Pennsylvania's Lack of Judicial and Electoral Oversight Make It A Perfect Target for Election Fraud, Hacking
In 2019, Pennsylvania Democratic Judge Abe Kassis had just 164 votes out of 55,000 ballots across over 100 precincts. Since straight-ticket voting is permitted in Northampton County, a candidate receiving almost zero votes is a statistical impossibility, according to The NYT.
Since the judge's election results were clearly faulty, officials began recounting paper ballots which resulted in Abe Kassis narrowly winning the election with around 1,000 votes. Both the chairman of the Northampton County Democrats, Matthew Munsey, and the chairwomen of the Northampton County Republicans, Lee Snover, called these results into question. As it turns out, the electronic voting machines had "failed".
"If some of the numbers are wrong, how do we know that there aren't mistakes with anything else?" asked Mr. Munsey. The machines that broke in Northampton County are called the ExpressVoteXL, made by Election Systems & Software.
According to a report titled "Voting Technology Procurement Investigation" by the City Controller of the City of Philadelphia, lobbyists hired by Election Systems & Software spent more than $425,000 in lobbying expenses, including $27,856 related to Commissioner Al Schmidt specifically. While ES&S did not disclose lobbying efforts according to law, emails obtained during the investigation showed that they had been lobbying senior officials since 2013.
The Post-Gazzette reports as recently as December of 2019 that the lack of oversight related to choosing voting machines. As many as 80% of the voting machines in the USA are provided by the same three companies, and there is little to no oversight in the process. While this is not a Pennsylvania-specific problem, Pennsylvania is among the few states using older electronic voting equipment - equipment with a history of failure that doesn't keep paper records.
With a botched judge's election due to outdated voting machines, it's no surprise that Pennsylvania is ranked 47th and 48th in the US for "Judicial Accountability" and "Election Oversight" according to a 2015 report. This corruption, this incompetence, this malfeasance, combined with Pennsylvania's status as a battleground election state combines to make Pennsylvania "the perfect target" for election fraud.
Even if lawmakers were to thoughtfully source voting machines, the lack of judicial accountability renders this almost an irrelevant distinction. In our divided times, elections are becoming closer and closer and it's more important than ever to guarantee a fair, transparent process. A mechanical device, whether an abacus, hole punch, or supercomputer, bears little responsibility for ensuring a fair electoral system. That ultimately, practically, falls on the judiciary.
And it's impossible for a judiciary mired in chronic scandal to conduct a fair election, particularly when they and their friends are the ones that stand to benefit. Terry Mutchler, a lawyer, award-winning journalist , and the founding executive director of the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records once remarked:
“Many times I find that public officials in Pennsylvania want to do the right thing, it’s their lawyer who says, ‘no,'
A court of judicial discipline and oversight agencies in the judiciary are aimed at investigating complaints, but failed to address complaints about two judges in Luzerne County who were eventually convicted for taking kickbacks from the co-owner and builder of two private, for-profit juvenile facilities. In return, the judges contracted with the facilities and ensured the facilities had populations to oversee by imposing unduly harsh sentences on juveniles brought before their courts.
Only after the fact did the state Supreme Court investigate the matter followed by an investigation by the General Assembly.
“The judiciary has been in my view the most difficult government entity to deal with,” said John Baer, a longtime columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News. “They have an attitude of supremacy that is counter-productive to transparency.”
With a corrupt judiciary who believes they're above the law, what difference does it make what laws are written?
When it comes time to vote in the Pennsylvania primaries or elections, remember to keep an eye on the down-ballot votes - especially the judges. They're arguably a bigger problem than our lawmakers.
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