Schmidt says Cambria election office 'well-run'

Apr. 18—EBENSBURG, Pa. — Ever since becoming Pennsylvania's secretary of the commonwealth last year, Al Schmidt has been visiting county election offices to gain a fuller understanding of how they are operating on a day-to-day basis.

On Wednesday, he stopped at the Cambria County Election Office.

"The good thing is Cambria is a really well-run oper- ation," said Schmidt during an interview at Pour on Center in Ebensburg. "It's clear to see. I'm not here because something's amiss. I'm here because I want to hear directly from the election administration at the county level because they're really the ones that run elections.

"It's not Pennsylvania Department of State. We have oversight responsibility that is important. But elections are run at the county level, just like on Election Day, elections are really run at the precinct level with the judge of elections."

Schmidt also spoke about the important role poll workers play in making elections go smoothly.

"We've definitely seen an issue, over the years, with a need to recruit poll workers," he said.

"Elections have changed a lot, and a lot of people who have done it for a really long time are fatigued by all the changes. They served their time, and now they're taking a break from it.

"I think that's one reason why we've really focused heavily on recruiting younger poll workers to sort of step up and play an important role in the process. And hopefully we'll have them for years or decades to come."

Pennsylvanians have experienced significant changes to the election process in recent years, including when all voters became eligible to use mail-in ballots prior to the 2020 election, as opposed to the past when absentees were given for only specific reasons.

"Elections have changed a lot in the past several years, so it's no wonder that people have questions about elections," Schmidt said. "And it's important that we do our part to make sure that voters have confidence that they have never been more safe and secure than they are now with a voter-verifiable paper ballot record of every vote that's cast that is used in two audits after every election to make sure that the results are accurate.

"Before 2020, Pennsylvania did not have that."

Dave Sutor is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at 814-532-5056. Follow him on Twitter @Dave_Sutor.