PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia officials are not expecting any trouble at the polls Tuesday, but they say they are prepared just in case.
The mayor, police commissioner, district attorney and city commissioners, at a press conference Monday, assured voters that their ballots and their safety will be protected when they go to vote.
The city’s Election Task Force hotline — 215-686-9641 — is up and running. Mayor Jim Kenney asks voters to report suspicious activity “if you see or experience someone loitering at polling places or at drop boxes, trying to hinder or delay the election process, threatening or harassing poll workers, tampering with or destroying ballots or voting machines.”
Officials say to call 911 for anything that looks actually dangerous.
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said every district will have roving teams of officers assigned to respond quickly to polling locations.
“These officers will be wearing body-worn cameras and will be joined by district supervisors when responding,” she added.
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It may be a few days before the results are final because of the process of counting mail-in ballots, so officials urge voters to be patient. The task force’s hotline will be in operation until all votes are counted.
Al Schmidt, president and CEO of the election watchdog group Committee of Seventy, fears the counting process could be a dangerous time.
“I’d call on campaigns to be responsible with their rhetoric,” he said. “That rhetoric has real consequences — consequences resulting in election board workers and officials receiving threats.”
Schmidt knows all too well. He was threatened by his fellow Republicans in the 2020 election, when he was a Philadelphia city commissioner.
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