PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania’s top elections official spent hours in federal court Tuesday, defending the certification of voting machines being used by Philadelphia and two other Pennsylvania counties, including one where problems led to undercounted returns in a race in November.

The hearing in federal court could help determine how 17 percent of Pennsylvania’s registered voters cast ballots in November.

It comes after a two-year push by Gov. Tom Wolf to get counties to switch to paper-based voting systems ahead of this year’s presidential election, a move he frames as a crucial election security bulwark against hacking.

Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar sought to show that no element of a federal court agreement in 2018 specifically outlawed certification of the machine in question, the ExpressVote XL touchscreen system, which produced an undercount in a judicial race in Northampton County. Ultimately, election workers counted the vote on paper ballots.

By Associated Press