Burns: Office of Open Records orders Cambria County to conduct new search for voting system failure records
State agency debunks county’s reason for denying lawmaker’s info request
Rep. Frank Burns June 6, 2025 | 12:16 PM
EBENSBURG, June 6 – Following State Rep. Frank Burns’ successful appeal under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law, Cambria County is now legally required to produce records explaining a critical failure during the Nov. 5, 2024 election — a failure so severe that it left countless ballots unscanned, unaccounted for and unexplained. The order was issued by the state Office of Open Records.
Burns, D-Cambria, said the OOR has granted his appeal of two county denials in Burns’ Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law request concerning the massive voting failure.
In so doing, the OOR ruled that “the county has not demonstrated that the records relate to a noncriminal investigation” – debunking the reason the county put forth to deny Burns’ request for those records.
The OOR is requiring the county to provide Burns with all records responsive to these two items, or a detailed attestation describing its search, within 30 days:
- Any and all documents, correspondence (including but not limited to emails) or written explanation that determines, specifies or illuminates “the nature of the problem” and why “the mistake was not able to be discovered until voting commenced,” as attributed to (solicitor Ronald) Repak’s statement in the Altoona Mirror.
- A tally of how many ballots cast in Cambria County were unable to be scanned on Election Day of Nov. 5, 2024, and a separate tally of how many ballots were able to be scanned successfully on Election Day of Nov. 5, 2024.
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“Cambria County must now comply with the OOR’s Final Determination — it must do a good faith search and either provide the records or admit under oath that they don’t exist. That’s a win for transparency and truthfulness.” – State Rep. Frank Burns.
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Burns said this latest development shows that his stick-to-itiveness is paying off, as step-by-step bricks in the procedural wall built around the voting issue by the county are being removed. That includes the prior discovery and release of a voting machine testing document that was responsive to his RTK request.
“To date, no meaningful explanation has been provided as to why voting machines that passed testing prior to Election Day failed miserably when it counted,” Burns said. “A public that deserves answers, demands accountability and desires integrity remains in the dark.
“If Cambria County officials can’t tell us what happened to the ballots — if there is no record of how many were scanned or hand counted — that’s a problem. My request is simple: how many ballots were able to be scanned and how many weren’t?
“Cambria County must now comply with the OOR’s Final Determination — it must do a good faith search and either provide the records or admit under oath that they don’t exist. That’s a win for transparency and truthfulness.”