The Keystone State might hold the key to this year's pivotal election.

All eyes are on Pennsylvania.

But how can you be sure your votes counting.

We'll discuss what you need to know on this community conversation.

Protecting your Vote.

From the Univest Public Media Center.

Here's your host, Tom Shortell.

Thank you for joining us.

We're in the home stretch of a historic election cycle.

The political eyes of the nation are on Pennsylvania, a swing state that could determine whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris moves into the white House in January.

But voters here in the Lehigh Valley have plenty of other races to consider, too.

The campaign between Democrat Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick could decide control of the U.S. Senate and Pennsylvania's seventh congressional district.

It's one of the most high profile U.S. House contests in the country.

Local voters will also cast ballots for the state offices, including the state house, auditor general, attorney general and treasurer.

These votes will shape decisions about our civil rights, our tax bills and safeguarding public funds for years to come.

Tonight we'll hear from elected officials, election workers, good government advocates and others to review how Pennsylvania is conducting this election.

And we'll discuss how you can make sure your vote is heard at the polls.

Earlier, we caught up with Pennsylvania's Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican and former Philadelphia city commissioner.

He is tasked with overseeing elections statewide and protecting Pennsylvania's election infrastructure.

We discuss the state's election protocols and efforts to protect the democratic process.

Thank you for joining us, Secretary.

Back in 2020, it took four days for Pennsylvania to determine that Joe Biden had won Pennsylvania's, electoral votes.

How long do you expect we'll be waiting this year to determine which candidate wins?

Pennsylvania?

Well, in any election, it really comes down to how close the race is, whether you have mail ballots or you don't have mail ballots or whatever type of voting system you have.

That's really what it comes down to.

Mail ballot voting is still fairly new in Pennsylvania.

It's been widely embraced.

And while the law has it changed to allow our counties to begin processing ballot envelopes earlier, like many other states, red states and blue states, a couple things have changed.

Counties have acquired additional equipment to help with time stamping and sorting.

Counties have a lot more experience now than they had in 2020, when mail ballot voting was new.

And the percentage of voters voting by mail has decreased since 2020.

During that sort of peak Covid environment.

So why can't Pennsylvania report results quickly?

Like most other states?

Well, most other states allow that process of, reviewing, mail ballot envelopes and all the rest days, if not weeks in advance.

So on Election Day, they're only counting mail ballot votes.

In Pennsylvania, it has to start from the very beginning, reviewing the outer envelope to make sure it's signed and dated, opening that envelope, removing the secrecy envelope, opening the secrecy envelope.

Removing the ballot.

Flattening the ballot, and finally scanning it, which doesn't take very much time at all.

That's the actual counting.

Doesn't take much time at all.

It's the rest of that process from tooth to tail does take some time.

Now, counties have been asking for the ability to start that tooth to tail process.

Earlier, for years now.

Is there a clear reason why that hasn't been changed?

Well, it's been included in a number of bills out of the House and Senate.

We have a divided legislature in Pennsylvania, which is unique in the United States with a Democratic House and a Republican Senate.

So it's certainly difficult to get election reforms done, especially in any kind of proximity to a presidential election.

Cycle.

So it's frustrating.

We don't have that.

But our county partners are working, very hard so that we have the results as, as quickly as possible without in any way compromising the integrity of that process.

I can assure you, they begin counting as soon as they can, are allowed to begin counting, and they work, in big cities like Philadelphia through the night into the next day and into the next night, if they need to, without stopping to, to make sure that votes get counted as quickly as possible.

So that delay back in 2020, fed into misinformation about election rigging and other irregularities.

What steps has the state taken to restore confidence in voting machines and mail in ballots since then?

Yeah, I would only try to correct you a little bit in saying that.

It's really not a delay at all.

It takes time to count millions of votes, but there is a certain perception that Pennsylvania is delayed relative to other states because other states allow that process to begin days or weeks in advance.

And you're right, Tom, there, we saw in 2020 a real vulnerability in the time between the polls close and when it's clear who won and who lost.

Remember, counting ballots has always.

But even before mail ballot voting gone on for many days, if not weeks.

