Behind the scenes in vote-counting in Philadelphia

We hear a lot, righteously, about Republicans who would not vote to certify an election that didn’t turn out their way.

I am not suggesting an equivalency between Donald J. Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of a “stolen election” (plus the GOP’s effort to install false electors) with anything the Democrats have done, but Axios is reporting some Democratic leaders are equivocating about accepting the 2024 results. The story looks back to 2005, when there was an attempt to overturn George W. Bush’s victory.

A piece by the libertarian Cato Institute lists (and minimizes) the Democrats’ dark activities in the past. 

I repeat: I am not drawing an equivalency between the two parties, just noting that Democrats do not have clean hands either. As a man in the middle, I see both sides.

Am I saying no one has the right to protest an election?

Of course not.

What I am saying, as I have said to the Trumpsters all along, is that you must have evidence of skullduggery, not just inchoate anger at the result. Don’t expect sympathy if you pull a Rudy Giuliani: “We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence.” Evidence is mandatory.

His insane and insincere “theories” led to a $148 million defamation judgment against him. (Which is ridiculously high, he never had that kind of money, but that’s another topic.)

I use this as an entry point to my Friday visit to the Philadelphia Election Warehouse in the Greater Northeast, where the ballots will be counted in a three-story structure that seemed the size of four football fields.

It kind of looks like a prison, and it is so secure you need a pass key to get out of the counting room, in addition to getting in. 

There were a number of sections to handle various aspects of the count, a place for party-appointed observers, and a pen for press.

It was very hard to hear Commissioner Omar Sabir, who acted as the tour guide for about 50 journalists. Here’s a couple of handouts that summarize the process:

.

I had one big question, that I put to City Commissioner Seth Bluestein, the one Republican, serving alongside two Democrats.

Given the cohort of election-denier Neanderthals we live with, transparency is urgent, I told Bluestein. Will the activities in this building be broadcast, so the public can see?

Broadcast, no.

But available, yes.

It will be live streamed on vote.phila.gov

Live, 24/7, so you can tune and watch election workers doing their jobs.

This may not satisfy the Neanderthals, nothing will. But it does create a visual record. 

On hand were the three City Commissioners, who oversee local elections, and also Al Schmidt, who used to be a City Commissioner, and was tapped by Gov. Josh Shapiro to become Secretary of State. Al is a Republican, but a moderate who treasures democracy. 

I have great faith in him, and when he was here, he was my go-to guy for 411 on local elections. I found him more open and better informed than his two Democratic partners.

You may know that his efforts to guarantee a fair election and its outcome brought death threats to him and his family.

Those threats came from the Right.

Across the nation, based on basically nothing, election workers were bullied and threatened in a manner unlike anything before.

Both Republican and Democratic election workers were threatened, usually on the basis of wild, insane, criminal rumors of election rigging, fanned by you-know-who.

I am not saying there were zero irregularities.

You always have that.

But as Trump’s Attorney General William Barr said:

Some won’t believe it, because they have never witnessed the election process, which varies from state to state.

When I was a Democratic committeeman, and a poll watcher, I saw the process — how votes were tabulated electronically, and the paper trail that is left.

I had no special access. If you suspect something fishy is going on with elections, contact the local headquarters of your political party and volunteer to be a poll, or count, watcher.

Chances are, they will be glad to see you.

And you will get to see democracy behind the scenes, as few Americans do.

If you have the chance to participate, and don’t, when the results are announced, STFU.