Delco judge denies election fraud case
A Delaware County judge dismissed a case alleging fraud in the 2020 general election, according to court documents and county officials.
On July 8, Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Court Judge John J. Whelan dismissed the complaint with prejudice, after sustaining the objections in their entirety.
“In Pennsylvania it is well established that an actual case or controversy must exist at all stages of the judicial process or the matter will be dismissed as moot,” Whelan wrote in his order. “As the instant Complaint challenges the administration of an election that occurred in 2020 and the prevailing candidates in that election have been inaugurated the claims set forth in the Complaint are moot and must be dismissed.”
He added that exceptions to the mootness doctrine to not apply to this case.
On Jan. 1, 159th Legislative District candidate Ruth Moton, Bethel Township Republican Committeewoman Leah Hoopes and Republican election watcher Gregory Stenstrom filed a 104page complaint alleging common law fraud and negligent and fraudulent misrepresentation related to the Nov. 3, 2020, election.
Several attempts to reach Thomas J. Carroll, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, were unsuccessful.
Among the 38 defendants listed in the case were former Pa. Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, Delaware County Director of Elections James P. Allen, Voting Machine Warehouse Supervisor James Savage, Delaware County Executive Director Howard Lazarus, Delaware County Councilwoman Christine Reuther, the Delaware County Bureau of Elections, former Delaware County Board of Elections Chair Gerald Lawrence, current Delaware County Board of Elections Chairwoman Ashley Lunkenheimer and Delaware County Clerk Anne Coogan.
The complaint relied on videos posted to social media and a story by conservative website Newsmax as evidence of a conspiracy to “destroy, delete, secrete (sic), alter, hide and/or obscure election data, materials, equipment, and/or the product of same, and/ or the results reflected thereby in order to prevent the discovery of the fraudulent results of the November 3, 2020, election, and violation of various state and federal election laws.”
In May, Delaware County District
“In Pennsylvania it is well established that an actual case or controversy must exist at all stages of the judicial process or the matter will be dismissed as moot. As the instant Complaint challenges the administration of an election that occurred in 2020 and the prevailing candidates in that election have been inaugurated the claims set forth in the Complaint are moot and must be dismissed.”
— Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Court Judge John J. Whelan
Attorney Jack Stollsteimer issued a letter stating that a special criminal investigation into the 2020 elections was now closed, no charges would be filed and determined that the allegations of fraud were “complete fiction.”
During Wednesday’s County Council meeting, Delaware County Solicitor William F. Martin noted that the case is no longer active in Common Pleas court.
“Just in case anyone wonders whether this was a result of any partisan determination, I will point out that the judge on the matter was Judge John Whelan,” Martin said. “Judge Whelan was a member of (Delaware) County Council from 2006 to 2013, elected as a representative of the Republican Party. He was elected as a Republican District Attorney from 2014 to 2017 and elected as a member of Common Pleas Court as a Republican
candidate in 2017.”
Martin said the judge reviewed the materials after the case was assigned to him on June 1.
“(Whelan) took less than 30 days to conclude that it was moot and he dismissed the matter,” Martin said.
County Councilman Richard Womack responded to the solicitor’s news of the case’s dismissal.
“You try the case in court, the judges make the decisions,” he said. “That’s what we have to live with.”
“I’m proud to say that I sit here today, I listen, I look at the staff that works here at the county,” Womack said. “They do a hell of a job under the circumstances. What they have to work under.”
He said he did not think any county staff were intentionally engaged in voter fraud.
“I don’t believe that,” Womack said. “I have not witnessed that. Have some mistakes been made?
Sure … To just outright say that they intentionally are doing voter fraud. I don’t believe that.”
He said perhaps more training is needed as the newer paper-backed voting machines and more expansive mailed-in ballots are used.
“I want people to have the right to vote without any kind of intimidation, any kind of fraud,” Womack said. “I want them to have the opportunity. And they should have many ways to be able to vote. I really believe that.”
The councilman said he believed the voting system in place since 2020 has been helpful to seniors and people with disabilities who may find it difficult to get out of their homes and to the polls.
To those who continually attend county council meetings to express their concerns about voting, Womack said he’d be willing to have a deeper conversation with them in another setting.