Pennsylvania's top elections official on conspiracies, the voting process and what to expect on election night

Pennsylvania is one of the states that could determine who wins the White House two weeks from today. It’s shaping up to be a tight race in the state with 19 electoral votes — the largest share available among the seven closely watched battleground states.

Both candidates are spending a lot of time and money to win voters there.

Pennsylvania's Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt says it is unlikely that we will know who won the state on election night. That's due to a state law which prohibits election officials from opening mailed ballots until the morning of November 5th. And, election office employees are required by law to work around the clock until they are finished. This timeline could raise more questions and misinformation.

Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania's top elections official and a lifelong Republican, was targeted by Trump in 2020 as a then-city commissioner on the Philadelphia County Board of Elections.

“The 2020 general election was unlike any other,” Schmidt told NPR in 2021. “And typically, during an election, you have campaigns compete against other campaigns. Candidates attack other candidates. And really, what we had this last presidential election was campaigns and candidates, or one in particular, attacking the election officials. Referees are not usually tackled. And that's essentially what we saw.”

Pennsylvania remains a hotbed for election denial and misinformation.

Lehigh County Executive, Phil Armstrong, says the time needed to process mailed ballots can raise concerns among voters this year as well.

“We're figuring anywhere from 70 to 80,000 mail-in ballots in Lehigh County,” Armstrong said. “You can't open up those ballots that day and hand take them all out and have the results done an hour or two after the polls close, which people are used to. And the longer it takes, the more people think something's wrong.”

Schmidt sat down with Morning Edition host Michel Martin on Oct. 21 to talk about why he wants voters to trust the election process and how the commonwealth is preparing for the Election Day vote count.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

Michel Martin: So, you know, you've been explaining this for months now. You've been going all over the state explaining how the process works. Do you think that you've put these conspiracy theories about dead people allegedly voting or finding mystery ballots to rest?

Al Schmidt: Conspiracy theories really require no basis, in fact, whatsoever, it seems, when they get generated and when people begin to believe them. But I think it's incumbent on all of us to make sure that, one: the public is educated about what's involved with counting their votes and two: to have appropriate expectations for when we'll all know who won and who lost and by how much.

Martin: So, you know, even back in November of 2020, you were a city commissioner in Philadelphia. You said that lies about how the counting was going were ridiculous. Did you ever have any doubts yourself before you started doing this job?

Schmidt: No, not for a second. I'm a Republican and I've been involved in Republican politics a while back. And elections have changed so much where we now have a voter verified paper ballot record of every vote that's cast, and two audits to make sure those results are accurate. But it's no wonder people have questions and it's our responsibility to answer those.

Martin: Why do they have questions?

Schmidt: People are used to thinking, oh, we're going to know the results ten or 11 at night. And you might. But those hardworking civil servants and professionals at the county and state level, their work doesn't stop once a network or station calls and says who won and who lost.

Martin: You know, Pennsylvania is no different than any other big state that has densely populated urban areas. It has more sparsely populated, you know, suburban or rural areas where the more densely populated areas would report later because they just have more votes to count. So why do you think it is that Pennsylvania became the target for so many conspiracy theories and just frankly, so much hatred in 2020?

Schmidt: Well, I think, for one, Pennsylvania is probably the biggest swing state. But what we saw in 2020, is we saw that window of time between the polls being closed at 8 p.m. on election night and the race being called as a period of vulnerability where people were seeking to undermine confidence in the results.

Martin: You just mentioned that you are a lifelong Republican. I think you were the first person that the Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, appointed to his cabinet. Why did you agree to take this job?

Schmidt: Well, I believe in our system of government. I believe in our democratic republic. And I believe if there's something that I can do to help serve, then it really is not something that I had any hesitation to do whatsoever.

Martin: Even with all of the threats, you know, some election officials have to send their families away because of the abuse.

Schmidt: I'm certainly going into all this with eyes wide open. [I] believe in Governor Shapiro and his incredible commitment to democracy and protecting it from efforts to undermine the outcome or the perception of the outcome.

Martin: After the 2000 election, which I think many people will remember, it took months to resolve, it was finally resolved by the Supreme Court. Former President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, and former secretary of state, Jim Baker, a Republican, led a bipartisan commission to try to give people more confidence in the election system. The whole point of it was to say voter fraud is not really a thing. What might put the genie back in this bottle now?

Schmidt: I think it's just really important that people know the truth about elections and they have access to information. And that's why the job that you do is far more important than mine in terms of communicating with people so that they do know what to expect and why the system is done with integrity. 2020 wasn't really close. Pennsylvania was decided by more than 80,000 votes. And that's why I think these conspiracies have been so far-fetched, because it's not talking about one or two votes. It's got to be something ridiculously enormous, a truckload of ballots or vote switching or whatever paranoid fantasy people seem to indulge in to explain why their candidate lost.

This story was edited for digital by Majd Al-Waheidi. It was edited for radio by Jan Johnson.