Recount Of 2022 Election Verifies Initial Results In Delaware County

DELAWARE COUNTY, PA — A 2022 general election recount in Delaware County had the same results as the initial vote tabulation, officials said.

A recount effort was undertaken on Jan. 12 based on an agreement reached between a group of residents and Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Judge Barry Dozor.

The residents petitioned the court, seeking recounts in multiple precincts to address their concerns that the vote tallies in Delaware County were inaccurate.

Petitioners in late November last year agreed to withdraw their petition only if the Board of Elections agreed to conduct a full recount of a single precinct of the petitioners' choosing.

The petitioners chose the 2-3 precinct in Haverford Township.

The recount took more than four hours to complete in the Bureau of Elections’ offices at the Union Power Plant building in Chester on Jan. 12.

Present were seven observers representing the petitioners, eight county workers, and a party leader.

The recount was first conducted using certified tabulation equipment and then, separately, was conducted by hand, allowing the observers to examine every Election Day ballot, absentee ballot, mail-in ballot, and provisional ballot from a distance of two feet, county officialss said.

In the end, the recount provided a 100 percent verification of the original vote totals for each candidate for the four races on the Haverford 2-3 ballot

Those races included U.S. Senate, Governo /Lieutenant Governor, the U.S. House (the 5th District), and State House (the 166th District).

"Everything was verified 100 percent," said Delaware County Director of Elections James Allen. "Every single vote, every single contest, every single over vote, every single under vote, every single write in."

County officials called the recount a "vindication for the Delaware County Bureau of Elections."

The county's election bureau, like many election offices across the country in the wake of the 2020 General Election, faced numerous lawsuits regarding election results.

County officials said Delaware County has prevailed in more than a dozen lawsuits that have been filed in the Delaware County court system since 2020, with cases either dismissed or ruled in the county’s favor.

"We have now been through six recounts with the current balloting system, two of which included hand recounts," Allen said. "In all of the recounts, in each and every case, the original results have been confirmed—even a mayoral contest that was decided by three votes."

In addition, risk-limiting audits of randomly selected precincts—using manual hand counts of mail-in and/or precinct ballots—are performed after each election in Pennsylvania.

These audits have successfully verified the results of each election in Delaware County since the audit process was first implemented in 2020.

"These recounts really underscore not only the professional work being done by our Bureau of Elections under Jim Allen, but also the great work being done by our poll workers," said Councilwoman Christine Reuther. "These recounts and risk-limiting audits really illustrate the accuracy of our processes and demonstrate that that our balloting system is accurate and secure."