Federal Pressure Shadows Philadelphia Election Workers

Philadelphia election officials are preparing ballots and voting equipment as President Donald Trump repeatedly claims mail voting is rife with fraud and says the federal government should get involved. The city has more than 65,000 votes cast, while more than 12 million votes have been cast nationwide, according to the report. The people handling the machinery are also preparing for political attacks from the country’s highest office.

“We really need willing participants who really will care about democracy and care about the work that we do,” said Shanna Fields, who oversees poll worker training for the Office of the Philadelphia City Commissioners. Fields said some workers have her personal cell number because she wants to make sure they’re safe: “We're like 911 for them.” The city had 7,200 poll workers signed up, short of its goal of 8,000.

The pressure from Washington

Trump has singled out Philadelphia in every campaign since he was a candidate in 2016. Two days after the 2020 election, as the city’s mail-ballot count cut into his lead in Pennsylvania, he called Detroit and Philadelphia “two of the most corrupt political places anywhere in our country.” On Election Day 2024, he posted that there was “massive cheating” in Philadelphia, though city officials said they received no substantive fraud complaints.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that mail-in voting is rife with fraud and pushed federal legislation to overhaul elections. He posted that results in Philadelphia “will often take weeks to rig.” In the report, he said, “Cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It's horrible what's gone on.” The accusations come alongside a federal order targeting rules governing mail ballots and the officials who issue them.

Trump signed an executive order in March that would have restricted whom the Postal Service could deliver mail ballots to, but the Supreme Court blocked it from taking effect for the midterms. The order also directed the attorney general to investigate and potentially prosecute state and local officials who issue ballots to ineligible people. For now, the order’s reach is checked. Election officials still have to weigh the threat of investigation and prosecution.

The work, and who bears the risk

Philadelphia’s three elected commissioners—two Democrats and a Republican—run elections in Pennsylvania’s largest city. Lisa Deeley, a Democrat, said their work was “more as nonpartisan than bipartisan” and that their job was “to be umpires, to call balls and strikes.” Republican commissioner Seth Bluestein said, “Running elections in Philadelphia doesn't require democratic values or Republican values. It requires American values.”

Bluestein and Deeley said they received death threats and harassment in 2020. During the global pandemic, Deeley said, she had to leave her home and live in a hotel while protesters gathered on both sides at the Convention Center. She said election work used to be “like a wedding planner.” Now, she has to consider whether the president might press to have her charged for doing her job.

Pennsylvania law bars officials from beginning the pre-canvass until election morning, when polls open at 7:00 a.m. They can’t review outer envelopes, open them or prepare ballots for counting before then. Each mail ballot is sealed inside two envelopes. In 2020, processing about 375,000 mail ballots in Philadelphia involved more than a million pieces of paper. Counting continued until the Saturday after Election Day.

Counting under suspicion

The ballots covered in the report were being mailed back and would stay in a locked cage until processing began on Election Day morning. Officials hoped to finish counting by midday Wednesday. Hundreds of voting machines stood in the warehouse, ready for delivery; the machines have no Internet connection, and officials transfer counts by secure compact discs to another computer for public release. After the count, officials audit the results and begin preparing for the next election almost immediately.

Philadelphia has had a handful of prosecuted fraud cases; the largest involved about four dozen votes. The report said no widespread fraud had been documented in a presidential general election. “We have the receipts to show that there's not massive cheating in Philadelphia elections, quite literally,” Bluestein said.

Deeley said mail voting is safe and trusted, calling the rhetoric “dangerous.” She said attacks on election infrastructure distract officials and could erode confidence in voting, with damage she worries could take decades to heal. She urged people who doubt the process to become poll workers and see how Philadelphia elections work.

The work starts early. Poll workers attend training for an Election Day that begins at 6:00 a.m. and sometimes runs past 9:00 p.m. “We will never sacrifice accuracy for speed, and we never have,” Deeley said. “And since 2020, we have only gotten better.”