‘Crazy quilt of fever dreams’: Election lawsuits cost Philadelphia’s suburban counties more than $2.6 million

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President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the outcome of the 2020 election inspired conservatives across the country to adopt his legal strategy.

Philadelphia’s collar counties are still paying the price.

Bucks, Chester and Delaware counties have spent more than $2.6 million combined on outside attorneys since 2020, fending off a litany of election-related litigation. Delaware County alone has dished out $2.1 million.

“These lawsuits involve this crazy quilt of fever dreams,” Delaware County Director of Elections Jim Allen said. “They’re not even conspiracies. They’re not even built on anything real. If anything, they’re conspiracy fantasies.”

With Election Day only two weeks away, another wave of litigation is flooding paperwork into suburban court offices.

Allen said none have resulted in an adverse decision to the county Board of Elections — but the price for a perfect record is steep.

“It just takes time to sign off on responses and get the lawyers to prepare all this stuff and then you run up legal bills,” he said. “It’s a waste of the taxpayers’ money.”

GOP congressional candidate Alfeia Goodwin, the latest petitioner to take Delaware County to court, doesn’t see it that way. She said voters are being denied their constitutional rights and considered it a “shame” for the county to bring up legal fees.

“How much does injustice cost?” Goodwin asked.

Bucks, Chester lower legal costs with in-house counsel and cost-sharing

Nearly 70% of the $133,000 Bucks County spent on election-related lawsuits was paid out in 2020 and 2021.

A Bucks spokesperson said the number has “come down” thanks to in-house legal representation and “identifying cost-sharing representation opportunities with other counties when possible.”

In total, Bucks has faced more than 100 election-related lawsuits since 2020. The majority of them were related to local election matters at the Bucks Court of Common Pleas, which required some action from the county’s Board of Elections. About nine were federal court cases, some of which were appealed and litigated in the Third Circuit or the Supreme Court, and two were filed in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.

“The County continues to handle as much litigation as it can in-house,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “In the event additional support is needed, Bucks has been in communication with potential outside counsel and other counties. When possible, Bucks has retained joint counsel with other counties to save on costs.”

Chester County, which paid three outside law firms $400,000 since 2020, said without the cost-sharing measures and some pro bono work, the county could have dished out more.

“Over the past few years, the Philadelphia and suburban counties have come together and where appropriate, worked to share legal responses and costs,” County Solicitor Colleen Frens said.

Delaware County dismisses latest election litigation as ‘frivolous’

A pair of Delco residents filed a petition with the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas on Oct. 11, alleging the county is utilizing election machines with unauthorized software.

Congressional candidate Goodwin and Media Borough resident Robert Mancini are asking a judge to compel the county to impound its voting machines and investigate. That would mean the county would have to count ballots by hand.

“People have counted votes for 250 years,” Mancini said. “That’s the county’s problem. They’re supposed to have a business continuity plan for all critical infrastructure. Take that up with the county.”

Elections director Allen categorized the latest petition as just a replay of a previously failed lawsuit.

“It’s frivolous, it’s annoying and it’s costing taxpayers a needless amount of money and county employee time and resources to respond to this,” Allen said. “The fact of the matter is that Delaware County has the highest level of testing on its equipment with any county in the commonwealth.”

The Delaware County Democratic Committee sought to block the litigation on Oct. 17. If the petition fails, Goodwin doesn’t plan on capitulating.

“We’ll do the same thing that we did this time,” Goodwin said. “We’ll put our heads together and see what we should do to move forward — but hopefully that will not take place.”

Allen said petitioners are questioning decades of established election practice over who, how and when people vote. The county has built fighting off election lawsuits into the schedule, but he said it’s a “needless distraction.”

“That’s just one fewer call that you can take from a voter who has a legitimate concern,” Allen said.

Montgomery County hires solicitor with election litigation experience

Montgomery County has spent $2.4 million on outside counsel from 2020 through this year. That figure for Montgomery County is not limited to election litigation.

WHYY News has a pending open records request to obtain the exact amount the county spent on election litigation specifically. A spokesperson said the county has faced 21 election-related lawsuits since 2020.

County Commissioner Neil Makhija told WHYY News the county is prepared for the onslaught of election-related lawsuits and has a “very solid internal election team, probably the best in the commonwealth in terms of the county level.”

Benjamin Field, the new chief solicitor appointed in March, was recruited for the position in part because of his experience fighting off election litigation in Philadelphia in 2020.

However, “just the level of litigation is going to require outside help, and that has costs,” Makhija said.

Recently, after the county made mail ballots available on Sept. 17, the Republican National Committee filed and later dropped a lawsuit alleging the county did not test voting machines as required by law.

Makhija, who also heads the Board of Elections, said the lawsuit was “frivolous,” and a response to the fact that the county was the first in the commonwealth to release mail ballots.

“This litigation is designed to both sow doubt in the process and also just waste our time in terms of the county’s time and resources of our staff,” he said, noting that even though the case was later dropped, the county election director had to “spend hours to have to go testify to show that our election machines work properly, and we knew they did.”

The latest lawsuit, filed Oct. 15, claims the county’s new mobile voter services van violates state law requiring counties to announce the address and time of voter registration events in advance.

Makhija said the van continues to operate, and no injunction has been issued.

“It surprises me that the Republican National Committee is willing to file these frivolous cases and really do so at taxpayer expense,” he added. “It’s not just our own solicitor’s cost. It’s the court’s time. It’s the judge’s time. They know they’re going to lose these cases, and yet they’re trying to file them in order to sow doubt and make people question whether they should vote by mail.”