HARRISBURG, Pa. — With Election Day getting closer, Pennsylvania is looking at ways to assist local election officials ahead of November.
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Department of State launched a new training program for county election directors. The announcement comes as more than 70 election directors and deputies from 40 counties have left their jobs since 2020.
Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said the new training team is tasked with getting all county election offices up to speed.
“There’s no re-dos when it comes to elections; there’s no do-overs or anything like that," said Schmidt. "In the current environment, anytime a mistake is made it’s easily misinterpreted as being intentional or deliberate.”
The new training team includes professionals with previous experience running elections in counties across Pennsylvania.
Lebanon County Election Director Sean Drasher said state trainers have already been working with election workers across the Commonwealth. He said the training sessions will work to establish 'baseline minimum training.'
The new training team is running courses on voter registration, ballot creation, and security.
“Some of them are 101 stuff I wish I had a few years ago," said Drasher. "It’s not just a new person coming in and hearing, ‘This is how Sean does things, or how Lebanon County does things.’ This is how things are generally done across the state.”
Secretary Schmidt says the training will allow election officials to keep elections in Pennsylvania running smoothly.
“[Elections] have never been more free, fair, and secure in Pennsylvania, and we want to keep it that way.”