Connect with us

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania election officials are bracing for conspiracy theories, protests

Published

on

Pennsylvania election officials are bracing for conspiracy theories, protests


Republican Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania’s top election official, has crisscrossed his state in a campaign to spread the gospel of election security, four years after former President Donald Trump disputed the ballot count.

The swing state, with its 19 electoral votes, is critical to the campaigns of both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s also a state with a law that prevents the early processing of mail-in ballots, which dragged out the state’s count in 2020. The anticipated lag this year has election officials bracing for conspiracy theories, protests and violence.

“That window of time between the polls closing and races being called, I think, has shown to be a real vulnerability, where people seeking to undermine confidence in those results if they’re going to lose have really exploited,” Schmidt said. 

Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballot process

Unlike many other states, Pennsylvania can only begin processing mail-in ballots on the morning of Election Day. 

Advertisement

It took four days to call the election in Pennsylvania in 2020. As those days passed, leaving the 2020 election results hanging in the balance, all eyes were on the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Police and protesters were outside while Schmidt and his fellow members of the Board of Elections oversaw the counting of a record 375,000 mail-in ballots, most of them from Democratic voters.

“When you have half of your voters vote by mail, like we did in 2020, counting those votes takes time,” Schmidt said.

Al Schmidt
Al Schmidt

60 Minutes


At a ballot intake center in Chester County, elections administrator Karen Barsoum showed the two different envelopes each mail-in ballot arrives in.

Advertisement

“So, hypothetically speaking, if we have 100,000 mail-in ballots, we have to deal with double the amount of the envelopes, which is a long process,” Barsoum said. 

Then the ballot comes out and it needs to be unfolded and flattened out to remove creases. In all, it takes several minutes to process each mail-in ballot. 

Conspiracy theories take off 

Hours after the polls closed in 2020, then President Trump demanded the counting stop. Schmidt happened to be passing by a TV and heard Trump’s speech.

“We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list, OK?” Trump said at the time.

Schmidt brought together his communications team so they could reassure voters that the count would continue. Allegations of fraud spread as the mail-in ballots were counted.

Advertisement

“That’s when you start hearing about truckloads of ballots. And that’s when you start hearing about, you know, zombie voters,” Schmidt said. “That’s when all this other stuff really starts pouring in.”

At the end of Pennsylvania’s days-long count, the state was called for Joe Biden and, with that, he won the White House. But Trump continues to say that he won Pennsylvania in both 2016 — when he won by about 44,000 votes — and in 2020, when he lost by about 80,000 votes. 

“I understand that he’s a sore loser,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said. “I understand that he wished he would have won in 2020. But attacking this system made up of our neighbors from communities all across Pennsylvania, Republican and Democrat alike, is not the answer.”

Calls for reform, patience and faith 

In the wake of those four days in 2020, there were widespread calls to bring Pennsylvania in line with the majority of other states, where election workers get a head start on opening envelopes and flattening mail-in ballots ahead of Election Day. 

“Pennsylvania’s unique in that we have a divided legislature. We have a Democratic House and a Republican Senate,” Schmidt said. “So getting anything done related to election reform has certainly been a challenge.”

Advertisement

He has urged people to be patient with Pennsylvania. 

“Our counties are working night and day to count their voters’ votes,” Schmidt said. “They’re doing so as quickly as they can, and with integrity.”

In the leadup to Election Day, Schmidt is doing everything he can to take on the fears Trump continues to spread about Pennsylvania and to assure residents their votes will count.

“Elections in Pennsylvania have never been more safe and secure with a voter verified paper ballot record of every vote that’s cast, whether you vote in person on Election Day or you vote by mail,” Schmidt said.

Shapiro appointed Schmidt, who previously worked for a decade on Philadelphia’s Board of Elections, to the role of secretary of state last year. The governor was succinct when asked what Schmidt’s marching orders were.

Advertisement
Gov. Josh Shapiro
Gov. Josh Shapiro

60 Minutes


“Do your job,” Shapiro said he told Schmidt. “Make it so legal, eligible voters have access to the ballot box and that we again have a free and fair, safe and secure election.”

Schmidt is now visiting each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties and meeting with voters. At a fair in deep red Columbia County, Schmidt spent more than 35 minutes trying to convince local Republicans that they can trust the voting system.

