Harrisburg — Governor Josh Shapiro's administration announced Thursday that Pennsylvania law enforcement, civil defense, and election administrators are meeting to identify and combat election threats eight months before the presidential election.
After the state became a hotspot for spurious election fraud charges and failed litigation to overturn Democrat Joe Biden's 2020 victory and retain then-President Donald Trump in power, Shapiro launched the Pennsylvania Election Threats Task Force.
The task group develops measures to share information and coordinate against election threats, voter intimidation, and election misinformation. “Pennsylvania is the birthplace of American democracy, and we are working to continue defending Pennsylvanians’ fundamental freedoms and ensure a free, fair, safe, secure election this November,” Shapiro said.
State and federal attorneys, county election directors, the Department of Homeland Security, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, and the Pennsylvania National Guard are partners.
Pennsylvania is again projected to be crucial in the fall presidential election. Trump mistrusted Pennsylvania in 2020, saying “bad things” happen in Philadelphia, and he still does. In December, Trump advised followers to “guard the vote” and “go into” Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta to “watch those votes when they come in
Shapiro, who defended Pennsylvania's 2020 election against Republican court challenges, said administration staff were preparing for the election on legal, law enforcement, and election administration fronts.
Shapiro's Department of State is increasing election misinformation countermeasures and speeding up the state's computerized voter registration database, which counties utilize daily. It trained county election officials and tried to standardize mail-in ballots to reduce registered voter errors that have led to several lawsuits.
A state statute that forbids counties from processing mail-in votes before Election Day raises the possibility of another drawn-out count in Pennsylvania like the 2020 one that sparked Trump-inspired conspiracy theories and false claims. Most other states process mail-in ballots before Election Day.
Schmidt, a former Philadelphia election official who faced death threats for defending the city's 2020 vote-counting against Trump's claims, has warned that a flood of experienced managers leaving county election offices threatens elections.
Schmidt told a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon on Monday that 70 senior county election officials from the 67 counties have gone. Schmidt said inexperience causes blunders that are used to cast doubt on elections. every error, “especially in an environment where any mistake, no matter how innocent, is so easily interpreted as being intentional and malicious and seeking to change the outcome of an election,” Schmidt added.
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