Elections workers deserve respect

No one has had a year quite like those administering elections and counting votes.

This has been a difficult election year for just about everyone, but no one has had it tougher than the people responsible for administering elections and counting votes.

The combination of a pandemic, brand new voting rules and an intensely heated campaign put tremendous pressure on county governments throughout Pennsylvania. In our region, the election boards and especially the people working for them have done an excellent job under these trying circumstances.

Let us stipulate that it is reasonable to take issue with some of the decisions made in Harrisburg that led to confusion before and even after the votes started to be counted and slowed down the process.

But it is unconscionable for anyone unhappy with the process to take out their frustrations on the people who have been working extraordinarily hard to get the votes counted. Election workers have received death threats amid the ongoing controversy over Pennsylvania’s vote count. Abusive messages are being delivered to workers in our region as well. It’s infuriating and inexcusable.

Consider the challenge that was presented. In a state that had never allowed widespread mail-in voting until this year, each county had to develop a system for collecting and storing huge numbers of those votes, and then figure out a way to count them efficiently and fairly.

In Berks County, election officials rented the ballroom in Reading’s DoubleTree by Hilton hotel and turned it into the headquarters for opening and counting tens of thousands of mailed ballots.

More than 200 county employees worked around the clock using an efficient system to accomplish the task of sorting, opening and tabulating the ballots. It was a great success.

“Without a doubt the county employees that came in on Election Day and did what they did — opening roughly 61,000 ballots — were absolutely phenomenal,” said Ronald Seaman, chief county administrator. “I’m so proud of everything they’ve done.”

Chester County rented out West Chester University’s Ehinger Gymnasium as its center for processing about 150,000 mailed votes plus thousands more provisional ballots.

County Chief Administrator Bobby Kagel said the election workers there have been diligent in not allowing surrounding political turmoil to distract them from their tasks.

“Our election staff has been incredible throughout this process,” he said. “They all understand the scrutiny we are all under, and even though it may be wearing on them, at the end of the day they faithfully and truly execute their responsibilities.

“As a group, I have never seen people work so hard and tirelessly as everyone from Voter Services.”

The count also went smoothly in Montgomery County.

“I think the county has done a superb job handling this election. We should all be very grateful to the county staff who has been working tirelessly on this,” said county Commissioner Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr., who is chairman of the county Board of Elections. “We essentially have been running an election for a month now since ballots went out, with our drop off locations, with our satellite offices and we nearly tripled the size of our Voter Services staff. I think the people of Montgomery County should be very proud of the way this election was run.”

The challenge was immense, with about 280,000 requests for mail-in ballots and more than 243,000 completed ballots received. Most of them had been counted within a day of the election.

So much of the focus has been on mail-in votes, but administering the traditional polls was a tremendous challenge as well. We salute the many people who agreed to put aside pandemic concerns and work a long day at voting precincts.

Of course we’re not saying everything was perfect on Election Day. There were long lines at many polling places. Some people had to wait hours to vote. In Reading there were issues with not having enough interpreters at a precinct with a large Spanish-speaking population. And we share many Americans’ frustration with the slow pace of counting in some parts of our state.

But the people who worked on the election in our region deserve credit, not abuse, for their hard work in getting us through this historic election. Show them respect and don’t leave them caught in the middle of this battle over ballots.