ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Pennsylvania’s top elections official, Al Schmidt, revealed Thursday how his officials are preparing for election misinformation and even potential violence before and after ballots are cast this year in the nation’s biggest battleground.
Schmidt, a Republican who was a Philadelphia election official in 2020 and was targeted by then-president Donald Trump over false accusations of fraud in the city, spoke out. NBC News among panels at an event dedicated to election security. He He pointed to the importance of proactively dispelling misinformation circulating online, saying it can inflame emotions and incite people to threats or acts of violence during voting season.
But he said election officials have learned a lot since 2020.
“I would say one contributing factor is the amount of misinformation voters are exposed to — just an avalanche of it,” Schmidt said. “And when it’s false and misinformation, it can cause, I’m sure, very sincere, well-meaning people to act on false information that they believe to be true.”
Schmidt, who was appointed secretary of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, said he and other officials are now looking at “preemptively hiding” previously false allegations to give them less time to metastasize with the public.
Without referring to specific candidates, Schmidt said that political rhetoric is often the main driving force behind misinformation surrounding elections, as well as “attempts to prevent voting from taking place properly, vote counting, obtaining certificates. place and if you lose, undermine confidence in the results.
It’s not just “spontaneous,” Schmidt continued. “In my opinion, this is a product of misinformation and disinformation that we’ve seen that our election workers are engaging in fraud or some other underhand thing to influence the outcome of the election one way or another.”
2020 Pennsylvania Election Counting Conspiracy Theories Debunked a series of failed legal challenges By Trump and his allies and some rioters Attacker on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, cited them as proof of fraud.
Election officials also faced threats and attacks from angry voters a local election officer reported that one-third of the state’s 67 county election managers had retired or resigned 2020 election.
To help combat some of the threats against election workers emerging around the 2020 race, Pennsylvania created a new election threat working group to monitor the situation.
in 2020 “There have been threats of violence and intimidation targeting many of our election workers, not just in Pennsylvania, but elsewhere, and not just in big cities, but in rural counties,” Schmidt said.
But while he’s pleased with the progress on that front, Schmidt He expressed concern that the state of Pennsylvania was the only battlefield did not make significant updates He attributed the lack of change to election laws since the 2020 race to a divided state Legislature.
“It’s certainly disappointing because, especially when it comes to how early states can start processing mail-in ballots, it’s a technical problem with a technical solution that doesn’t benefit any party, doesn’t benefit any candidate, but will benefit voters and constituents. It would be useful for our country to know the results earlier,” said Schmidt. Pre-processing mail-in ballots before polling day — such as checking voter signatures and opening envelopes to list ballots — can result in faster vote counts.
After a long court battle State of Pennsylvania The Supreme Court ruled earlier this month Mailed ballots with incorrect dates are allowed to be discarded. Schmidt called the decision disappointing, but he said officials continually point to the importance of proper ballot designation to ensure the votes are counted.
“Every vote is precious and it is heartbreaking to not be able to stand there and count the ballots after participating in elections for 10 years, because the voter forgot its date or indicated the wrong date, and an elderly voter wrote his birthday instead of the ballot. day they filled that ballot envelope. Therefore, the decision is certainly disappointing,” Schmidt said.
Asked whether election breaks in urban areas like Philadelphia could happen again this cycle, Schmidt said things didn’t change in 2020 after Election Day, and then the results got “uglier.” According to him, the new working group will play a major role in the fight against any interruptions.
– You have to prepare for this, right? Schmidt said. “You don’t want to assume the next election is going to be the same, and that’s why I think the task force and everything else, working closely with the county attorneys, is important if the voter vote is tampered with. They are on the scene to make sure everyone knows what the law requires and to hold people accountable when they prevent voters from voting.
With postal voting starting soon statewide, he said officials are doing their best to minimize disruptions.
“It’s really nothing to worry about,” Schmidt said. “It’s about preparing for any scenario we might face.”