Letters to the Editor, 5/24/2025

Delaware County’s Testing Procedures: A Dance in the Dark 

In my last letter, I outlined a three-step certification dance required to prepare  Delco’s election machines for use: the Trusted Build, Hash Testing, and Logic & Accuracy (L&A) Testing. This letter speaks to this waltz’s third step, L&A testing,  where the dancers spin into dim lighting, their indistinct movements blurring  reality with choreographed performance. Here, even the AI court transcriber  might be questioning the process; the official Mancini case transcript repeatedly  mis-quotes “Logic and Accuracy Testing” as “Logic Inaccuracy Testing”—a  Freudian bit-slip perhaps?  

When the curtains were drawn back last fall for DelCo’s L&A Testing, limited  observers were standing in a testing room with essential elements turned out of  view, not an aesthetic issue, but a legal concern. Pennsylvania law is clear: 25  P.S. § 2642(f) permits counties to create reasonable rules for observation, but  not ones that prevent the public from fairly observing. The limitations presented  weren’t reasonable; they were blindfolds. 

And the historical context makes it worse: In 2022, Delco was caught by an observer testing election machines in “test mode” rather than the required  “election mode.” This critical distinction matters. A machine in test mode can  process data differently than it does in election mode. Testing in the wrong  mode invalidates the entire process. Rather than address this failure by  improving clarity, the County’s solution was reduced visibility; after 2023,  screens no longer faced public observers and machine mode was no longer verifiable. That’s not observation—it’s theater. 

In a letter sent to Delaware County officials last October, members of the Delco  Election Deep Divers highlighted not just this visibility problem, but others: 

• The County “cited ‘reasonable rules’,” arbitrarily restricting groups to just  one observer, despite 25 P.S. § 2650 allowing up to three. 

• “Some groups were permitted to make last-minute changes to their  observer lists… while others were denied,” with no legal basis. 

• There was a “prohibition against observers representing more than one  group” which also lacked “any basis in Pennsylvania Election Law.” 

• Restrictions vary between types of testing (L&A vs. Hash Testing), with no  explanation of why the most crucial test is the least observable.

• “The current prohibitions on the use of phones, binoculars, and other  personal belongings” limit, “the public’s ability to fully witness and  document the process.”  

• Public notice of L&A tests—required by law to be accessible—relied on  “outdated methods like newspaper notices,” rather than posting online,  depriving most residents of awareness or access. 

The October letter did not just point to failures. It provided fixes: “Allow each  party… to appoint up to three observers… revoke the restriction preventing  individuals from representing multiple organizations… reassess and standardize  the rules regarding the use of phones and binoculars.” It urged online notices to  “ensure… proper observer access.” These simple steps offered to brighten the  stage, but Delco refused to turn on any lights. And if the lights remain dim, the  public may suspect someone is hiding something. 

Respectfully, 

Laura Lewis                         

Delaware County Election Deep Divers

Red light, green light

Dear Editor:

Pennsylvania is an unusual state in the way legislation is passed. The politicians can introduce a bill, it can be heard in a day or two, and it can pass out of committee immediately to be put up for a vote. It’s not a very transparent process.

It’s a real inside club where the lobbyists, especially the lobbyists for the ticket camera companies, get in there, they can put the fix in, and there’s no chance for the people to have any say in this. The process makes it impossible for the public to engage on proposed bills. Pennsylvania is one of the worst states with regards as to how the legislature is run, how transparent the process is, and what chance there is for the public to engage on camera traffic enforcement issues.

That’s why we have red light cameras, speed cameras, work zone cameras, and school bus stop-arm cameras; collectively an enforcement-for-profit racket. The legislature needs to reform their process for passing legislation. A good start would be to ban all camera traffic enforcement in Pennsylvania.

Tom McCarey