Gov. Mark S. Schweiker & Rep. Lou Barletta: As Republicans We Say: Your Vote in Pennsylvania is Safe

Pittsburgh Post Gazette | July 26, 2024

Many of our fel­low Re­pub­li­cans and con­ser­va­tives here in the Com­mon­wealth and in other states ei­ther lack con­fi­dence or have le­git­i­mate ques­tions about the lo­gis­tics, fair­ness and ac­cu­racy of elec­tions. Poll­ing in­di­cates that a ma­jor­ity of the pub­lic does not pos­sess high con­fi­dence that votes will be counted ac­cu­rately this fall. Mis­in­for­ma­tion de­stroys con­fi­dence in elec­tions and rep­resents a crit­i­cal threat to pub­lic safety.

The strength of our de­moc­racy de­pends on the con­fi­dence that ev­ery el­i­gi­ble voter has a voice and that ev­ery vote is counted ac­cu­rately. It’s time we bring down the tem­per­a­ture, cut through false rhet­o­ric and high­light the on­go­ing ef­forts and suc­cesses in main­tain­ing the in­teg­rity of Penn­syl­va­nia’s elec­tion sys­tem.

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The strength of Penn­syl­va­nia’s elec­tion pro­cess lies in its com­pre­hen­sive and con­tin­u­ously im­prov­ing sys­tem. The Com­mon­wealth has im­ple­mented a range of mea­sures to en­sure that ev­ery as­pect of the elec­tion, from voter reg­is­tra­tion to the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of re­sults, is both safe and se­cure.

Every first-time voter must show per­sonal ID such as a driver’s li­cense. Penn­syl­va­nia col­lab­o­rates with other states to re­duce du­pli­cate reg­is­tra­tions. Of­fi­cials en­sure bal­lot drop boxes are con­stantly mon­i­tored by video sur­veil­lance and no vot­ing equip­ment is ever con­nected to the in­ter­net.

Ac­cu­racy is an­other cor­ner­stone of our elec­tion pro­cess. Penn­syl­va­nia has es­tab­lished train­ing and post-elec­tion au­dit pro­to­cols to en­sure that ev­ery vote is counted cor­rectly. After ev­ery pri­mary and gen­eral elec­tion, and be­fore any re­sults are cer­ti­fied, coun­ties con­duct two ac­cu­racy checks.

First, county boards of elec­tions pull a ran­dom sam­ple of ei­ther 2% of all bal­lots cast in all races or a ran­dom sam­ple of 2,000 bal­lots for re­count. A risk-lim­it­ing au­dit (RLA) then occurs. The pro­cess, rec­om­mended by the Depart­ment of Home­land Se­cu­rity and the National Acad­e­mies of Sciences, Engi­neer­ing and Med­i­cine, ex­am­ines a ran­dom sam­ple of pa­per bal­lots, com­par­ing the votes on pa­per to the to­tals re­ported by the vote-count­ing ma­chines.

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Col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween state and lo­cal of­fi­cials has also been cru­cial in en­hanc­ing the elec­tion pro­cess. By work­ing to­gether, we can ad­dress po­ten­tial chal­lenges and im­ple­ment best prac­tices to en­sure smooth and se­cure elec­tions.

This co­op­er­a­tive ap­proach has been in­stru­men­tal in adapt­ing to new chal­lenges, such as those posed by for­eign ac­tors like Rus­sia and China who ac­tively seek to med­dle in our elec­tions, en­sur­ing that ev­ery el­i­gi­ble voter could safely and se­curely cast their bal­lot. In re­cent years, we have seen a con­certed ef­fort to spread mis­in­for­ma­tion about the election pro­cess. It is es­sen­tial that fel­low con­ser­va­tives and or­ga­ni­za­tions such as RightCount (of which we are co-chairs) work to counter these false nar­ra­tives with verifiable re­search, facts and trans­par­ency.

Penn­syl­va­nia’s elec­tion of­fi­cials have been pro­ac­tive in com­mu­ni­cat­ing to the pub­lic, provid­ing clear and ac­cu­rate in­for­ma­tion about the elec­tion pro­cess and ad­dress­ing le­git­i­mate con­cerns or mis­con­cep­tions. Threats di­rected at them or other pub­lic of­fi­cials en­trusted with up­hold­ing the rule of law are, to put it bluntly, un-Amer­i­can and should never be tolerated.

Mark S. Sch­wei­ker, a for­mer Bucks County com­mis­sioner and mem­ber of the County Board of Elec­tions, was gov­er­nor of Penn­syl­va­nia from 2001 to 2003. Lou Bar­letta, for­mer Mayor of Ha­zle­ton from 2000 to 2010, was U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Penn­syl­va­nia’s 11th con­gres­sio­nal dis­trict from 2011 to 2019. They are the co-chairs of RightCount.

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 To read this op-ed in its entirety, click here. To learn more about RightCount’s operations across America visit www.rightcount.org.