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December 2, 2011 4PM -- Attorney
Charles A. Pascal, Jr., has filed a Motion For Reconsideration
on behalf of members of the specially appointed Venango County
Election Board.
The filing was made this afternoon
in response to President Judge Oliver J. Lobaugh's order dismissing
the Board yesterday. Citing ongoing investigations into serious
voting machine problems reported during the May 17 primary election,
the specially appointed Election Board requested that they be
allowed to continue their work until 11:59 PM on December 31,
2011.
"The members of the specially
appointed Board of Elections believes that it is necessary to
continue their work in order to assure the voters of the County
of Venango of the integrity of the election process in the county,"
the Motion states, "and to assure that any possible violations
of policy, protocol, best practices, or the law, or any directive
of the Pennsylvania Secretary of State, are not repeated in future
elections."
Appointed by Judge Lobaugh
in early Spring to run elections during the year when County
Commissioners were candidates for reelection, the Election Board
heard sworn testimony from Venango County voters who observed
votes flipping from one candidate to another on the touchscreen
voting machines, and candidates missing from the ballot. Additionally,
several races were subject to high rates of undervotes.
In response to the reported
problems, the specially appointed Election Board ordered a forensic
examination of Venango County's ES&S iVotronic electronic
voting system, the first of its kind ever conducted in any of
the fifty Pennsylvania counties still using paperless, unverifiable
Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines. The forensic
audit was being done for free by two concerned Carnegie-Mellon
Computer Science professors.
The experts' examination and
board's investigations were nearing completion when Judge Lobaugh
issued an order of court yesterday, dismissing the specially
appointed Election Board.
The documents, which are public
filings, are available below.
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MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION
EXHIBIT A
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