Pennsylvania's top election official reassures voters while fighting misinformation in battleground state

Pennsylvania is the most pivotal battleground in the race for the White House. With its 19 electoral votes, it is the state where former President Trump and Vice President Harris are spending the most time and money - a combined $436 million between them and their allies. 

It's also where the results could take days to count, due to a state law that prevents mail in ballots from being processed early. The anticipated lag, which dragged out Pennsylvania's count in 2020, now has election officials bracing for a repeat of conspiracy theories and violence.

At the helm - lifelong Republican Al Schmidt. He stood up to former President Trump and refused to join attempts to overturn his loss four years ago. As secretary of state, Schmidt is doing everything he can between now and election day to assure residents their votes will count - and to take on the lies Trump continues to spread about Pennsylvania.

Cecilia Vega: What's the reality? Voter fraud is widespread? Voter fraud never happens?

Al Schmidt: There is no evidence whatsoever that voter fraud takes place-- in any way that is widespread at all.

Cecilia Vega: If a non-citizen tried to cast a ballot, would you be able to catch it?

Al Schmidt: That's just not something that happens, because when it gets identified, there are severe consequences, whether it's prosecution and or deportation from the country.

We met Secretary of State Al Schmidt last month in the state capitol in Harrisburg.

Former President Donald Trump (during Indiana, PA rally on Sept. 23 2024): We have to win Pennsylvania…

The night before, former President Trump held a rally just a few hours away where he stoked fears about voting in Pennsylvania.

Former President Donald Trump (during Indiana, PA rally on Sept. 23 2024): Now we have this stupid stuff where you can vote 45 days early. I wonder what the hell happens during that 45–- let's move– see these votes. We got about a million votes in there, let's move them. We're fixing…

Cecilia Vega: Have you heard what the former president said last night at his rally here in Pennsylvania?

Al Schmidt: No.

Cecilia Vega: He seems to be saying that there is cheating going on with mail-in ballots here.

Al Schmidt: There is not. Elections in Pennsylvania have never been more safe and secure with a voter verified paper ballot record of every vote that's cast, whether you vote in person on Election Day or you vote by mail.

Schmidt once had his own doubts about election security.

Before becoming secretary of state he spent a decade on Philadelphia's Board of Elections where he investigated hundreds of claims of voter fraud… and changed his mind.

Al Schmidt: Whenever it has occurred, however rarely, it's to affect some very down ticket race that is decided by a handful of votes. It's not to decide who the president of the United States is, or who the governor is, or who a senator is, or anything else like that.

As secretary of state, Schmidt is visiting each of Pennsylvania's 67 counties…Part roadshow, part public relations tour spreading the gospel of election security…including a stop at a fair in deep red Columbia County.

He spent more than 35 minutes trying to convince these local Republicans that they can trust the voting system.

Al Schmidt: Like dead people voting in Philadelphia. You have a public record of when somebody died. You have a public record of when they cast their vote. 

Female Voice: They have found cases where-- quote, dead people have voted.

Al Schmidt: The only cases that I've encountered are when a voter has cast their ballot by mail and then passed away in-between mailing in their vote and their vote being counted. And you can see that. 

Cecilia Vega: You know, former President Trump's got the rallies and he's got the microphone and he's got the audiences and he can spread his message to thousands, if not millions, of people, and you're here at the county fair and you've got a stand and you're doin' it one to three voters at the time.

Al Schmidt: Yes, you're one-- one-at-a-timing it. So--

Cecilia Vega: You-- you kinda can't compete.

Al Schmidt: But it's also important to have that one-on-one contact, to go to-- a county fair-- to engage with people to answer their questions.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro told us that choosing Al Schmidt, a lifelong Republican, as his first Cabinet pick last year, was intended to send a clear message.

Cecilia Vega: Of all the cabinet appointments that you could have made first, why was it Al Schmidt?

Gov. Josh Shapiro: I made a commitment during my campaign that I was going to appoint a pro-democracy secretary of state.

Cecilia Vega: What were your marching orders to him?

Gov. Josh Shapiro: Do your job. Make it so legal, eligible voters have access to the ballot box and that we again have a free and fair, safe and secure election.

Cecilia Vega: When you think about secretaries of state, the role, you tend to think that it, respectfully, is a boring job (laugh), a mundane job, an administrative job. How's that workin' out for ya? 

Al Schmidt: (laugh) It is. I mean-- elections should be-- not something to dread. They should be something to celebrate. And voters should feel confident that if they cast their vote, whether it's by mail or in person on Election Day, that their vote is gonna be counted.

Cecilia Vega: So in 2020, it took four days to call the election in Pennsylvania. What took so long?

Al Schmidt: When you have half of your voters vote by mail, like we did in 2020-- counting those votes takes time.

We saw for ourselves at a ballot intake center in Chester County outside Philadelphia.

Karen Barsoum: So this is the actual envelope, and these where the ballots are returned-in…

Cecilia Vega: And this is a sample?

Karen Barsoum: Correct. Yes and-

Elections Administrator Karen Barsoum showed us how each ballot arrives inside two different envelopes.

Processing them is a tedious task, which under Pennsylvania law cannot start until 7 a.m. on Election Day.

Karen Barsoum: So when we do open it, there is another envelope. So, hypothetically speaking, if we have 100,000 mail-in ballots, we have to deal with double the amount of the envelopes, which is-- a long process and then the ballot comes out.

