Pennsylvania Has Already Become Ground Zero for Election-Fraud Claims
Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt (middle) says he worries the attacks could erode faith in the election system while many people are still preparing to vote. Photo by Rachel Wisniewski / Reuters
The Wall Street Journal
Nuns in Erie falsely accused of perpetrating voter fraud. A suburban Philadelphia election-line snafu amplified worldwide in under half an hour. A Tuesday night rallying cry by Donald Trump: “They have already started cheating in Lancaster.”
Across Pennsylvania, local and state officials are warning that efforts by Trump and his supporters to call into question the integrity of the presidential election in the crucial swing state are ramping up—before a single ballot has been counted.
The state’s top election official, Republican Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, said Wednesday that in just the previous 24 hours, several widely disseminated videos lacked context or were false.
“Sharing social posts filled with half-truths or even outright lies is harmful to our representative democracy,” he said at a press conference, urging voters to get information from trusted sources and adding that “mis- and disinformation” about the state’s election is “likely to continue in the coming days and weeks ahead.”
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