counted about 127 000 maii in ballots Petitioner has received no explanation for where the additional 14 000 voted ballots came from when they arrived or why they are included in the current count
47 In Detaware County, an observer 1n the county office where mail in ballots were counted was told by the Delaware County Solicitor that ballots received on November 4 2020 were not separated from ballots received on Election Day and the County refused to answer any additional questions
So the ballots were comingled with those that arrived after election day and no chain of custody for them either. Just wonderful! /sarc
To add insult to injury, the County is now suing the plainiffs for attorney's fees related to defending their claims.
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Pennsylvania Poll Watchers Sued By County For Questioning Election Results Leah Hoopes and Gregory Stenstrom are being sued for costs claimed to be $19,224.56 relating to their actions against the Delaware County (Pa.) Board of Elections for perceived irregularities stemming from the Nov. 3 election.
Leah and Strenstrom who were Delaware County Board of Elections certified poll watchers and observers at the counting center testified at the Nov. 25 hearing in Gettysburg before state senators that the chain of custody for ballots was shattered in Delaware County, and the USB drives containing records from voting machines disappeared.
Leah says when the Board of Elections ignored their concerns, they took the matter, on Dec. 22, to Delaware County Common Pleas Court.
Judge John Capuzzi did not allow them to present evidence or allow discovery to see ballots and envelopes, she says.
On Jan. 11, he dismissed the case with prejudice.
And now, the Democrat-controlled county, in which can only be considered an act of intimidation, is seeking attorney fees, despite the attorneys defending the board being county employees.
LINKFrom wiki:
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One key to Biden's success in the state was his improvement on Hillary Clinton's margins in the large Philadelphia-area suburban counties: he won Bucks by 3.60% more than Clinton did, Delaware by 4.38% more, Montgomery by 4.80% more, and Chesterwhich Mitt Romney had narrowly won just eight years priorby 6.60% more.
Biden "won" Pennsylvania by roughly 80,000 votes.