Oct 26, 2016 6 min read

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortes has been in charge of 19 elections, both primary and general, and although he never mentioned Republican Donald Trump by name during a call-in news conference Wednesday afternoon, he said he was “disheartened that any candidate who values democracy” would accuse the thousands of people involved in elections at multiple levels of “rigging” an election.

“We know they’re coming from a particular presidential candidate,” Cortes said, adding a candidate is entitled to his opinion but he is not entitled to fabricate facts.

Branding the Keystone State as a place where election-rigging occurs is “unpatriotic, irresponsible and unfounded rumor,” Cortes said. “It is not a fact, it is irresponsible and it is dangerous.”

In a recent Observer-Reporter online poll, 50 percent of those responding answered yes when asked, “Do you believe the presidential election is rigged.” Eleven percent chose “maybe.” Of those who said the presidential election is rigged, 60 percent of the respondents were age 55 or older. Cortes and a phalanx of state officials discussed various aspects of the voting process, including state and federal penalties for voter intimidation, which include fines of up to $5,000 and up to five years imprisonment.

Again, not mentioning Trump by name, Cortes said, “People may be misled and think they can go out and interrupt the (voting) process. It is illegal, and disruptive and we will take a very strict approach when it comes to voter intimidation.”

Anyone who believes he or she is being intimidated at the polls should first go to the judge of elections, an elected, precinct-level office; the county board of elections, which, in Washington and Greene counties are the county commissioners; and the district attorney.

Cortes said poll watchers appointed by candidates or political parties cannot challenge every student voter in a polling place that includes a campus or voters because of their race, for example.

On the Observer-Reporter’s website, which has a core readership in Washington and Greene counties, Trump, a Republican, has consistently out-polled Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. And in what is likely the first time since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s, Democratic Party registration in Washington County has fallen below 50 percent.

The Department of State database lists Washington County with 68,020 Democrats (49 percent); 55,297 Republicans (39.83 percent); and 15,496 independents and members of other parties (11.16 percent). A year ago, Democratic registration stood at 52.23 percent while Republicans accounted for 36.68 percent.

Greene County has 12,474 Democrats (55.21 percent), 8,060 Republicans (35.67 percent) and 2,057 others (9.1 percent).

The total number of registered voters is 138,813 in Washington and 22,591 in Greene.

Washington County completed its logic and accuracy testing of voting machines Friday. It plans to deploy 670 touch-screen voting machines, and it has spare machines, also tested, on hand to substitute if needed.

To augment local elections boards, the elections office has recruited 140 students from primarily Canon-McMillan, Ringgold, Trinity and Chartiers-Houston high schools. “Charleroi may jump in,” said Wesley Parry, Washington County assistant director of elections. A final round of pollworker training is scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday in the elections office on the second floor of the Courthouse Square office building. Any registered elector from the county who wants to work as part of a board at a local polling place on Nov. 8 is invited to attend.

The county has a need for extra workers because of anticipated turnout, always heavy in presidential election years, and the 40 largest of the most heavily-populated of the county’s 176 precincts will have an additional, rented electronic poll book to speed voter check-in. “A sixth man, if you will,” Parry said. The poll books will also be tested for logic and accuracy.

Washington County fielded more than 5,000 new voter registrations at the close of Oct. 11, which had to be processed by Oct. 19. The new voters had to be added to the electronic poll books and printed in paper backup versions. “On top of that, we have processed 4,194 absentee ballot requests,” Parry said. Absentee voters may have wondered where their ballot is, so they phone or make a trip to the elections office. If they need an absentee ballot immediately, the elections office staff must void a ballot that has already been mailed and process the many phases of paperwork and labeling that goes with it. Employees and temporary workers have been toiling nights and Saturdays to keep up.

Parry calculated it takes four minutes to work with each absentee ballot, and the elections office has been handling an average of 175 absentee ballots per day.

In Greene County, Elections Director Tina Kiger tried to alleviate concerns she has heard earlier this month from the public about whether the voting machines can be “hacked.” The machines are not connected to the internet and the electronic cards that record votes are tabulated on another system that is not connected to any network.

“This system isn’t on the internet, so we’re not out there to be hacked,” Kiger said at the Oct. 20 elections board meeting. “It’s secure.”

She said registrations information stored with the state Department of State is backed up by their own paper rolls, so they will have correct voter information at the precincts.

Kiger also reminded voters that they should not take “selfie” photographs while voting in Greene County But in an attempt to give people a place to record the moment on social media, the elections office will have “selfie spaces” with signs outside the polling locations that can be used for photographic backdrops.

Washington County has a more lenient policy. Parry said due to some recent court federal court decisions – not in the Western District of Pennsylvania – judges of elections may use discretion when voters want to photograph themselves and their ballot. Selfies may not include anything else or anyone else at the polling place.

Meanwhile, Greene County has processed 1,214 new registrations since the primary and 438 party affiliation changes.

“It’s a big election,” she said.

Elections officials are reminding the public that absentee ballot applications are due by Nov. 1 and absentee ballots must be received at the elections office no later than Nov. 4. Cortes noted that the post office often takes longer to process mail than was the case when the state’s Election Code was written in 1937, so he encouraged absentee voters to visit their elections offices in person, if possible, to drop off completed ballots before the deadline.

Regional Editor Mike Jones also contributed to this story.