Can Philadelphia’s poll counters outrun election lies?

The room the place it occurs has steel beams and harsh overhead lighting. Paper whizzes by means of conveyor belts on massive gears close to tall, human-sized cages with keypad locks. 

Although it resembles one, this isn’t a manufacturing facility. It’s Philadelphia’s mail-in ballot-counting facility, the place someplace round 200,000 votes are anticipated to be tallied starting on Election Day. The longer that tally takes, the extra misinformation might seep right into a deep effectively of paranoia and mistrust over the democratic course of — one which overflowed 4 years in the past in a violent assault on the US Capitol.

The stakes, you might say, are excessive.

Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes might resolve whether or not former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris wins the 2024 presidential election. Most of the state’s ballots have already been forged by means of the mail. But Pennsylvania’s legal guidelines prohibit even starting to course of mail-in ballots till 7AM on Election Day. The outcome could be a critical delay in reporting election outcomes — in 2020, The Related Press didn’t name Pennsylvania as having been gained by Joe Biden till 4 days after Election Day.

The state’s resolution is a downright industrial ballot-counting course of, which elected officers invited reporters to preview (utilizing take a look at ballots for demonstration functions) in late October. It’s a extremely regimented course of that takes place in a sprawling warehouse in northeast Philadelphia, stuffed with the sounds of whirring ballot-sorting machines and the fixed rifling of paper. On Election Day, staff will open a whole bunch of 1000’s of mailed ballots and feed them into machines that learn and rely them, conserving a cautious eye on screens flagging any irregularities. The scanned ballots may also be watched by election observers from every political social gathering. “We do it proper,” says Philadelphia Metropolis Commissioners chair Omar Sabir, a Democrat. 

Town’s press tour is a part of a broader effort to teach voters and reassure them that voting is protected, safe, and reliable. It’s an tried bulwark towards false claims about ballots being inaccurately tallied, flipped, or destroyed to skew election outcomes.

Lisa Deeley, Democratic vice chair of the Philadelphia Metropolis Commissioners, says she doesn’t anticipate as lengthy of a delay as 2020. Mail-in voting was an unusually common possibility that yr as a result of ongoing covid-19 pandemic. However when conspiracies can ricochet throughout social media in seconds, each hour counts. “The extra folks hear issues, sadly, the extra inclined they’re to consider them,” she says.

As Deeley explains, election staff are “ranging from brick one” on Election Day. Meaning not simply tallying who votes for whom, however reviewing the signatures on sealed envelopes, eradicating them from their secrecy sleeves, and flattening the ballots themselves. Commissioners have been “begging” for reforms to this course of, Deeley says. Absent these adjustments, they’re left with technical and procedural options like shopping for new gear and counting on extra skilled election staff — shaving time without work the clock any manner they will.

“We all know that the eyes of the world are going to be on Philadelphia,” Metropolis Commissioner Seth Bluestein, a Republican, informed reporters gathered within the warehouse. “We’re going to run the most secure, most safe election in Philadelphia historical past.” 

The method of tallying ballots — as I and different reporters see, shuffling behind Sabir across the 360,000-square-foot room — begins with what appears like an outsized Xerox machine. It feeds ballots in sealed envelopes right into a conveyor belt on two gears and spits them out throughout a protracted observe, sorting them into completely different slots primarily based on ward and division. The machine scans barcodes on the envelopes, every one linked to a registered voter’s ID to mark the ballots as “acquired” so one voter can’t ship a number of votes. If it was mailed with out a signature or not positioned in its included secrecy envelope, it’s put aside and added to a listing that voters can examine, letting them appropriate the issue with a alternative poll. 

That is so far as staff can get earlier than Election Day, so the sorted envelopes go into safe storage till the morning of November fifth. Then, on the break of day, the rely begins. Twenty-two envelope extractors, constructed round desks the place staff will assist separate the envelopes from their contents as soon as opened, run about 1,000 envelopes every per hour. 4 speedy slicing machines open the yellow secrecy envelopes inside these envelopes at a fee of about 10,000 per hour. Employees take away the ballots from the now-opened secrecy envelopes — and since this course of is separated from when the ballots are faraway from their outer envelopes, it ensures votes keep nameless. Now patted flat, the ballots attain the step this complete course of is constructing as much as: the rely.