“Everything is on the line”

A recent poll found around a third of Americans – and nearly 70% of Republicans – still believe Biden didn’t legitimately win the 2020 election. Trump has refused to commit to accepting the results if he loses in November. If that happens, it could cause violence in the state, Shapiro said. It could also mean election officials face threats from Trump supporters.

Advertisement

“Am I worried about that? Am I concerned about that? Of course I am,” Shapiro said. 

Schmidt was threatened by Trump supporters after the 2020 vote when Trump called him out by name in a Twitter post. 

“There were threats early on that were pretty generic in nature,” Schmidt said. “As days went on, they became a lot more specific.”

Those threatening him put out his address and graphically described what they would do to his family, Schmidt said. A picture of his home was shared and his children’s names were listed repeatedly. Schmidt temporarily moved his family for their safety. There was round-the-clock security for months. 

Still, Schmidt is sticking with his job. 

Advertisement

“Everything is on the line,” he said. “Our entire system of government, our country as it was founded, is on the line.”



Source link

Advertisement

Pennsylvania

Suspect arrested for shooting near basketball court in Elkins Park, Pa.

Published

on

Suspect arrested for shooting near basketball court in Elkins Park, Pa.


ABINGTON TWP., Pa. (WPVI) — Police have arrested a suspect who they say fired shots at a vehicle near a crowded basketball court in Montgomery County.

Jamell Whitmore, 18, of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, was arrested on Thursday.

The shooting happened on March 22 near a basketball court on the 300 block of Cadwalader Avenue in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

Shooting near Elkins Park basketball courts sends stray bullet into home

Advertisement

Police said multiple callers reported hearing gunfire around 8:15 p.m. and witnessed a large group of people run from the area behind the McKinley Firehouse.

As a vehicle drove by, one of the men in the group, identified by police as Whitmore, ran off to the parking lot to retrieve a gun and began firing multiple shots towards the vehicle.

Police say it’s unclear if the vehicle was hit, but one of the bullets struck a nearby home.

No one in the home was injured.

Police said no innocent bystanders or those involved in the shooting were injured.

Advertisement

The motive for the shooting remains unknown.

Copyright © 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania-born indie rockers Tigers Jaw return with new album release

Published

on

Pennsylvania-born indie rockers Tigers Jaw return with new album release


The chorus for the song “Primary Colors” was something Walsh wrote years ago, with the song’s outro originally being used as a verse.

“And something just wasn’t quite clicking, and everything that I tried felt kind of forced,” Walsh said. “We were all just like, ‘Yeah, there’s something here, but it’s not quite doing what I think it has the potential to do.’”

The band then started toying with the dynamics between the verses and the chorus.

Advertisement

“It just unlocked something for me in the idea where I was like, ‘Wow, this kind of quiet, loud, quiet, loud format really works well with this song,’” Walsh said. “So yeah, it just transformed it instantly into an idea that felt a lot stronger.”

The album was recorded with Grammy-winning producer Will Yip, a relationship still budding from their 2014 album, “Charmer.” Collins said the new album’s sound is “as true as we could be to playing the record live.”

“I wasn’t as tied to the tones that have classically been Tigers Jaw because I think at this point, I’ve just come to this realization that no matter what, if we’re making it, it is Tigers Jaw,” Collins said.

The new album has a “palpable energy” that shares the same spirit as their earlier records, Walsh said. And while “tastes evolve,” the band followed “what feels good.”

“This is the best representation of the band at the time, and it’s almost like a snapshot of us as artists, as people, as a creative entity over this time in our career,” he said.

Advertisement

“Lost On You” is out now through Hopeless Records and is available on vinyl, CD and various streaming platforms.

“Lost On You” was released on March 27, 2026, through Hopeless Records. The album is available on vinyl, CD and various streaming platforms.

On April 16, Tigers Jaw will perform at Union Transfer at 8 p.m. They will be supported by Hot Flash Heat Wave and Creeks, the solo project of Balance and Composure vocalist and guitarist Jon Simmons, who is from Doylestown, Pennsylvania.





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania court upends mandatory use of life-without-parole for second-degree murder

Published

on

Pennsylvania court upends mandatory use of life-without-parole for second-degree murder


What to Know

  • Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court says the state cannot automatically give life without parole for felony murder without weighing each defendant’s culpability in the killing.
  • The high court on Thursday ordered a new sentencing hearing for Derek Lee over a second-degree conviction, but paused it for four months to give state lawmakers time to consider legislation in response.
  • Pennsylvania law has made people liable for second-degree murder if they participated in an eligible felony that led to death. Life with no possibility of parole has been the only possible sentence.
  • The court says the current rule treats a lookout the same as the person who kills.

