Pennsylvania Court Delivers an Election Integrity Win—5 Years Too Late

May 12, 2026
Beth Brelje
Election Integrity | Courts & Crime

Court orders Pennsylvania to publicly disclose Cast Vote Records from ‘most secure election in U.S. history’

After Pennsylvania taxpayers funded a lengthy legal battle in which the state fought to prevent taxpayers from seeing election integrity records, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in a unanimous April 28 opinion, has sided with taxpayers.

The case started with a 2021 Right to Know request by open-source investigator and election analyst Heather Honey. She asked Lycoming County for a digital copy of the Cast Vote Record (CVR) file for every precinct tabulator and central tabulator used in the 2020 General Election.

Notably, in August 2025, President Donald Trump appointed Honey to serve as the Department of Homeland Security's deputy assistant secretary for elections integrity. Her expertise prompted bitter attacks from leftists aiming to discredit her, but they can't argue with the facts in the election records she has made accessible to everyone in Pennsylvania, all because she refused to back down.

Because of the court's decision, going forward, anyone can request CVRs in Pennsylvania and use it for election integrity research.

Five-Year Battle

The county rejected Honey’s 2021 Right to Know request, arguing that the CVR contained the “contents of ballot boxes and voting machines,” which are not public records according to the state election code, written in 1937, long before electronic voting.

Honey argued that the CVR is public information. It's a spreadsheet of raw data. It does not resemble a ballot or contain identifiable voter information, nor is it housed inside a voting box or machine. Instead, the CVR is just what the name says: a record of every cast vote, generated as optical scanners read the results. It can be used to verify voting totals.

The Right to Know request escalated to court. Two Lycoming County voters joined the court case. The Pennsylvania Department of State (PADOS) has spent years in court trying to prevent the release of these records. And that is strange because, despite the counterintuitive results of the 2020 election, and the gut feelings of millions of voters begging for someone competent to double-check the results, the word was that the 2020 presidential election was the “most secure in U.S. history.”

Safe and secure. It was said again and again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

The 2020 results were so “secure” in Pennsylvania that the PADOS kept going back to court to prevent the release of the CVR records that could help prove its claim.

Trust, But Verify 

Justice Daniel D. McCaffery, a Democrat, opened his opinion with a quote from John Adams, writing, “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right . . . and a desire to know.”

Continuing in his own words, McCaffery wrote:

The foundation of a democratic society rests on the knowledge that the results of our elections are accurate and trustworthy, otherwise the legitimacy of our government is put at risk. Roughly two centuries after John Adams, Ronald Reagan advised us to ‘trust, but verify.’ Originally uttered in the context of 1980s’ arms control and foreign policy, that sage advice is apropos to our electoral process and the matter with which our Court is confronted here. This case is about how to satisfy the voting public that our elections are safe, secure, and accurate. And, at the same time, it is about how we preserve the guarantee of our State Constitution that a vote, once cast, will remain secret.

The 34-page opinion concludes that the CVR is a public document. The record’s disclosure allows the public to “check the math” of Voter Services, “facilitates greater trust in our elections, boosts confidence in electoral integrity and protects and promotes the legitimacy of our election outcomes,” McCaffery wrote. He added that the randomized vote record’s release would not violate voter secrecy laws “any more than a tally of votes.”

Restoration News asked PADOS if it will accept the decision or seek a reversal from the U.S. Supreme Court. The public servants did not respond.

Hollow Victory

It’s always a little weird when a government uses public tax funds to take the public to court. It smacks of the government protecting itself. The taxpayers end up paying legal fees for both sides. The decision proves the public was always entitled to the information.

The research based on the 2020 CVR records should have been completed before the 2021 inauguration. Independent researchers will only get their hands on those records now, nearly six years after the fact, far too late to affect the 2020 election.

But because of this decision, no one in Pennsylvania should have a problem obtaining CVR records to independently check the results of future elections.

MORE AMERICA FIRST NEWS:

 Election Integrity: Secure Elections? Feds, Watchdog Found Over 6 Million Illicit Votes on US Rolls

 Virginia: Meet the Soros-Funded Prosecutor Taking Soft-on-Crime to a New Level

 Exclusive: The Legal Machine Behind Oregon’s Open Borders Rebellion—And Why Your State Should Pay Attention

 Watch: The Post-Green Future Is Coming Fast, with Kevin Mooney | Restoration Spotlight

We need your help to save America—chip in today.

Restoration News, a project of Restoration of America, is your trusted investigative news source for the America First movement. As a rapidly growing conservative news site, we focus on delivering accurate and insightful exposés on political news, immigration news, leftist lies, and other pressing issues affecting everyday Americans. Our uncompromising commitment to a hard-hitting, fact-based, America First, and faithful perspective ensures that you receive news that aligns with your values. 

Every dollar gets us closer to winning the war on woke.

Beth Brelje is a Senior Political Investigator for Restoration News, focusing on state and federal elections, laws, legislation and the effects policies have on us all. She has nearly 40 years of media experience. 

Email Beth here.

Related Articles

Get Involved

Join Restoration of America today and receive the latest updates, news, and ways to get involved with our efforts!

By  providing your phone number and checking this box, you are consenting  to receive calls and text messages, including autodialed and automated  calls and texts, to that number from Restoration of America. Message and  data rates may apply. Reply "STOP" to opt-out. Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions apply.