In a landmark decision, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has ruled that digital images of completed absentee and mail-in ballots are to be considered public records.
This pivotal ruling stems from a case involving appellant Michelle Previte, who sought to obtain electronic copies of these ballots from the 2020 General Election via Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law (RTKL).
The case began when Previte submitted RTKL requests to the Erie County Board of Elections, seeking access to digital images of all mail-in and absentee ballots, as well as images of the outer envelopes and polling place ballots from the November 2020 election.
The Board denied her request, arguing that these documents were not public records under Section 308 of the Pennsylvania Election Code. Previte then appealed to the Office of Open Records (OOR), which sided with her for the mail-in and absentee ballots but upheld the denial for polling place ballots.