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In a shocking ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States threw out an emergency motion from Republican election officials in Pennsylvania to pause sanctions imposed in a dispute over voting machines during the 2020 election. Republican County commissioners were sanctioned by the State Supreme Court after concluding third-party inspections of voting machines without state-level approval.
According to CNN, the case centers around the Fulton County, Pennsylvania (not Georgia) Commission ordering the examination of the county’s election equipment by third-party auditors after the 2020 election. The outlet wrote, “Multiple outside firms were ultimately given unauthorized access to voting systems in Fulton County after the 2020 election without authorization from the Board of Elections, according to court filings in the special master probe.”
Court records cited by CNN show that allegedly, none of the third-party organizations were officially under contract by the county or held state accreditation for the inspections. The then-Pennsylvania State Secretary, Veronica Degraffenreid put forward a directive after arguing in July 2021 that the inspection had compromised the equipment’s integrity and undermined chain of custody requirements as well as access limitations designed to prevent tampering. The directive bars county boards of elections from launching any further examinations or investigations by third parties on state-certified voting systems under penalty of revocation of funding.
Documentation obtained by the outlet showed that an emergency request to stay the sanctions was rejected by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
CNN reported that, “The commissioners and their lawyers then launched legal proceedings.
During the proceedings, the state secretary learned that Fulton County intended to allow another entity, Envoy Sage LLC, to inspect the equipment. The secretary sought and received a protective order from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court barring such an inspection. In January 2022, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court entered the protective order.
In April 2022, the commissioners determined by a 2-1 vote to appoint a new attorney to represent them on past election matters: Stefanie Lambert. The two commissioners who voted in favor of installing Lambert were Ulsh and Bush.”
After a protective order from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court forbade the county commissioners from allowing any further third-party inspections, the board allegedly allowed Speckin Forensics to mount an inspection of the equipment without the State’s approval, leading to the county launching a law suit against Dominion Voting Systems alleging the machines were unfit for their intended use.
According to Gateway Pundit, the lawsuit explained, “After determining that Dominion had not provided a product or a system as guaranteed and as warranted, and that fulfilled the requirements of a voting system that ensured integrity, safety, security, and accuracy in the conduction of elections and the tabulation of votes thereafter, Fulton County undertook actions to determine what remedy or remedies it might have to protect its own contractual rights and to ensure the integrity of elections so that the rights of Fulton County Citizens would not be infringed upon or otherwise compromised.”
Fulton County Pennsylvania … by Jim Hoft
The lawsuit cited several points in its timeline,
“On or after November 2020, Fulton County became aware of severe anomalies in the Dominion Voting Systems due to the inaccuracy and/or inability to reconcile voter data with votes actually cast and counted, i.e., tabulated, by the System in Fulton County…
On or after November 2020, Fulton County became aware of certain factors and aspects of the Dominion Voting Systems that did not meet the “conditions” for certification set forth in the January 2019 / February 2019 certification report…
In addition, Fulton County was informed of additional anomalies and problems in Dominion’s “voting” systems via an expert report written by J. Alex Halderman in July 2021. (EXHIBIT C, the Halderman Declaration, September 21, 2021)…
In his declaration, Halderman described numerous security vulnerabilities in Dominion’s ICX software, including flaws that would allow attackers to install malicious software on the ICX, either with temporary or physical access (such as that of voters in polling places) or remotely from election management systems.”