It's just people tend to stop paying attention after the race is called, after it's clear who won and who lost.

In 2022, for example, our race for governor was called before midnight.

And our race for U.S. Senate was called a couple hours after that.

So that certainly didn't take days because those races weren't close.

And that's ultimately, what it comes down to.

Public polling shows a common concern about election integrity.

In interference from, outside actors, from foreign actors.

What protections are in place to ensure that Americans are the ones deciding this election.

In Pennsylvania, just like in all other states?

We work closely with our, federal and state partners to, always test the, our systems to make sure they're not vulnerable to, to foreign or domestic, interference, whether it's cybersecurity or anything else like that.

So in Pennsylvania, we work not only with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but we work closely with, the Pennsylvania National Guard that assist us in always testing our election systems.

But one thing I would like to remind your viewers is that those voting systems are not connected to the internet in any way, whether you do a hand marked paper ballot and run it through a tabulator, or you vote on a ballot marking device that prints out ink on paper, your selections that you verify before casting your vote.

None of those systems are connected to the internet in any way whatsoever.

So they are not, vulnerable to, cybersecurity breach from, a bad faith foreign actor or anything like that.

We'll hear more from Secretary Schmidt later in the program.

In the meantime, we're joined by Lehigh County Executive Phil Armstrong and Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure.

They each oversee the day to day operations of the region's elections offices.

Gentlemen, thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

Tom.

Always a pleasure, Tom.

So I'd like to talk to you about the ballot curing process in each of your counties.

Mr. Armstrong, if a Lehigh County election worker discovers a missing signature or date on an outer envelope of a mail in ballot, what happens?

Well, first of all, we will set that aside, and we will try to contact that voter to give them a chance to come on in and rectify their mistake.

If we don't get it till Election day and there isn't enough time, then obviously we cannot count that ballot.

But if there is time, we will definitely do everything that is possible to make sure their vote will be counted.

We don't want to disenfranchize any voter in the county.

And Mr. McClure, how about in Northampton County?

So, one of the things that's most important to us is that act 77, which was passed by a Republican legislature, was really democratizing.

And by that we mean more people were actually able to vote after the passage of act 77.

And so with mail in ballots comes some errors.

And very much like Lehigh County.

If you don't sign or date your ballot, if you've signed up with your email to the state system, you'll get an email from the state system that you have not signed or dated your ballot, and you should come in and correct that.

In addition, we'll send you a letter by old fashioned snail mail, and ultimately, we'll give you a call so that you could come in and attempt to correct that missing signature or date.

But in order to avoid all of that, just sign and date the yellow lines that are on the outer outer envelope of your ballot.

What about other errors?

Say a voter forgets to use their secrecy ballot or makes an identifying mark on the ballot itself?

What happens there?

So again, Tom, we want every eligible voter to vote because that's what elections are all about, right?

Democracy in action.

But sometimes people send back what are known as naked ballots, and that means they haven't sent their ballot back in its secrecy envelope.

Now, you can tell that a ballots naked just by handling it, but we run it through our ballot sorter and by weighing it in the ballot sorter, you can tell that the ballots naked, it has to be set aside.

And and we do set that aside and we follow the same process.

We you'll get an email from the state if you've given the state your email address.

You'll get a letter via snail mail from us.

Or we'll call you to come in and correct that ballot.

And that's where modern technology, I mean, just the weight of the ballot will tell us that.

And we will follow the exact same procedures in Lehigh County.

And we have to mention that not every county in the state does that.

But I know Northampton County and Lehigh County, we do.

Now, what should a voter do if they believe they're registered but are told that they're not in the polling books?

I've heard of cases where there's been some confusion with voters who have hyphenated last names, or perhaps two last names.

What is the best protocol for people to follow in those instances?

So in Northampton County, what the judge of elections will do is call our elections division to determine whether you are or are not registered to vote and whether you are or not in the right polling place.

And if you are, we'll we'll get you to, your ballot into the into the machine.

Ultimately, if it turns out you're not registered, you can't vote.

And really exactly the same thing.

And we do have a problem with and I'm sure Northampton County, every year there might be a change in 3 or 4 different locations for them.

And we do notify the voter where the new location is.

