Philly Election Officials Brace for Pressure From Trump

Lisa Deeley has had to ask herself a question no election official should face: could the president try to have her charged for doing her job? Deeley, a Philadelphia City Commissioner, is among the officials preparing the city’s voting operation as more than 12 million votes have already been cast nationwide, including more than 65,000 in Philadelphia.

The warehouse in Northeast Philadelphia looks ordinary enough. Workers there are assembling poll books, rule books, posters and pens for the city’s 1,700 precincts. Deeley calls the packages “election activity boxes.” Omar Sabir, chair of the Philadelphia City Commissioners, says he’s “Born ready.” But behind the routine sits an unusual weight: the city’s voting processes have drawn President Donald Trump’s criticism for more than a decade, according to a PBS report produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

A Target Since 2016

Trump has singled out Philadelphia in every campaign since he was a candidate in 2016, a decade ago. Two days after the 2020 election, as the city’s mail-ballot count cut into his lead in Pennsylvania, he said, “Detroit and Philadelphia, known as two of the most corrupt political places anywhere in our country.”

The personal toll was real. Seth Bluestein, a Republican commissioner, said he and Deeley received death threats and harassment in 2020. During the pandemic, Deeley had to leave her home and stay in a hotel while protesters gathered on both sides at the Convention Center.

On Election Day 2024, Trump posted that there was “massive cheating” in Philadelphia. City officials said no substantive fraud complaints had been made. Since returning to the White House, Trump has said the federal government should get involved, repeatedly claimed without evidence that mail-in voting is rife with fraud, and pushed for federal legislation to overhaul elections. He’s also posted that results in Philadelphia “will often take weeks to rig.”

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

Federal Pressure, Local Preparation

Pressure from Washington has sharpened this year. An executive order Trump signed in March would have restricted whom the Postal Service could deliver mail ballots to. The Supreme Court blocked the order from taking effect for the midterms. It also directed the attorney general to investigate and potentially prosecute state and local officials who issue ballots to ineligible people.

“Cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It’s horrible what’s gone on,” Trump said.

Deeley responded directly. “Mail voting is safe and it’s trusted. This whole vote-by-mail rhetoric, again, dangerous.” She said the attacks are distracting as well as dangerous, and could erode confidence in the foundation of voting. She worries that healing could take decades.

Bluestein said he isn’t losing sleep over threats of prosecution. “I’m not concerned. I haven’t given it one second of thought. I don’t think it’s a realistic threat.” Deeley was blunter: “I can’t worry about what he says he’s going to do to me.”

The administration has sent mixed messages about whether federal agents will appear at polling places. Pennsylvania law keeps officers and federal agents 100 feet away from polling places, Bluestein noted, and he doesn’t foresee that happening in Philadelphia. The city’s law department has worked with election officials on a plan for problems, including possible federal involvement. Officials, he said, have to prepare for every scenario.

Why the Count Takes Time

State law partly explains the slow count that fuels so much suspicion. Pennsylvania bars officials from beginning the pre-canvass until election morning, when polls open at 7:00 a.m. Officials can’t review outer envelopes, open them or prepare ballots for counting before then. Each mail ballot sits inside two envelopes. In 2020, processing about 375,000 mail ballots involved more than a million pieces of paper, and counting continued until the Saturday after Election Day.

Ballots are coming back by mail now and will stay in a locked cage until processing starts on Election Day morning. Officials hope to finish counting by midday Wednesday. “We will never sacrifice accuracy for speed, and we never have. And since 2020, we have only gotten better,” Deeley said.

The machines have no Internet connection. Officials move counts by secure compact discs to another computer for public release, then audit the results afterward.

The Poll Worker Gap

Philadelphia’s three elected commissioners, two Democrats and a Republican, run elections in Pennsylvania’s largest city. Deeley says the job is “more as nonpartisan than bipartisan” and that it’s “to be umpires, to call balls and strikes.” Bluestein put it this way: “Running elections in Philadelphia doesn’t require democratic values or Republican values. It requires American values.”

The human infrastructure remains short. Some 7,200 people have signed up as poll workers, below the city’s goal of 8,000. The workday starts at 6:00 a.m. and sometimes stretches past 9:00 p.m. Shanna Fields, who oversees poll worker training for the Office of the Philadelphia City Commissioners, said, “We really need willing participants who really will care about democracy and care about the work that we do.” She gives some workers her personal cell number to keep them safe. “We’re like 911 for them,” she said.

Deeley has a standing invitation for skeptics: become a poll worker and see how Philadelphia elections work.

Why This Matters: Philadelphia’s election officials are doing routine administrative work under an unusual cloud: repeated, unsupported fraud claims from the president, a March executive order the Supreme Court blocked for the midterms, and the prospect of federal investigation of local officials. The report describes a system of paper trails, locked storage, offline machines and post-election audits, run by a bipartisan team that has endured death threats. When public servants must weigh personal legal risk for administering votes, and the poll worker pool falls about 800 short of its goal, the strain lands on ordinary residents who depend on a trusted, well-staffed process. Deeley’s warning that the damage could take decades to heal frames the stakes: confidence in elections is a public good, hard to rebuild once it’s gone.