DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. — A bipartisan panel of former and current Pennsylvania officials answered questions about the election process as they seek to maintain trust in the system leading into November.
The discussion was held at Widener University Commonwealth Law School in Dauphin County by the nonpartisan group Keep Our Republic, which focuses on strengthening trust in elections nationwide.
The panel included Commonwealth Secretary Al Schmidt, former Governor Tom Corbett, former Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge Robert Graci and Cumberland County Commissioner Jean Foschi.
Attendees submitted questions to the panel on subjects ranging from whether non-citizens are able to vote to whether voting machines are connected to the internet and can be hacked.
Secretary Schmidt responded by saying that no voting machines or tabulating systems in Pennsylvania are connected to the internet, and Foschi explained the process of verifying the citizenship of a voter.
“In Pennsylvania, to be registered to vote you have to live here for 30 days, you have to be 18, you have to be a US citizen and you have to provide either your PA driver's license or a PA-issued ID or your Social Security number,” Foschi said. “As soon as you register to vote and that comes to the county, the county sends it off to the Social Security Administration or the driver's license center. All of that is double-checked.”
Schmidt says the goal of the event and other events from Keep Our Republic is to ensure transparency to keep voters informed.
“It's important that people know more about elections,” Schmidt said. “The more you know about elections, the more confidence you have and the results, and you don't want anyone to be dissuaded from voting because of all sorts of nonsense that they might encounter on social media or elsewhere.”