But if they do show up at the other one, we make sure we take care of them and they get to the proper spot.

When must the voters turn in their mail-in ballots?

If someone has mail that out by election day or the day before.

How should they turn in their ballot?

Well, I would say, first of all, if you haven't turned it in by Election day, on Election Day, get it to your polling spot.

Okay.

Don't put it in the mail on election day.

I've already worked on Election Day when the post office at 10 to 8 brought in ballots that were mailed ten minutes and they were counted.

But ten minutes later and they would not have been.

That is a strict rule.

8:00 on Election Day, we must receive.

And if you waited that long, I would say drive right to the spot and hand it in.

And is that the polling place itself or is that a Dropbox location?

Well, a Dropbox, if, for example, the Dropbox is in some locations close at 5:00, so that's already too late if it's 7:00 at night, so then you better go exactly to the polling spot or bring it down to seventh and Hamilton where our headquarters are.

We have, numerous dropboxes that will be open until 8 p.m. on Election Day, and you will be able to drop your ballot off until 8 p.m. on Election Day at one of those dropboxes.

And you can go to our website, norcopa dot gov slash elections, and find out the hours and the locations of our seven drop boxes so you will be able to drop your ballot off in one of our drop boxes until 8 p.m. that evening.

Our best advice would be to go down to Easton and go to the Elections Division and hand your ballot to an election worker before 8 p.m..

Thank you both for your time and insights.

You're welcome.

Welcome.

Thank you for having.

Always a pleasure.

Next, we'll hear from Sandra Simon, a longtime poll worker in Lehigh County.

She spoke with Grover Silcox about what goes into conducting an election in a local polling place.

Sandra Simon, welcome.

You were a poll worker in Lehigh County?

Yes.

I've been a poll worker in Lehigh County for almost 30 years.

Wow.

I'm a judge of election in Lehigh County.

As judge of election, we oversee the entire process the whole day.

Should anyone have an issue, they come to me.

We also have to go the Saturday before election to pick up the supplies.

And at the end of the day, at 8:00, once we do our cleanup work at the polling place, we have to take everything back to the courthouse.

How many other poll workers are you in charge of or responsible for?

We have eight, including myself.

Several of them.

They're doing a new program with interns from the high school.

So they have two high school seniors usually come in and they do whatever I assign them to do, and it's worked well.

Some of them are very, very good and very interested.

Others don't show up.

So and for the most part, the high school interns help support the effort.

And it also gives them a great experience in civic participation.

Absolutely.

A great experience.

And usually one of them is an interpreter, because not all the polling places in Allentown have Spanish speaking people, so they often have a child from school that is Spanish and can help someone if they need an interpreter.

And what kind of training do you get to be a poll worker?

Lehigh County offers well, it's mandatory in a presidential year that everyone has the two term training in April and in October.

In other years, refresher courses are offered for those that might need a refresher, and new workers must attend an original course.

Now has the training increased this year?

This year has been very intensive training.

I just did the online session last week.

It took me two hours, but I completed it and at the end you get a certification that you did, so you cannot work without that.

Got it.

And do you feel prepared and ready to go?

I feel prepared and ready to go for this election, but I've been doing it a long time.

I have concerns about other people that may be doing it for the first time.

Have you noticed the voters coming in?

The people coming in?

Any changes in attitude and concerns in not being sure what to do?

We do have voters that come in that only come in in presidential years.

So many in 2016 and 2020 were not aware that we went to paper ballots.

So they're like, oh my goodness, we have to fill out this ballot.

What do we do?

And that's why we're there.

We're there to tell them how to fill out the ballots, not what to put and fill the ballots in with.

And what about the issue of safety?

Do you feel there are potential threats?

Being a poll worker.

Being a poll worker, or anywhere in the world today, there are potential threats.

We have a constable in our district that goes around to four different offices or polling places, fully equipped with official equipment that can take someone out if they need to.

So I feel totally safe.

Why should people feel that their vote is, in fact, protected?

Votes are protected in many ways.

If you go to the polling place and vote, you must sign into a book.

You can only sign into that book once if you mail your ballot in either.

An absentee ballot or a mail in ballot.