An election scanner is principally a big Scantron machine, with a stretched-out steel S-shape that ballots glide by means of because the machine reads the marks voters have made. This warehouse has eight high-speed scanners, every one anticipated to examine about 2,500 ballots per hour. (4 extra slower scanners can learn 1,000 per hour.) Some ballots can’t be learn — if they’ve been marked with a light-colored pen or had errors erased with Wite-Out, as an illustration. A employees of nonpartisan civil servants overview these and mark the voter’s selections onto alternative ballots, which may then be scanned.

Election observers — who’re chosen by every social gathering — will watch screens exhibiting the ballots to assist guarantee every part is adjudicated pretty. Lastly, the processed ballots go into one other locked storage space. They are going to finally be saved in long-term storage for the 22 months mandated by legislation — simply in case they’re wanted for a recount. 

As this rely is happening, an opposing course of shall be spinning up: a disinformation equipment that goals to persuade voters the election is being rigged.

In 2020, this course of coalesced into the “Cease the Steal” election denial motion, culminating in an try and overturn the election of President Joe Biden by pressure. In 2024, it’s already gotten began. A bunch of Republicans together with Home Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), who voted to maintain objections to the 2020 election outcomes, sued Pennsylvania’s state authorities, demanding navy and abroad ballots be put aside due to what election specialists name unfounded doubts in regards to the course of. (It was additionally just lately tossed by a choose.) Election deniers have gained seats on essential state and native our bodies that would give them leverage over election certification. And on-line, Trump mega-donor Elon Musk has arrange an X group for reporting “voter fraud and irregularities,” which has already crammed up with unfounded claims. 

For Philadelphia’s Metropolis Commissioners, misinformation is private. Sabir smiles as he relates one of many “craziest” conspiracy theories: a weblog submit that claimed he was personally taking ballots to a mobster in Atlantic Metropolis, New Jersey, to be destroyed. (It’s not clear why the mobster wants them trucked out greater than 60 miles simply to be shredded.) “We’re not doing loopy stuff. We’re simply attempting to come back to do our job for the American folks,” Sabir says.

The threats aren’t at all times amusing. Bluestein informed The Verge that, whereas ballots have been being counted in 2020, he acquired antisemitic threats. The harassment obtained so dangerous that Bluestein had police safety at his home the week of the election.

Up to now, “the warmth is down” in 2024, he says. However election officers across the nation are nonetheless on excessive alert. In Maricopa County in Arizona, one other swing state, an official just lately stated safety shall be out there to escort election staff to their automobiles. The state can be making ready for cutting-edge dangers like infiltration by synthetic intelligence scams, a state of affairs the employees roleplayed final yr.

Bluestein himself is attempting to identify and name out false info on-line. In a single case, he debunked an allegation — shared on X by Musk — {that a} nonprofit providing companies to low-income and houseless people harvested 1000’s of mail-in ballots from one deal with. (Bluestein says “fewer than 150 ballots” have been mailed there in 2020.)

His lively position on-line is partially as a result of he feels that social media platforms “usually are not doing pretty much as good a job as they did in 2020” with combating misinformation. 4 years in the past, platforms have been on excessive alert for false claims, even when they usually didn’t implement their insurance policies successfully. In 2024, the state of affairs is completely different. Beneath stress from Trump and his allies to take a extra hands-off position in relation to election misinformation, many tech corporations have relaxed the insurance policies that they had in place final time round. Meta and YouTube each rolled again guidelines towards false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and each Meta and X have made it tougher for researchers on their platforms to entry knowledge used to watch rising threats.

On the identical time, each Bluestein and Sabir say they haven’t but seen the identical stage of focused harassment and threats. Bluestein says broader misinformation claims are circulating, however he hasn’t discovered as many claims that single out particular officers or rank-and-file staff. Regardless of harassment in 2020, he says Philadelphia had no drawback recruiting ballot staff or staffers on the warehouse. “I feel everybody understands the significance of this work, and so they perceive that whereas there might be dangers related to it, they’re all signing as much as do the job.”

Misinformation usually picks at tensions that exist already. Black People, for instance, are already a gaggle generally focused by disenfranchisement efforts, which Sabir says leads to “misconceptions about ‘my vote doesn’t rely.’” Add disinformation to that, and Sabir says it drives a notion by means of this group of “What am I doing? Why am I losing my time?” 

