Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pa. deals with fake ballot ripping video in Bucks

Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Al Schmidt is commenting on the fake video that surfaced last week showing ballots being torn up in Bucks County.

This is one of many topics he discussed on Monday afternoon.

Schmidt says the Bucks County Board of Elections, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI investigated the video and identified the source of the disinformation.

“It’s a fake. Anyone who has experienced mail-in ballot processing or who knows anything about election administrations can see this a mile away,” Schmidt said. “Unfortunately, disinformation like this video can undermine citizens’ confidence in the election results.”

Secretary Schmidt says one of his biggest concerns is the amount of disinformation that will be spread in the coming weeks.

“Last week, even nuns in Erie were accused of committing voter fraud,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt announced a daily briefing, which he expects to attend until Election Day. He was referring to a report by the Lancaster County district attorney that identified potentially fraudulent voter registration forms in a party of about 2,500 people.

Schmidt says he can’t comment on the number of cases yet, but said county election officials immediately contacted and forwarded them to law enforcement. He said the Election Threat Task Force established earlier this year has many safeguards in place to ensure election integrity.

“Pennsylvanians can rest assured that the November 5 election will be free, fair and secure,” Schmidt said.

Tuesday is the deadline to request an absentee ballot.

Schmidt says counties have received and approved about 2 million ballot applications. About 1.4 million of them, or about 70%, were returned.