Certification Executed Without Foundational Return Sheet Documentation – 244 of 428 Precincts Missing or Incomplete (PA)

Delaware County, Pennsylvania certified its 2020 general election results despite the absence of complete foundational documentation for the majority of its precincts. In response to a Right-to-Know Law request, Delaware County’s own records revealed that 244 of its 428 precincts – 57% – were missing valid return sheets at the time of certification: 15 return sheets were entirely absent from county records, 16 were blank, and 213 were incomplete. A return sheet is the primary precinct-level record that reconciles the number of ballots cast with the number of voters who signed in – it is the document that makes a precinct’s results auditable. Certification in the absence of complete return sheets means that the Delaware County Board of Elections certified results for which it possessed no complete foundational documentary basis – it certified totals that could not be verified from the underlying records in the county’s own possession. This is not a post-hoc records gap; it is a certification gap that existed at the time the certification was signed. The return sheet records were subsequently reportedly destroyed, compounding the legal violation.