November 6, 2023

A while back I wrote these words: “The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania certified its 2020 election despite the undisputed fact that it had recorded 202,000 more ballots cast than voters.”

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Recently, that statement was challenged by someone who made this comment: “Says who?”

The comment is snarky but fair.  My declaration warrants an in-depth explanation, so here it is.

The Analysis

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Pennsylvania has a unique voter registration system, called SURE.  Like every other voter registration system, the SURE system comprises all legally registered voters in the state.  However, it also includes a subcategory of registered voters: the ones who actually voted in the last election (in this case, the 2020 election).

Because of that special subcategory (registered voters who actually voted), it is possible to compare the total ballots cast in the 2020 election to the total voters who participated in that election.  The numbers must match because there has to be a one-to-one relationship between voters and ballots.  If parity does not exist, something is wrong.

Verity Vote (V.V.) is a Pennsylvania data analysis firm headed by Heather Honey.  For the 2020 election, V.V. prepared a careful and detailed comparison of voters who participated in the election vs. ballots cast.  Here are the V.V. findings:

  • When PA certified its election on November 24, 2020, there were about 202,000 more ballots cast than identifiable voters.  In other words, there was a large voter deficit.
  • In late January 2021, when the 67 PA counties finally posted all voter information into the SURE registration system, there was still a voter deficit — about 121,000.

Let’s examine Verity Vote’s analysis in greater detail. Starting in October 2020, during the early voting period, V.V. purchased weekly updates to the SURE registration system.  Those were purchased from the PA Department of State.  VV kept buying the updates every week until February 2021, and each weekly update revealed the cumulative number of registered voters at that point in time.

When PA certified its election (November 24, 2020), Verity Vote could see that there were 202,000 fewer voters that ballots.  How?  It had the exact number of voters based on its analysis of the SURE weekly updates.  V.V. also knew the total number of ballots that were cast, based on the reported votes, adjusted by overvotes, undervotes, and write-in votes.  (Take my word for it: that is the correct procedure.)

After being challenged by Republican legislators in late December 2020, the PA Department of State issued a terse communication that acknowledged a discrepancy but dismissed its importance.  The Department implied that it was a mere timing matter that would be resolved when all 67 counties finally posted voter information into the SURE system.  However, this was not the case.