ERIE – A nonprofit alleging irregularities in three Western Pennsylvania counties during the 2024 election has lost its lawsuit that sought an investigation as to why, among other things, one of them ordered 160,000 more ballots than registered voters.
Erie federal judge Susan Baxter Paradise ruled June 12 that Election Truth Alliance lacked standing to challenge how Cambria, Erie and Allegheny counties handled their elections. ETA was joined by a group of registered voters, but they won’t be able to file an amended complaint alleging the counties manipulated the election “to the advantage of Republican candidates opposed by Plaintiffs.”
“No individual plaintiff identifies his or her specific ballot as among those suspected to have been miscounted,” Baxter wrote. “No individual alleges that the specific precinct in which he or she voted was identified as one in which tabulation errors occurred.”
None of them could show their mail-in ballot was handled improperly either, the judge ruled.
“The statistical analyses presented in the pleadings concern aggregate voting patterns at the country or precinct level,” she added. “Without additional factual allegations, they do not establish that any specific voter was harmed or that any particular ballot was affected.”
The plaintiffs were attempting to show discrepancies between mail-in ballot tallies as of 7 p.m. on Election Day and the final certified totals. And Cambria County’s decision to order 159,912 more ballots than the total of registered voters must have been deliberate, they suggested.
Up to 17,000 mail-in ballots requested by in-state Erie County voters were not delivered prior to Election Day, they said. Statistics put forth by their experts suggested a “manufactured votes” parameter in Allegheny County of 0.238.
Their lawsuit sought an order declaring the voting systems used by the three counties were incapable of accurately counting and reporting votes and that defendants failed to follow proper procedures. Baxter was asked to order the defendants to investigate and explain the alleged discrepancies and take corrective measures ahead of this year’s election.
But she followed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which in 2020 rejected standing for plaintiffs who claimed improperly counted ballots diluted the weight legally cast votes because the alleged harm was shared by all voters.
