The Pennsylvania Department of State, represented by Hangley Aronchick shareholder Robert Wiygul and associate Eitan Kagedan, prevailed in a long-running case involving third-party access to county voting machines.
In a 6-1 precedential ruling, reported by the Associated Press and Law360, an en banc panel of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court addressed key legal questions regarding the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s authority to protect the security of electronic voting machines used to conduct Pennsylvania elections.
The court’s ruling stemmed from the aftermath of the 2020 election, when two Fulton County, Pennsylvania commissioners allowed an unauthorized information-technology firm to access voting machines used in the county. When the Secretary of the Commonwealth learned of the unauthorized inspection, she prohibited future use of the compromised machines and issued a directive making clear that counties may not allow unauthorized third-party access to state-certified voting equipment. Fulton County and the two commissioners then filed suit in the Commonwealth Court, seeking to overturn the Secretary’s order and directive.
The Commonwealth Court’s ruling on December 31, 2024, granted the Secretary’s application for summary relief and entered judgment in favor of the Secretary on all counts of the County’s Complaint. The Court’s opinion affirmed the Secretary’s authority to issue directives protecting voting equipment security and held that Pennsylvania’s Election Code empowers the Department of State to prohibit counties from using voting machines that have been compromised by unauthorized third-party access.
“[I]t is entirely possible — indeed necessary — for county boards of elections to fulfill their powers and duties while heeding the Secretary’s report and directives,” President Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer wrote in a 53-page majority opinion.
