Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling on cast vote records creates uncertainty for counties
In a rare unanimous decision last month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the public should have access to super-granular election results data, making it easier for researchers to analyze electoral patterns and for those concerned about voter fraud to inspect the results.
But it’s unclear how many counties will be able to release the data due to unanswered technological questions and concern about keeping ballots secret in some jurisdictions.
The data, known as a cast vote record or CVR, is essentially a log of each ballot cast in an election and what candidates it voted for. It does not reveal the names of the voters who cast those ballots (election officials don’t even keep that data), but it does include the precinct where the vote was cast.
“Disclosure of CVRs allows the public to ‘check the math’ of [Lycoming County] Voter Services to ensure the number of reported votes match the number of recorded votes,” Justice Daniel McCaffery wrote for the majority. “Such disclosure promotes fair, honest, and transparent elections, which strikes to the heart of ‘trust but verify.’”
https://www.votebeat.org/pennsylvania/2026/05/11/supreme-court-cast-vote-record-lycoming-county-decision/