After Donald Trump lost Pennsylvania in 2020, he took to Twitter to direct his fury directly at Al Schmidt, then Philadelphia’s city commissioner, prompting a barrage of threats. Photos of Schmidt’s house were emailed to his family along with threats, so they had to temporarily move elsewhere for safety.
The events surrounding the 2020 election defined Schmidt’s public persona. Then President Joe Biden awarded him the Presidential Citizens’ Medal, Gov. Josh Shapiro tapped him to oversee state elections as Secretary of the Commonwealth, and Schmidt would spend the four years after the 2020 presidential election defending the integrity of the election against attacks from Trump allies.
Earlier this month, Schmidt certified Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, and on December 17, he presided over a ceremony in which he formally handed over the state’s Electoral College votes to Trump.
Schmidt, who has a background in government audits and more than a decade of election experience, can talk at length about the details of election data analysis and the intricacies of the law, but he avoids discussing his personal life.
While Trump’s 2020 tweet likely turned his life upside down, he had no qualms in affirming Trump’s 2024 victory.
“I am not a robot,” he said in an interview after the election was certified. “I am well aware of what my family has been through in 2020, but it has no bearing on my professional responsibilities to ensure that voters have their say in every election.”
In recent weeks, nominations for the next Trump administration have been made, especially the future director of the FBI Kash Patelsuggested investigating people who questioned Trump’s claims about the 2020 election or testified before the commission investigating the January 6 attack. Asked if he was concerned about threats or investigations during Trump’s second term, Schmidt did not express any concerns.
“I am confident that Pennsylvania’s 2020 elections were as free, fair and secure as the 2024 elections.” – he said. “When you’re on the right side of the law, you really have nothing to worry about.”
Pennsylvania returns to tradition of routine elections
Pennsylvania’s election wasn’t as hectic or close as expected. Trump won the state by a 1.71% margin, the largest margin since Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney in 2012.
Because of that margin, the Dec. 17 Electoral College vote was muted, unlike four years ago when Trump’s alternate electors met to cast votes in several swing states in an apparent attempt to reverse his loss.
Pennsylvania’s Electoral College casts votes for the Trump-Vance ticket
The proceedings suggest that the 2020 event was an aberration rather than a up-to-date normal.
The commonwealth has participated in every Electoral College since the first Electoral College in 1789. “The 10 participating states unanimously elected George Washington, the nation’s first president,” said Schmidt, who holds a doctorate in history from Brandeis University. Although “such unanimity is rare today,” Schmidt said, most people agree that preserving democratic traditions “is a sacred responsibility.”
This year, Pennsylvania returned to this tradition. The most dramatic moment of the Electoral College vote was the replacement of an elector who had to be present at the birth of his child. It happened without fanfare. Because Shapiro was tardy, Schmidt was forced to read the governor’s intended speech. He thanked himself for the well-conducted elections, which caused laughter from the participants.
Many election administrators and observers were prepared for various worst-case scenarios on Election Day and in the weeks that followed that did not materialize. Over the past few years, counties have increased staff security measures to address hostility directed at election workers. The state Supreme Court has shortened the deadlines for hearing court cases so that protracted disputes do not conflict with election dates.
Outside groups such as Informing Democracy and Protect Democracy have warned of the risk of district officials refusing to certify the results, a scenario the State Department also prepared for.
Turnover among county-level election administrators has also raised concerns loss of institutional knowledge would lead to administrative errors that could be used to cast doubt on the results.
Schmidt calls turnover of election officials in Pennsylvania counties a ‘real problem’
“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t worry about everything,” Schmidt said. But he said anxiety is a good thing – it focuses his attention.
Few of his worries came true. Counties and the state certified the election well before the federal deadline. Post-election disputes arose – mostly related to the close U.S. Senate race – but were quickly resolved. Municipal election administrators have largely avoided making mistakes.
More smoke than fire
There was some uncertainty on Election Day. Cambria County in central Pennsylvania discovered that its tabulators could not scan county ballots that were misprinted; in southwestern Fayette County, a local poll worker said ballots would be counted by hand, which would delay results; and bomb threats were called into several counties across the state.
“Imagine you’re a fire station and you’re getting a lot of calls to the fire department,” Schmidt said on election night between updates to the public. “You have to quickly figure out which one is real and which one isn’t.”
When the smoke cleared, no real fires were found.
A district judge banned a poll worker in Fayette from counting hands. The bomb threatsalthough they caused some delays, they did not prove to be justified and did not significantly impede the functioning of the district.
Voters continued to cast ballots in Cambria County, with more votes cast in the presidential election there than in any other presidential election in the past two decades.
“Election Day is always a bumpy day,” Schmidt said. But the elections were “free, fair and secure.”
“I think it was a real success, especially considering the amount of turnover among election administrators in Pennsylvania and across the country.”
Signs of growing confidence in elections
A Pew Research Center poll released earlier this month found almost Nine out of 10 U.S. voters thought the election went very or fairly wellwhich is a 30% boost compared to a similar survey conducted after the 2020 election.
Echoing an oft-used saying by election officials, Schmidt said before Election Day that administrators “will be praying for high turnout and wide margins” to avoid disputes.
But he also credits election officials for making themselves available to the public to explain the process and answer questions as they arise.
…all I know is that you have a professional obligation to answer people’s questions, not to run and hide when the truth is on your side.
– Commonwealth Secretary Al Schmidt
Schmidt’s main goal in his work was to explain the electoral process to the public. In the months leading up to the elections, he gave dozens of interviews to print, radio and television media, and also participated in public forums where every citizen could freely ask questions.
“How many people do you convince? “I don’t know,” he said. “But I know you have a professional obligation to answer people’s questions, not to run and hide when the truth is on your side.”
The responsibilities go beyond just answering questions, Schmidt said. Every election official he meets understands the “sacred responsibility” he has to conduct fair elections, and he tries to separate his personal and political opinions from that responsibility. And if they can’t do that, he said, “then there’s really no point in getting involved in election administration.”
It remains an open question whether the boost in confidence in the elections will continue. While public confidence may have increased, there were still areas of concern in the post-election period. Republicans pointed out that votes taken by boards of elections to count undated absentee ballots were an attempt to steal the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania; some liberals have turned to conspiracy theories to explain the loss of Kamala Harris; and Trump and his allies have not abandoned the view that the 2020 election was stolen.
“I think everyone, including myself, took for granted the stability of our electoral process in the United States, and in 2020 that was somewhat shaken,” Schmidt said. “We should be grateful for the renewed trust in our democratic process. But we shouldn’t take it for granted. We saw just a few years ago that this could easily be shaken.”
Carter Walker is a Votebeat reporter with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at [email protected].
