PA secretary of state in Lebanon to talk about ballot boxes and the need for poll workers

Weeks after a majority of the Lebanon County Commissioners voted to eliminate the courthouse ballot drop box, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt spoke about the use of drop boxes and need for more poll workers.

Schmidt said his department strongly encourages all county officials to use whatever resources are available to them to make sure eligible voters can request, receive and return their ballots.

"It's really up to the county how they choose to do that," he said. "The counties know their voters certainly better than the Department of State − or anyone in Harrisburg for that matter."

While mail delivery times differ, Schmidt said it's a real challenge for mail-in ballots to get to voter registration offices especially before the deadline in the last week of a general election or primary. It took 11 days for Schmidt's mail-in ballot to reach the the Philadelphia County Voter Registration office in the 2020 primary.

"In my experience, drop boxes have been a valuable resource so that voters who receive their ballot at the last minute, or returning it in the last minute if it's too late to mail it back, can return it to the board of elections and make sure it's cast and counted," he said.

In a 2-1 vote on Jan. 18, Republican incumbent Commissioners Bob Phillips and Michael Kuhn voted to remove the box where voters could turn in their mail-in ballots. Both commissioners have said that the removal of the box was about voter integrity.

"This is to me a symbol of a potential problem that you can't control," Phillips said during the meeting. "Because you are counting on people walking up to the box, doing what they are supposed to do and putting in one ballot, and there's no way of really proving that they have not put in more than one."

Schmidt said he is not familiar of any cases in the commonwealth where tampering has occurred with ballot drop boxes.

"Anecdotally, you hear things all the time," he said. "But I've anecdotally heard any number of things about elections, especially in Philadelphia, which is my home, which has no basis in fact."

The Department of State recently issued new guidance to counties regarding chain of custody when mail-in ballots are retrieved from drop boxes. Schmidt said that guidance included having more than one board of elections official there and the possible use of law enforcement when collecting ballots.

The former ballot drop box was located behind the Lebanon County Courthouse near a security entrance. The box had a surveillance camera mounted to the top, and in April 2021 Phillips and then-Commissioner William Ames voted to limit access to the box to regular business hours.

"We're not stopping collecting ballots," said Sean Drasher, Lebanon County’s Bureau of Registration and Elections director. "But we still want to try and find ways to make everything as easy for the voters as possible."

The elections office received about 27% of mail-in ballots from the drop box, according to Drasher. County officials are estimating it will send out more than 16,000 mail-in ballots for the April 2024 primary.

Poll workers

Schmidt stopped by the Lebanon Community Library Tuesday to encourage eligible residents to serve as poll workers for the April 23 primary and Nov. 5 general election.

The commonwealth has more than 45,000 poll workers across more than 9,000 voting locations during primary and general elections to process registered voters. Jackson Township resident Megan Schaeffer, one of three poll workers honored by Schmidt during Tuesday's event, said working elections is a long but rewarding day.

"It's something that matters," she said. "It's some of the best work you can do for your community. Boots on the ground that actually matters. Without poll workers we can't have these elections."

Lebanon County has more than 430 poll workers out in the field on election days and about 30 canvassers, according to Drasher. While the county has a waiting list for poll workers, but there's always people that may not be able to work on election day.

"We might have four people that say they can do it, but then on election day all of the sudden they're needed and they're out of town," he said. "Or they can't travel across the county to fill a spot we need. So we always do need poll workers."

Elections officials are gearing up for the potential for a contentious presidential election in 2024, with the potential rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Schmidt, who was a Republican Philadelphia city commissioner during the 2020 election, said he's seen first hand poll workers and volunteers targets of false claims that elections are fraudulent.

"In many cases, it drives people away from wanting to serve as a poll worker, wanting to serve as an election director at the county level because of all the grief and the ugliness that comes with it," he said.

Election processes have gone through changes over the last few years, and Schmidt said it's understandable a lot of people would have questions. But he added that asking questions to try to undermined confidence in an election is different than trying to know the answer.

"Elections in Pennsylvania have never been more safe and secure then they are now," Schmidt said. "But they have changed a lot, which has created an opportunity for bad faith actors to undermine confidence."

Primary Election Info

The Pennsylvania 2024 presidential primary is scheduled for April 23. The last day to register to vote is April 8. The last day to request a mail-in or absentee ballot is April 16.

Residents looking for more information can visit the Lebanon County Voter Registration Office website at http://www.lebcounty.org/depts/Voter_Registration or contact them by phone at 717-228-4428.

Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on Twitter at @DAMattToth.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Sec. of State talks ballot boxes, need for poll workers in Lebanon, PA