You do get an email back from the county saying they received your ballot and it is being counted.

And if you go somewhere and they say you can't vote, there is something called a provisional ballot that you can fill out, and the county will decide if it is a valid vote from you.

How confident are you that the count in Pennsylvania will be correct?

I'm very confident.

I know Lehigh County has so many cross checks that I don't see how anything can go wrong in Lehigh County for the rest of Pennsylvania.

I can't say what they do, but I'm pretty sure they're all under the same umbrella, and they'll all be done correctly.

There are many, many cross checks.

And even the ones that filled it in wrong and came back and said I need another one.

There's a specific envelope for spoiled ballots and that has to match.

Like if you have 200 ballots used and only 195 voters, you should have five spoiled ballots.

Sandra, thanks so much for joining us and thank you for your service.

Thank you for having me.

And I hope everyone goes out and votes this year, especially.

Thanks, Grover and Sandra.

Let's jump to the second half of our interview with Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt.

Can you tell us about the checks in place to ensure that only registered voters are casting ballots.

To register to vote in Pennsylvania when you apply, Not only are you obviously providing your name and address and birth day, but you're also providing a Social Security number or driver's license number, which is a unique identifier so that, there may be more than one person named Al Schmidt, and possibly even have the same birthday, if the name is a common name.

But you want to make sure that everybody has a unique identifier.

So if you move from one county or another and you register in your new county and your new home, the former county where you lived is notified to cancel your voter registration.

Record.

Same with other states that are in an association with Pennsylvania.

So if you move from one state to another, the state you move from is notified, to cancel your voter registration record.

Could you tell us a bit about logic and accuracy testing?

I understand that the state has stepped up its requirements on this process in the last few years.

We've required that of all counties to conduct what is called logic and accuracy testing to make sure that, votes cast either at the polling place or by mail are recorded accurately.

It's a testing system, to make sure that everything is, is is accurate and, in advance of Election Day and the required to report their results to the Pennsylvania Department of State.

One thing we've changed in the past year is to make those requirements more explicit and more detailed, to make sure that counties are, doing everything they can, dotting their eyes and crossing their TS and all the rest, so that there are no issues down the line when there have been issues, which has been very rare, it hasn't been related to the equipment or anything else like that.

It's been related to human error in either mislabeling a race or, or catching that that race was mislabeled or mis, candidate's name was misspelled or anything else like that.

It's always been a human error.

So we want to make sure that we minimize the opportunity for human error to occur, and that counties are checking and double checking and triple checking to make sure everything is is accurate.

It almost sounds like it's a, a debugging type, process where just making sure that everything is functioning the way it's supposed to.

Would that be an accurate description?

Yeah.

There's no room for error when it comes to elections.

Everything has to be perfect all the time.

There are no redos.

There are no do overs when it comes to elections.

So that's why it's so important that everyone do things right at the county level to make sure that the election runs smoothly.

And doesn't do anything to undermine confidence.

And those results, even if that error doesn't impact a single vote or, the outcome of any race whatsoever.

Secretary, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you.

Tom.

Next, we'll go over voters rights and what you can do if you're turned away at the polling place.

Ricky Santee is the former solicitor for the Northampton County Elections Commission.

Lauren Chris Stella is the president and CEO of the Committee of 70, an independent, nonpartizan nonprofit organization which advocates for the improvement of government.

She joins us via zoom.

So, Ricky, since 2020, there has been a lot of rhetoric about the need for more poll watchers and observers in polling places.

What third parties are allowed into polling places and what are they allowed to do?

So the election code sets forth who is allowed to be inside a polling place, and that political parties and candidates are allowed one poll watcher in a polling place at a time, but they can have up to three at the polling place area on election day.

So the only people allowed in the polling place other than the judge of elections, election workers, voters and the constable are those poll watchers who are there.

And what is it that they're allowed to do?

What can they what can they do with that access?

Poll watchers are allowed to check the list of voters to see who's checked in.

They can speak to the judge of elections when they're not serving voters about potential challenges to qualifications.

But voters who are in the polling place are only allowed to.

The only people allowed to interact with voters are the election workers.