Pennsylvania’s high court on Thursday overturned the use of automatic life sentences without parole for people convicted of second-degree murder, saying it violates the state’s constitutional ban on cruel punishment when imposed without a closer look at the defendant’s specific role and culpability.

The court majority ordered resentencing in the case of Derek Lee, convicted of a 2014 killing in Pittsburgh, but the decision also has implications for others among the roughly 1,000 other inmates currently serving similar second-degree murder sentences.

The court’s order was put on hold for four months to give the General Assembly time to “consider appropriate remedial measures.” In a footnote, the justices said they were ruling on Lee’s sentence and not addressing “questions of retroactivity.”

Prison reform groups hailed it as a landmark decision, while the Allegheny County district attorney’s office said it will follow the court’s order.

Advertisement

Pennsylvania law has made people liable for second-degree murder if they participated in an eligible felony that led to death, and life without parole has been the only possible sentence.

“The mandatory penalty scheme of life without parole for all offenders convicted of second degree murder fails to assess individual culpability regarding the intent to kill, and mandates the same punishment regardless of that culpability,” wrote Chief Justice Debra Todd in the lead opinion. She characterized it as not distinguishing “between the lookout, and the killer who pulls the trigger.”

The state high court’s decision comes after years of advocacy to undo mandatory life without parole sentences both in Pennsylvania and nationally. Nazgol Ghandnoosh of the Washington-based Sentencing Project said she counts 11 states and the federal system as having such laws for that kind of crime, sometimes called felony murder. Several states — California, Colorado and Minnesota — have moved away from that sentencing framework in recent years, she said.

Justice Kevin Dougherty noted in a separate opinion that unlike those convicted of first-degree murder, defendants serving life without parole for second-degree murder have “never been found by a judge or jury to have harbored the specific intent to kill” and may not have had “any involvement whatsoever with the actual killing. He or she does not even have to expect or foresee that a life may be taken.”

Lee’s lawyers had wanted the court to rule that life without parole sentences are unconstitutional for all second-degree murder convictions in Pennsylvania, said Quinn Cozzens, a staff attorney for the Abolitionist Law Center, which helped represent Lee. Instead, the court ruled that trial judges must examine the individual circumstances of a defendant’s case to decide which sentence is most appropriate, including the potential of life without parole.

Advertisement

The state’s public defenders’ association said the ruling will generate new post-conviction litigation and require them to do more investigation as well as develop “strategic litigation” to get the decision to apply retroactively.

A jury convicted Lee of second-degree murder but acquitted him of first-degree murder in 44-year-old Leonard Butler’s shooting death. Butler was shot in a struggle over a gun with Lee’s codefendant, Paul Durham.

Prosecutors argued it should be up to state lawmakers and the executive branch to address the policy issues surrounding second-degree murder sentences. Todd wrote that while the district attorney’s office “acknowledges that there may be persuasive arguments why a non-slayer should not be held to the same degree of culpability as the slayer, it stresses that these are policy decisions for the General Assembly.”

Cozzens urged lawmakers to “address this constitutional violation, given that the court granted them the opportunity to do so.”

Rep. Tim Briggs, a suburban Philadelphia Democrat who chairs the state House Judiciary Committee, said he planned to engage with Senate Republicans on potential legislation in response.

Advertisement

Briggs said he wanted to have decision apply retroactively, to give people serving life “for being the getaway driver” to “have the opportunity to have their facts looked at again.”

“I think inaction leaves a lot of this up to the courts to decide. I don’t feel comfortable doing that,” Briggs said. “We have a policymaking role here.”

Justice Sallie Mundy wrote that Lee “willingly participated in an armed home invasion and robbery, and purposefully engaged in assaultive behavior in the form of tasing and pistol-whipping the victim.” She said Lee and Durham “arguably kidnapped the victims by forcing them into the basement” and it will be up to the county judge to decide if Lee’s life-without-parole sentence is appropriate.

Todd’s opinion, citing an advocacy group, said 73% of those convicted of felony murder in Pennsylvania were 25 or younger when the killing occurred and almost 70% are Black people.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro also responded to the ruling on X.

Advertisement





Source link

Continue Reading

Trending