Physical Destruction of Machine Tapes and V-Drives to Prevent Recount Discrepancy Discovery (PA)

[Disputed Fact – Named-witness testimony not yet adjudicated; Ziegelhoffer statement is powerful but requires corroboration and authentication] Named-witness testimony from a person present at a Delaware County election facility establishes that county officials – identified as Attorney Thomas Gallagher and James Ziegelhoffer – physically tore election data into pieces, with Ziegelhoffer stating the data “had no audit value because it wouldn’t match the election results.” This statement, if credited by a factfinder, is a direct acknowledgment that the physical record did not reconcile with the certified results – meaning any recount conducted from those records would have revealed a discrepancy with the official count. The destruction of these records – which included machine tapes and V-drives – was accomplished after the election was certified, after litigation was initiated, and after Right to Know Law requests were filed. Delaware County’s own RTKL response had already established that 244 of 428 precincts were missing required Return Sheet documentation. The destruction of the V-drives and machine tapes eliminated the last mechanism by which those missing records might have been reconstructed. Any recount conducted in Delaware County after this destruction would have been conducted in the absence of the foundational documentation required by 25 P.S. §3154.