Pennsylvanians Allowed to See Voter Information, Court Rules

Pennsylvanians are allowed to review spreadsheets of raw voting data to ensure elections are accurate, the state’s high court ruled.

Cast vote records aren’t exempt from public disclosure under the election code because they aren’t the contents of ballot boxes or voting machines, Justice Daniel D. McCaffery said in a Tuesday opinion.

The ruling is one of many recent decisions from courts across the country concerning access to voter data.

Disclosing this information facilitates greater trust in elections, boosts confidence in electoral integrity, and promotes the legitimacy of election outcomes, without violating voter secrecy law, the court said. It also allows the public to ensure the number of reported votes match the number of recorded votes, the opinion said.

Lycoming County in Pennsylvania uses the election management system ClearVote, which scans ballots and transmits results to a tabulator for counting.

Plaintiff Heather Honey requested information about the system, but the county said election code rules required denying the request. A trial court said Honey lacked standing to challenge that decision, but other parties pursued the matter. The commonwealth court found, in a split decision, that the county couldn’t share the cast voting records.

McCaffery concluded, however, that the election code’s secrecy protections don’t extend to cast voting records.

The code allows inspection of certain records except the “contents of ballot boxes,” which constitutes physical ballots actually in the ballot box, the court said. Cast voting records don’t fit this decision because they are only spreadsheets of raw data from cast ballots, it said.

This conclusion “does not destroy the secrecy of the vote” because the records don’t reveal the contents of any single ballot, the court said.

McCaffery also said cast voting records don’t constitute voting machines, which the election code shields from inspection. A voting machine is a machine a voter uses to cast a vote, the opinion said.

Chief Justice Debra Todd and Justices Christine Donohue, David N. Wecht, Sallie Updyke Mundy, and P. Kevin Brobson joined in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court opinion. Justice Wecht issued a concurring opinion, stating “it is uncontestable” that cast voting records aren’t the contents of ballot boxes and voting machines.

The case is Honey v. Lycoming Cnty. Offices of Voter Servs., Pa., No. 79 MAP 2024, 4/28/26.