Pennsylvania 2020 election deniers lose two decisive legal appeals
Two elected Pennsylvania election deniers sued Dominion Voting Systems and the PA Commonwealth Secretary, and could each be out $1 million personally in the process.
Two long-running 2020 election denier legal cases brought by a pair of Republican officials in sparsely populated Fulton County have just arrived at separate final decisions in June. (Opinons linked below.)
The office of Pennsylvania Commonwealth Secretary Al Schmidt prevailed in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which ruled against Fulton’s claim that its illegal election intrusion shouldn’t have led to its voting systems being de-certified.
Dominion Voting Systems won a federal appeals court decision affirming the final dismissal of Fulton County’s long-running election denial lawsuits.
The one-page ruling affirming Fulton’s loss by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will ultimately cost two local Republican officials, Randy Bunch and Stuart Ulsh, their rural county government, and its fake elector lawyer, Thomas Carroll Esq., up to $1 million, each.
Both litigations are over four years after a pair of southwestern Pennsylvania elected Republican 2020 election deniers initiated their government-fueled litigation spree with a fake elector lawyer.
Both have cases reached stopping points on the merits within the state and federal court systems now that Fulton County has lost what will likely be the final two appellate rulings in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.
Inevitably, delayed consequences await.
The federal court decision will give Dominion Voting Systems access to its breached gear by year-end.
Because the attorney Carroll had already appealed the state Supreme Court’s earlier contempt ruling directly to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost last October, there are no further possible appeals of the impending final order of judgment exceeding $1 million against the three men jointly and severally, as well as against Fulton County, based upon last year’s accounting of fees and costs.
"We appreciate the court's careful decision to dismiss this frivolous lawsuit," said a spokesperson for Dominion Voting Systems when reached for comment on their victory in court.
The lawsuits filed in these two Pennsylvania cases stemmed from a national propaganda campaign underwritten to benefit the Trump 2020 Campaign by the now-President of the National Rifle Association, William “Bill” Bachenberg, carried out to make false propaganda to undermine the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.
To this day, nobody knows who paid Caroll’s attorney fees except that his clients say it is not them, nor Fulton County taxpayers directly.
Story continues below:
Bachenberg recently settled a lawsuit in Eastern Michigan federal district court last month filed by a cybersecurity expert whom the Allentown resident and former tech CEO hired to inadvertently breach Fulton County’s elections systems and those of other Michigan counties.
But his lawyer, Stephanie Lambert, is still facing legal liability for her actions as the NRA President’s lawyer. Story continues below:
How did two election deniers, a fake elector, and a rural county spend five years losing in court?
Mountainous Fulton County’s Election Board separately sued defendants Dominion Voting Systems and Pennsylvania Commonwealth Secretary Al Schmidt.
In Fulton County, during non-local election years, the Commission serves as the county Election Board. Bunch still serves on Fulton County’s Commission, where his term runs through the end of 2028, but Ulsh lost his attempt at a 3rd term last November.
Then-Fulton County Commissioners Randy Bunch (R) and Stuart Ulsh (R) had permitted an uncertified tech company from Chester, Pennsylvania, named Wake TSI, to breach county election systems in their dual roles as members of the County Election Board in late 2020.
Word got out about the impermissible inspection, and Pa. Secretary Schmidt’s office responded by decertifying Fulton County’s Dominion Voting Systems ballot marking devices.
After incurring a $25,000 replacement expense, Fulton County sued the Secretary on behalf of its 11,000 residents.
Contemporaneously, Dominion Voting Systems invoked its legal rights in response to Fulton County’s grievous 2020 breach of its license agreements when it distributed proprietary voting hardware and software to uncertified 3rd parties.
Fulton County promptly sued Dominion Voting Systems in federal court, alleging breaches of warranty and a variety of baseless claims, which were dismissed two years later.
The weak federal case against Dominion was then refiled by Ulsh and Bunch as then-County Election Board members and in their individual capacities.
Both appeals were finalized within two weeks after five years of litigation
On June 11th, 2025, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an unsigned per curiam ruling in favor of the Secretary’s office, upholding its lower court win in the Commonwealth Court over Fulton County.
It upheld the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court’s order, which sided with Schmidt’s office on the merits of the underlying decertification case.
This state case was the County, Ulsh, and Bunch's final appeal from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s earlier final holding that the County, they, and their counsel, 2020 PA fake elector Thomas Carroll, Esq., violated the high court’s injunction by allowing a further election breach.
In a separate six-page opinion filed just twelve days later on June 23rd, 2025, a majority panel of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Dominion Voting Systems’ final dismissal of Fulton County, Ulsh, and Bunch’s unproven claims Because the full panel did not make the 3rd Circuit’s decision, it is not precedential.
By the end, the case presented no novel legal theories at all; the two Republicans had omitted the County itself from their complaint, depriving themselves of being party to the disputed contract with Dominion. Nonetheless, the election deniers litigated that point for two years.
The new Pa. Supreme Court decision also ends the necessity for a third-party escrow company to hold Fulton County’s breached voting machines at a cost of over $16,000 annually, paving the way for Dominion Voting Systems to examine them for the first time in five years.
Fulton County, its commissioners, and its fake elector lawyer could still challenge both cases to the U.S. Supreme Court within 90 days of last month’s decisions.
However, they have challenged every other final ruling in the two cases to the US Supreme Court, and have been rejected without a written ruling in every other instance.
When asked for comment, specifically to determine if they intend to appeal their losses further, neither the Fulton County Commission nor Commissioner Bunch responded to a telephone message left at the government offices. Fulton’s lawyer, Thomas J. Carroll, also failed to respond to a written and voicemail request for comment. Pennsylvania
Commonwealth Secretary Al Schmidt referred a direct message request for comment to his official office, which failed to respond before publication.
Click here for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals opinion, Fulton County et. al. vs. Dominion Voting Systems:
Click here for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s per curiam order in Fulton County et al, vs. Pa. Commonwealth Sec. Al Schmidt:
Excellent reporting on this. These small cases tend to fall between the cracks--though in principle, they are as important as cases involving Powell, Giuliani, et al. Thanks for drilling down and sharing the story.
I love this for them.