Judge denies injunction on voting machines

Oct 29, 2024

Common Pleas Court Judge Jack Whelan has denied an application for an emergency injunction against Delaware County using Hart ballot scanners in the upcoming 2024 General Election because they include software that, despite the petitioners’ claims, was always supposed to be there.

“The complaints in this lawsuit were baseless, and we think this ruling reflects how the staff works to provide equipment and trained poll workers to ensure an accurate and fair election,” Delaware County Elections Director Jim Allen said in a release. “Our team has conducted numerous audits and recounts, all of which have verified the accuracy of the results.”

The pro se petition, filed Oct. 9 by Republican candidate for the 5th Congressional District Alfeia Goodwin and Media resident Robert Mancini, claimed that testing on a handful of machines that will be used in the election revealed the inclusion of software called Math.NET Numerics.

Neither petitioner responded to requests for comment Monday.

According to its own “readme” file, Math.NET Numerics is “the numerical foundation of the Math.NET initiative, aiming to provide methods and algorithms for numerical computations in science, engineering and everyday use. Covered topics include special functions, linear algebra, probability models, random numbers, statistics, interpolation, integration, regression, curve fitting, integral transforms (FFT) and more.”

The petitioners argued that this software is “used specifically for applying algorithms in numerical computation and for the manipulation of data,” and therefor had no practical purpose in the Hart Verity 2.7 electronic voting systems being used for the election.

They claimed the MathNET software was not approved by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which sets standards for testing and certification of voting machines and software nationwide, and that its inclusion therefore constituted de facto election interference by persons unknown.

The petitioners requested that use of the Hart machines be stayed until they could be further investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security, and a hand count of ballots be conducted instead.

In its response, the county said the petition was “procedurally deficient in nearly every respect, in addition to being factually false.”

Attorneys J. Manly Parks and Audrey M. Adams, representing the county, said the petitioners sought relief to which they were not entitled and which would, if granted, likely throw the entire election into disarray.

“Delaware County has not only performed the entire suite of logic and accuracy testing (‘L&A testing’) as required by the Pennsylvania Department of State, Delaware County has — in excess of Pennsylvania L&A testing obligations — performed hash testing on a random selection of its election equipment,” the response read. “That hash testing, as shown by the very information contained in the petitioners’ filing, proved that there was no unauthorized software on the elections equipment.”

This hash testing is an extra “above-and-beyond” step that is not required by the state, the response stated, but which Delaware County uses to certify that the software on its equipment is a “perfect match” with the software fingerprint provided by the Election Assistance Commission.

The only acceptable result of this extra testing is a 100% match, which the county noted was the result here. Delaware County is also the only jurisdiction in the state known to perform this additional level of testing, according to the response.

“Petitioners attempt to weaponize against the county the fact that the county has scored an A+ on an extra credit test,” the response said.

A separate answer to the petition included, by exhibit, a series of emails between Mancini and Allen in April, in which Allen repeatedly explained that the software was, in fact, supposed to be present. He also included a response from Hart itself certifying that the Voting System Test Laboratory confirmed MathNET was “a proper and correct subcomponent of the Hart audio engine, which is a part of the common software library that is included on all certified Hart devices.”

Quarantining equipment until it has been further investigated by the FBI and DHS would make it highly unlikely that the equipment would be ready for use by Election Day, the response noted, an “unthinkable” scenario that would throw the entire election into chaos.

Parks and Adams added that hand counts are forbidden as an initial tabulation method under the Pennsylvania Election Code and that trying to implement such a system at this stage would be “an unreasonable and highly risky concept” for everyone involved.

“In sum, the sweeping relief sought by petitioners will cause irreparable damage to the people of Delaware County, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the United States by making it impossible to conduct a reasonable election in one of the largest counties in Pennsylvania, which is widely described as the most important ‘swing state’ in the entire nation in the 2024 Presidential Election,” the respondents concluded.

Judge Whelan heard five hours of testimony on the matter Friday before denying the petition.

He said that while he appreciated the plaintiffs’ passion to ensure a free and fair election is conducted, he had heard “no evidence whatsoever” that the machines in question had been corrupted in any way.

Whelan noted that the respondents were correct that the petition was flawed in several respects, but he said he wanted to give the petitioners their day in court nonetheless and allowed the hearing to go forward.

The evidence showed that the machines in question had been validated by a number of different entities, Whelan concluded, and that the county had gone beyond what it was required to do to ensure the results were accurate, which he said spoke volumes to the court.

“These machines are legitimate, they’re valid, and (for) the residents of Delaware County, there’s no reason for them to believe that they should not trust the voting process on Nov. 5,” Whelan said.