After months of intense campaigning, dozens of lawsuits, half a recount and rampant disinformation, Philadelphia election officials certified the 2024 general election on Monday.
At such a meeting// lasted less than 10 minutesThe three-member Philadelphia Board of Commissioners approved the minutes of its previous meeting and requested public comment. (There was none.)
They then handed over the documents for signing, formally certifying their selection. And so they moved on to the next competition, the primaries, which will take place in May 2025.
“We don’t fish between elections; we start working on the next election,” board Chairman Omar Sabir, a Democrat, said before the break.
The low-key gathering, which mirrored similar developments across the Commonwealth, was a stark contrast to what many feared and prepared for after 2020, when then-President Donald Trump, now president-elect, challenged election results based on lies based on the topic of electoral fraud.
Each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties was required to certify election results by the end of Monday. In the Philadelphia area, Chester County confirmed its results on Friday, and Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties also met to confirm their results on Monday.
In a statement, the Pennsylvania Department of State said as of Monday afternoon, a compact handful of counties had not yet certified the election but would do so after “outstanding issues” were resolved.
Once each county submits its certified results to the State Department, the department will certify the statewide results, and on December 11, Gov. Josh Shapiro will formally award Pennsylvania’s Electoral College votes to Trump.
Counties began a recount of the U.S. Senate race between Sen. Bob Casey and Sen.-elect Dave McCormick, but it was paused after Casey conceded last week.
Trump went into Election Day falsely claiming that Pennsylvania’s election was already rife with fraud, misinterpreting investigations into fraudulent voter registration applications as evidence of fraudulent ballots. Right-wing activists filed frivolous 11th-hour challenges to thousands of absentee ballots that were rejected or withdrawn. The invalidation of votes at the county level to count undated absentee ballots (despite a court order not to do so) led to Republican claims that Democrats were trying to “steal” the Senate race.
No evidence of voter fraud emerged. Officials from across the Philadelphia area voted unanimously, on a bipartisan basis, to certify the results.
However, the certification meetings were not completely drama-free.
Individual community members came to board meetings in Montgomery, Delaware and Chester with concerns about alleged election irregularities. Delaware County residents repeated debunked claims about problems with testing the machines, and some in Chester County pushed for certification to be delayed until more data is available.
In Montgomery County, the meeting became tense as dozens of members of the public flooded the meeting room to express frustration with the board of elections on a variety of issues, including its vote on counting undated absentee ballots. Some argued that the decision irreparably damaged faith in the county’s elections.
At times, these testimonies veered into false claims of voter fraud, with some calling for Electoral Commission chairman Neil Makhija to resign. Makhija has frequently engaged in arguments with voters, defending his actions and strongly rejecting their arguments that he and fellow Democratic Party MP Jamila Winder were election denialists.
“We are about to certify the elections and I think we expect that, even though perhaps none of us agreed with the outcome or wanted it, but here we are maintaining the process,” Makhija said.
But the work done by election officials this year was also bipartisan.
In Chester County, GOP officials showered local election workers with compliments, suggesting the Democrat-controlled board should consider giving bonuses to Election Services Director Karen Barsoum. They continued to raise concerns about the board’s transparency and urged it to make more efforts to continue working with Republicans.
“Karen always took time to answer our questions, some of which she was extremely patient with,” said Delores Troiani, attorney for the county GOP.