Cecilia Vega: And you can't count it folded like that?

Karen Barsoum: Correct we will need to have a whole different team (rustling) unfold them, (rustling) backfold them to get the creases out as good as we can.

Cecilia Vega: How long does it take to process each ballot?

Karen Barsoum: Several minutes. It's not-- it's not, like, done in a sec.

Al Schmidt: That window of time between the polls closing and races being called I think has shown to be a real-- vulnerability, where people seeking to-- undermine confidence in those results if they're gonna lose-- have-- have-- really exploited.

Cecilia Vega: Those four days allowed the big lie to take off.

Al Schmidt: And that's when you start hearing about truckloads of ballots. And that's when you start hearing about, you know, zombie voters. And that's when all this other stuff really starts pouring in.

There have been widespread calls to bring Pennsylvania in line with the majority of other states - where election workers get a head start on opening envelopes and flattening ballots ahead of Election Day.

Cecilia Vega: Why hasn't that changed? You've had four years, Pennsylvania.

Al Schmidt: Pennsylvania's unique in that we have a divided legislature. We have a Democratic House and a Republican Senate. So getting anything done related to election reform is-- has certainly been a challenge.

Cecilia Vega: The message is what? Be patient with Pennsylvania?

Al Schmidt: The message is please be patient. Our counties are working night and day to count their voters' votes. They're doing so as quickly as they can, and with integrity.

For Secretary Schmidt, getting out the message can mean late nights answering questions about the electoral process in granular detail.

As we saw at this law school in Harrisburg.

He's teamed up with fellow Republican, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett.

Cecilia Vega: The former president has a refrain at his rallies. He says Democrats rigged the election in 2020 and he's not gonna let them get away with it this year.

Tom Corbett: Evidence. Bring it. Any U.S. attorney, any district attorney. Bring the evidence and show them. Not what you want. You've got to convince a prosecutor and a court.

Cecilia Vega: You've got polls that show some 34% of Americans, nearly 70% of Republicans who still, to this day, believe that Joe Biden didn't win the 2020 election.

Tom Corbett: But I can't change that. Because they believe it. Because they've heard it too many times.

Cecilia Vega: You've said there's a huge amount of people in the middle that can be influenced by the extremes. Is that who you're trying to educate?

Tom Corbett: Yes. The extremes we're not gonna change. But right here, and in a close election that's very important.

Former President Donald Trump (during NRA event in Harrisburg, PA on Feb. 9, 2024: We won Pennsylvania twice. We won it twice. We did much better the second time than we did the first time...

Cecilia Vega: He continues to say that he won Pennsylvania twice.

Gov. Josh Shapiro: Donald Trump won in 2016 by about 44,000 votes. And Donald Trump lost in 2020 by about 80,000 votes. I understand that he's a sore loser. I understand that he wished he would have won in 2020. But attacking this system made up of our neighbors from communities all across Pennsylvania, Republican and Democrat alike, is not the answer.

Cecilia Vega: Former President Trump is refusing to commit to accepting the results if he loses.  If he does refuse what happens here in Pennsylvania? What does that look like?

Gov. Josh Shapiro: I think it can look unfortunately like what it looked like in 2020 with violence in our communities, --with threats to public officials, good public officials like Al Schmidt and the Republican and Democratic clerks of elections. Am I worried about that? Am I concerned about that? Of course I am.

In 2020, as the presidential election hung in the balance - all eyes were on the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Outside, police and protesters surrounded the building… while inside Al Schmidt oversaw the counting of a record 375,000 mail-in ballots… most of them from Democratic voters.

Former President Donald Trump (on Nov. 4, 2020): We're winning Pennsylvania by a tremendous amount of votes…

Hours after the polls closed, then President Trump demanded the counting stop.

Former President Donald Trump (on Nov. 4, 2020): We don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning and add them to the list, okay?

Al Schmidt: We were working day and night. There was one television that was working and I happened to be passing it when I heard that speech. So immediately brought together our communications team to begin-- through social media platforms, assuring the rest of the world whose eyes were on Pennsylvania that our vote counting was going to continue.

Cecilia Vega: But at that point you've got the president of the United States saying, "Stop the count." Did you ever feel like you had to stop the count?

Al Schmidt: No, not for a second.

After four days, the race in Pennsylvania was finally called for Joe Biden and with that - he won the White House.

Former President Trump went after Al Schmidt by name on Twitter… and violent threats from Trump's supporters followed.

Cecilia Vega: Do you remember the first threat that made you go, "I gotta take this one seriously?"

Al Schmidt: There were-- threats early on that were pretty generic in nature. But-- as days went on they-- they became a lot more specific, providing my address-- graphic descriptions of, you know, what they would do-- to my family.

Cecilia Vega: They used a picture of your house at one point, I understand. Listed your–

Al Schmidt: Yes.

Cecilia Vega: –children's names repeatedly.

Al Schmidt: Correct.

Cecilia Vega: You had to move your family out of your house for safety?

Al Schmidt: Yes, they had to-- to relocate for a period. And we had-- security around the clock for many months.

Cecilia Vega: Given all the threats that you faced personally, I've gotta ask why you would agree to take this job?

Al Schmidt: Well, everything is on the line. Our entire system of government, our country as it was founded is on the line.

Produced by Sarah Koch and Madeleine Carlisle. Broadcast associate, Katie Jahns. Edited by Joe Schanzer.