A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit over transparency with election voting machines in Pennsylvania.
The federal Election Assistance Commission will now require malfunctions of voting machines to be reported to the agency. Concerns arose when three jurisdictions in Pennsylvania purchased a new voting system that had undercounted returns in a Northampton County election. Officials say that was a result of human errors.
According to the lawsuit filed in 2019 by Rich Garella leader of “Protect our Vote Philly,“ The National Election Defense Coalition, Citizens for Better Elections, and 12 other people, there was no knowledge of state-level reporting of errors, only federal.
Garella’s group ran into a complicated process to get records of the problems which led to the 2019 lawsuit.
Both Garella and Secretary of State Al Schmidt are praising the settlement for increased transparency in Pennsylvania elections. The settlement will take effect this November and last through 2028.
The department of State said it will give guidance to counties on what must be reported.
