@Otrip

All wires were tested to identify which is the hot wire but I'm asking about what you are wanting me to test after removing the bulbs.

Just to make sure I understand what you are saying is leave all wires disconnected, remove all bulbs, retest to see if the original hot wire still reads as hot? 

  @DDON 

It's very odd that the switch will light up only when Neutral, Ground and the hot wire is connected to the load side.

The fact that the switch doesn't do anything when Neutral, Ground, Line and Load are all connected tells me something strange is going on.

Part of the earlier test was to confirm your ground is working (you have 120v from hot to ground) as the switch will not work without a ground or true neutral.

As you can see in the image the white (neutral) wire from the power source goes directly to the light with the black (hot/line) wire spliced to the white with black tape. The hot would stay hot (at the switch) with the bulbs removed but would not if they were reversed.

In some older homes (before code changes) the black (hot) wire could be connected to the light and the white wire spliced. Most of the time in this situation there will only be 3 wires (black, white, bare/green) in the switch box. The fact that you have 2 black, 2 white plus grounds going into the box makes this extra confusing.

I assume you are not trying to install this to replace a 3way switch.

I can't see how a defective switch would cause what you are experiencing but you never know.

Any chance you could try installing the switch on a different circuit?

  @Otrip

After removing all of the bulbs and any connected wires to anything.. Went and retested and there is no change.. Hot is still same voltage, all the others still read nothing. 

  @Otrip 

Any other ideas?