PA election chief: Give us all the votes

Pennsylvania’s top elections official said he can’t predict when the winner of the presidential election will be clear, but he urged for patience as Pennsylvania tallies the results.

“It takes time to count those millions of votes, and our election officials are working; [they] work day and night to count them as expeditiously as possible and with integrity,” said Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania secretary of state and a native of Pittsburgh. 

“Elections are run at the county level. They’re your neighbors who are running the elections.”

A state law prevents mail-in ballots from being counted until Election Day, Nov. 5. In 2020, an usually high number of mail-in ballots coupled with that state law meant election workers needed days to produce a complete count. Former President Donald Trump seized on the time it took as a vulnerability, suggesting there was fraud.

So far there are more than 1.8 million approved absentee and mail-in ballot applications compared with about 3 million approved applications at this time in October 2020. But Schmidt is still bracing for conspiracy theories in the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump.

“Our elections have never been more safe and secure with a voter-verified paper ballot record of every vote that’s cast in every election,” said Schmidt, who is visiting all 67 Pennsylvania counties this election cycle. “I have no concerns about the accuracy of the process, and then if any issues did arise, then they would become immediately apparent.”

Schmidt testified before the Jan. 6 committee after he and his family were threatened, following a post on X, formerly Twitter, by Trump that alleged Schmidt ignored voter fraud. Schmidt, a Philadelphia commissioner in 2020, refused to go along with those claims of voter fraud in Pennsylvania.

Now he also heads the Pennsylvania Elections Threats Task Force, established by Gov. Josh Shapiro. A large part of his role is monitoring both unintentional misinformation and intentional disinformation so the task force can respond and be aware of any potential threats to voters or elections officials that may result from the two.

This year, all eyes have been on Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes. Schmidt said the increased attention on Pennsylvania’s role as a swing state does not necessarily invite misinformation and disinformation, but scrutiny is to be expected.

“Like any other so-called battleground state, Pennsylvania receives a lot of attention and is under intense scrutiny, and neither one of those things are bad. Everyone is doing everything the way they should and doing it by the books, then scrutiny is not something to fear,” he said.

“The only issue is when people lie about elections in Pennsylvania or say things that are untrue, that leads people who are undoubtedly sincerely interested in election integrity to reach conclusions that are not based in fact.”

Lara Putnam, a University of Pittsburgh professor of history and co-lead of Pitt’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security, says social media has been used to push both misinformation and disinformation in the election.

In 2020, Facebook was a “real whirlpool of false claims,” Putnam said. Since then, Facebook has updated its policies to address concerns over misinformation and disinformation. This year, X has been the place for those false claims.

And new this election is AI-generated content, including posts and realistic photos, she explained. Putnam pointed to a specific AI-generated image that spread on X, supposedly depicting a girl holding a puppy in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and prompting criticisms of President Joe Biden’s response to the disaster. 

These AI-generated images and posts have real consequences, she said.

She noted that in 2020, a disproportionate number of mail-in ballots came from Democrats, even in counties that voted majority Republican. This year, she hopes that people will understand the time it takes to count those ballots. 

“Hopefully people have come to understand that there’s a secure, absolutely reliable, safe system place for counting mail ballots, as well as in-person votes in Pennsylvania, and so hopefully we won’t face a series of false claims casting doubt on the reliability of the vote count,” she said. 

One thing that Schmidt won’t be surprised to see this election season: lawsuits.

He anticipates more lawsuits like the recent Washington County ballot-curing case in Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court.

“I was joking the other day, it’s difficult to predict turnout, and it’s difficult to predict who will win and who will lose in a close election, but it’s not difficult to predict the likelihood of lawsuits in a presidential election cycle because there’s been no shortage of them, especially at the county level,” he said. “It would be naive to think that, you know, you wouldn’t see more.”

To prepare for Election Day, Schmidt has zigzagged the state talking to county elections officials to learn how the Pennsylvania Department of State can support them and talking to voters. 

To apply for a mail-in ballot, your county election office must receive the application by the end of day on Tuesday, Oct. 29. 

Applications can be submitted online at vote.pa.gov.

The Next Generation Newsroom, part of the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University, is a regional news service that focuses on government and enterprise reporting in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Find out more information on foundation and corporate funders here. Learn more about how to support reporting in the region through tax-deductible donation at nextgenerationnewsroom.org/donate.