17-07-2025
Federal appeals court rules against Fulton County in suit over voting systems, 2020 anomalies
McCONNELLSBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — A legal battle between a Pennsylvania county and the manufacturer of voting machines stemming from the 2020 election may be over.
Fulton County's federal lawsuit against Dominion Voting Systems was dismissed, again. This time by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
The lawsuit was filed by the Fulton County Board of Elections, current county commissioner Randy Bunch and former county commissioner Stuart Ulsh.
In a ruling filed June 23, Chief Judge Michael A. Chagares and circuit judges Tamika Montgomery-Reeves and Theodore McKee upheld a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
The lower court's ruling determined that the Board of Elections, Bunch, and Ulsh are not parties to an agreement between the county and Dominion Voting Systems and therefore lack standing to sue. The district court ruled that the county itself, which is a party to the agreement, is not a plaintiff in the suit.
The court also ruled that, even if they did have standing, 'they had failed to allege that the decertification of the voting system was attributable to Dominion rather than to the County itself.'
In a separate court action, Fulton County objected to the Department of State's authority to decertify voting machines without reimbursing the affected county. The Commonwealth Court ruled 6-1 against the county.
At issue is the agreement between Fulton County and Dominion to provide voting systems and a dispute stemming from an allegation by the former that there were 'severe anomalies' in the voter data generated by the latter's system following the Nov. 2020 election.
Fulton County allowed two third-party entities to inspect the system and the Secretary of the Commonwealth decertified the systems, considering them compromised.
In 2024, the county was ordered to pay a combined $1,035,925.09 in legal fees and litigation costs to the Secretary of the Commonwealth and to Dominion Voting Systems. That equates to about 15% of the county's budget.
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The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania also imposed sanctions on Fulton County for commissioning a second third-party inspection of the voting machines, the appeals court ruling noted.
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