Bluestein has discovered that he can persuade voters by means of one-on-one conversations. However throughout that point, false claims can attain hundreds of thousands of voters on-line. “Whenever you scale that as much as construct belief, it’s loads more durable,” Bluestein says. “However whenever you actually inform folks the info and present them, they’ll have extra religion.”

Whereas election officers attempt to persuade skeptics, election deniers have elevated their assaults towards the administration of the voting course of itself. In 2020, election deniers “used violent rhetoric because the means to suppress the vote and make it more durable for folk to vote, or make the voting course of appear scary and intimidating,” says Deborah Hinchey, Pennsylvania state director for the nonpartisan nonprofit All Voting is Native. This yr, she is seeing election deniers use “administrative techniques to do the identical factor — to suppress the vote, to make it appear an intimidating and overwhelming course of, and to make people really feel like their vote might not be counted.”

However Hinchey says these efforts will fail. In 2020, Trump attorneys and different allies introduced quite a few instances to vary the election outcomes after the very fact. These fits invariably fizzled, and a few of the attorneys who filed them have been sanctioned or disbarred. “The evaluation now appears to be, ‘Nicely, then let’s go immediately for the votes themselves, and discredit sure sorts of voters and make it appear to be sure persons are voting that aren’t, in order that we are able to then assault all votes.’”

Up to now, these makes an attempt largely haven’t panned out. Whereas right-wing activists all through Pennsylvania have sought to problem voter registrations, they’ve confirmed unsuccessful or recognized inactive voters election officers already knew about. 

As for belief, a September Highlight PA ballot by MassINC Polling Group discovered that 63 % of respondents have been very or considerably assured that votes within the presidential race could be counted precisely and pretty nationally. However voters had much more confidence in how elections in their very own counties could be administered — 78 % expressed confidence within the outcomes.

Organizers are seeing extra folks desirous to become involved within the strategy of democracy, and that participation will help quell election fears, says Susan Gobreski, president of the League of Ladies Voters of Philadelphia. Whereas listening to about election skeptics getting concerned within the course of may elevate some crimson flags, Gobreski says it’s essential to do not forget that “most individuals are literally performing in good religion.”

Arming the general public and the press with reliable info is a great transfer, says Hinchey. “You may’t dispel all dangerous info with good info, however you possibly can guarantee that organizations and the press have a very good understanding of how elections are literally functioning in Pennsylvania,” she says. Gobreski encourages voters to ask questions but additionally to “be ready to hearken to the solutions.”

Finally, Hinchey provides, most voters are simply on the lookout for dependable info. “The common Pennsylvania voter is on the lookout for the info of the state of affairs, and should take within the falseness, however when introduced with info, goes to just accept that as actuality.”

There’s one closing possibility on the desk for poll tallies: a hand rely. It’s frequent to audit samples of ballots by hand and examine them to machine outcomes, confirming the machines are working correctly. (Election officers additionally do preelection testing of apparatus to ensure they’re correctly calibrated, usually on livestreams.) However in states like Georgia, election skeptics have — up to now, unsuccessfully — pushed for full hand counts of each poll. That’s a recipe for errors and delays.

Hand-counting has an essential position in auditing elections, says Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, a Republican. “However in the event you’re simply counting by hand, you don’t have something to check it towards. So when folks do important numbers of hand counting, that’s the place you see extra errors.” In comparison with machine counts, it’s additionally a glacial course of. “If persons are sad with how lengthy they wait now, think about how lengthy” it could take with out the equipment to get outcomes, says Deeley. “It’s [like] going to Nabisco and having them make all of the cookies by scratch.”

On Election Day, the machines in Philadelphia’s warehouse will flip on, rifling by means of 1000’s and 1000’s of envelopes, slicing and scanning. Signatures shall be checked and folded. Paper shall be flattened. The work of democracy will run by means of machines and cautious human palms. It’s a tedious course of, however it’s additionally one which’s on the very coronary heart of the American experiment. Every poll counted is one step nearer to figuring out if Pennsylvania shall be coloured in crimson or blue on TV screens throughout the nation — and presumably figuring out the following president. And though each minute after polls shut is one other minute for spreading doubt in America’s electoral system, Philadelphia’s officers are resolute.

“Philadelphia is the birthplace of democracy,” says Sabir. “I’ll be damned if democracy dies right here.”