Pennsylvania officials say election staff working hard to ensure safe, secure voting

READING, Pa. - Officials in Pennsylvania say they are working hard to ensure a safe, secure election, while combating disinformation that's being spread.

"Nonpartisan election officials are doing their jobs across Pennsylvania, and they're working very hard to ensure we have free, fair, safe and secure elections," said Al Schmidt, secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania officials say it's critical that at this juncture in the election cycle, voters get their information from trusted sources.

"There is already a lot of mis(information) and disinformation about Pennsylvania's elections, and it's likely to continue in the coming days and weeks ahead," Schmidt said.

"Sharing social posts filled with half-truths or even outright lies is harmful to our representative democracy," he said.

Schmidt said election officials are verifying that every person who applied to register to vote is indeed eligible to be registered.

"They're verifying that every person who requested a mail ballot has provided proper identification to receive one," he said.

Schmidt said election staff and poll workers are being trained to ensure only registered voters are able to vote in person on Election Day.

"They're following the processes and procedures needed to ensure a vote cast by an eligible voter is counted and recorded accurately," he said.

It's a team effort.

"Our team has been in close contact with our county election partners across the commonwealth to ensure that they have the support that they need, if requested," Schmidt said.

Pennsylvania's deadline to apply for a mail ballot was Tuesday. Anyone who applied for a mail ballot but has not yet received one can still go to their county election office to receive their ballot.

"Now it's on to Election Day and the 13 hours of in-person voting that will occur next Tuesday," Schmidt said.

If voters have any questions, they are encouraged to visit vote.pa.gov.