The poll watchers are not permitted to directly necessarily interact with voters in the polling place.

They have the right to file an objection if someone they think, isn't supposed to be voting comes in.

And, and they can challenge that.

What should voters know about that process so that they can be informed about it, should it happen to them?

Yes.

So if, poll Watcher wants to make a challenge, it has to be based on something more than, for instance, somebody's accent, or they have to have some basis to think that either the person, the voter, is not who they say they are, or they're no longer a resident in that district and eligible to vote at that polling place.

It has to be based on something, right?

It can't just be, you know, frivolous, as we've said.

So if you are a polar, voter who has been identified as somebody who may not actually be entitled to vote at that polling place, you can always vote provisionally.

And then if you are that, that will get adjudicate.

I think if it becomes a pattern, the judge of elections has a responsibility to address that with a poll watcher.

And they can actually remove the poll watcher if if several, false claims have been made.

Certainly, you know, you don't have to, provide voter identification just because a poll watcher is accusing you of not being who you say you are living where you say you live.

But that having that on you is probably a good idea if you can.

But again, you do not have to show that, just because a poll watcher asks.

Lauren campaigns and political parties are allowed to have people advocating for their candidates outside of polling places as well.

But there are limits in place.

What are they?

What are they allowed to do?

And what's forbidden?

So the people stationed outside of the polling places, whether they're stumping for a party, a candidate, or they're they're just there to see what's going on, have to be ten feet outside of the door to the room where voting is happening.

Now, if you're inside a school building, and the voting is happening in the gymnasium, for instance, they can be in the hallway that's ten feet away from that door.

So some people get confused about that.

They also can't intimidate or block access to the polling place for voters.

Right.

So they're not they can't be really aggressive with people.

They can certainly hand out information or try to engage, voters in conversation, but nothing that could be perceived as intimidation, pressure or, blocking that access.

Could you expand on that?

The there are so many instances where people will say that, oh, they intimidated me or I wasn't doing anything.

Like what?

Where is the line?

Like, what qualifies as intimidation in this very partizan environment that we find ourselves in?

I mean, in some respects it's like obscenity, right?

It's going to be, you know it when you see it.

But if people do feel intimidated where someone's standing too close or, aggressively shoving materials, I mean, a little bit, that's going to be up to an interpretation.

But, the advice for certainly for people on behalf of campaigns in the party standing outside of the polling place would be to be as friendly and, positive as possible.

Right.

Refrain from negative rhetoric or attacking, the other opponents or or apparent supporters of their opponents.

Ricky, some people have claimed that the presence of law enforcement at the polls amounts to voter intimidation.

Is there truth to that in Pennsylvania?

Uniformed police officers are not allowed within 100ft of the polling place.

The only law enforcement is accostable.

They're there to keep the peace and, that's something in Pennsylvania that you don't see.

Police departments pretty universally respect polling places.

They are aware that where they are to make sure that it's safe.

But that is something that having a law enforcement present, could be intimidation if they were allowed to, just wander around without any, prohibition.

But I think Pennsylvania, there's a reason for that 100ft buffer that is still allow voters.

There should be no fear of walking in because this is a civil act, is one of the greatest things that we do as citizens.

And there's no need in this country for law enforcement to be there, because we can our communities can take care of it on our own.

And, Lauren, if people think that they have been targeted for intimidation, what should they do?

What are the steps to take?

There's a few different things people can do if they're experiencing intimidation.

One is to immediately inform the judge of elections at your polling place once you're inside.

You can also call eight, six six.

Our vote.

That is a voter protection hotline.

They can answer questions.

They can also escalate, issues to the proper authorities.

Of course, if it's physical intimidation, somebody has a baseball bat, you know, something like that.

You need to call 911.

And then you can also call your county's district attorney's office.

Several of them have election task forces that can be, called and deployed, to investigate, incidents like this.

Guys, thank you so much for sharing all that useful information.

It will be very helpful for people when they go to the polls and cast their votes.

This election day.

That is all for this community conversation.

Thanks to all of our guests.

And thank you for watching.

For all of us here at PBS 39 and Lehigh Valley News.com.

I'm Tom Shortell.

Election day is November 5th.