There were no death threats, no list of fake electors, no masks.
Pennsylvania’s electors gathered in the House chamber in Harrisburg on Tuesday so that voters could complete their primary task of casting the state’s 19 Electoral College votes for President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance.
The 2024 meeting of Pennsylvania’s electors was nothing like the 2020 meeting – and, above all, it was a return to normal.
“Pennsylvania’s electoral system worked,” said Jim Worthington, owner of a Bucks County fitness empire and a Trump elector, in remarks read by Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Lawrence Tabas. Tabas replaced Worthington as alternate elector and president of the state’s electors while Worthington awaits the birth of his daughter.
“Pennsylvania is the birthplace of our nation, and once again we have played an outsized role,” Worthington added, noting the Commonwealth’s role in securing the presidency for Trump as the swing state with the most Electoral College votes.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, was unable to attend because weather conditions prevented him from flying to Harrisburg during his earlier event in Philadelphia with the Philadelphia Eagles. Secretary of State Al Schmidt read Shapiro’s remarks on his behalf and congratulated the 19 electors and alternate electors for fulfilling their duties during the 60th meeting of the state’s Electoral College.
“For nearly two and a half centuries, Pennsylvanians have gone to the ballot box and made their voices heard, voices that you reflect today when you cast your ballot,” Shapiro said. “This year, millions of Pennsylvanians went to the polls and we once again held free, fair and secure elections here in the commonwealth.”
The public was barred from attending the Electoral College meeting, allowing only invited guests and the accredited press to view the critical democratic process in person.
The State Department did not immediately comment on why the public was not allowed to vote as it was in previous elections. This is the second consecutive presidential election in which citizens were banned from observing voting, including during the 2020 public health emergency.
In 2020, still facing the Covid-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden’s voters had to change the long-used location of the House of Representatives chambers to cast their ballots to allow for social distancing. That location was kept secret from the public — though not the press — to prevent security threats as election officials and individual voters received death threats after Trump spread conspiracy theories about the state’s results.
Unlike Trump in 2020, Vice President Kamala Harris embraced this year’s results and encouraged her supporters to do the same. That meant there was much less drama on Tuesday — and less risk to voters’ physical safety — than four years ago.
In 2020, Republican electors met in Harrisburg to sign papers falsely stating that Trump had won the election, which Pat Poprik, chairwoman of the Bucks County Republican Party and who was the false elector, said was a precautionary measure in case Trump’s legal efforts were successful.
Now four years later, Poprik was serving as vice president of the state’s electors and reflecting on the contrast.
“There were so many stories about fraudulent voters and stolen elections and so on that it just overshadowed everything,” Poprik said. “It was very clear and everyone was very elated. There was no question of dragging it out for months.
Staff writer Katie Bernard contributed reporting.
