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NewsTranscript
00:00Good evening, everyone. I want to thank you for being here. It's about 8.30 p.m. on Election
00:08Day, and that means with the exception of a few polling places that remain open for
00:13additional time under judges' orders, polls are now closed across the Commonwealth of
00:20Pennsylvania. Across our Commonwealth today, we've seen high turnout and long lines. If
00:26you are in line to vote by 8 p.m., I ask you to please stay in line. You're eligible to
00:33vote, and you will be permitted to cast your ballot. Please, please, please be patient
00:39and remain in line. We've also been made aware that in the course of the last hour, multiple
00:46bomb threats have been called into polling locations and municipal buildings across Pennsylvania.
00:53My team and I have been in direct communication with Pennsylvania State Police Colonel Christopher
00:58Parris, who is coordinating with local and federal law enforcement, as well as PEMA.
01:05State and local law enforcement, along with the FBI, are investigating these threats,
01:11and thus far, there is no credible threat to the public. As in every election, a few
01:18Pennsylvania counties reported isolated, localized issues at the precinct level. Those
01:24counties worked quickly to address those issues. The only countywide issue that we encountered
01:30today was in Cambria County, where the court took appropriate action to extend voting hours
01:36to 10 p.m. tonight, so that all voters can have the opportunity to cast their vote. Now,
01:43the most polls are closed. Local election officials across the Commonwealth, along with
01:47thousands of trained volunteers, have begun counting the votes here in Pennsylvania. As
01:53these votes are counted, they will be reported to the Department of State, and we will post
01:59live results at the website at electionreturns.pa.gov. I want to reassure Pennsylvania and all the
02:08folks across the country who are paying attention to our Commonwealth that every legal eligible
02:15vote will be counted accurately, and that the will of the people will be respected.
02:23I also want to reassure Pennsylvanians that our county partners know how to process and
02:29count votes accurately. Secretary Schmidt has spent the last year visiting all 67 counties
02:36and meeting with election staff all across Pennsylvania. His great team at the Department
02:42of State has been working with our county partners over the last two years to train
02:47election clerks all across Pennsylvania and ensure that they are ready to administer elections
02:53freely and fairly. All 67 counties are now prepared and ready to process and count ballots
03:01securely and accurately. I've been asked many times over the last several months what improvements
03:08have been made since the last presidential election here in Pennsylvania. Let me walk
03:13you through a few of the differences. First, all 67 counties now have far more experience
03:21handling and processing mail ballots. Since 2020, our election partners have successfully
03:28administered eight elections that saw a large percentage of votes cast by mail. Second,
03:36county officials have purchased new equipment that allow them to process votes more quickly.
03:42And thanks to Act 88, which became law in 2022, counties are now mandated to count votes
03:50continuously through the night until they've completed the task. And third, in 2020, about
03:572.5 million Pennsylvanians voted by mail, which meant 2.5 million mail ballots had to be processed
04:05and counted. This year, it appears that the final number of mail ballots needing to be processed and
04:11counted will be closer to 2 million. That's not a reflection on the energy around the presidential
04:18race or any race in Pennsylvania or a reflection of Pennsylvanians' interest in voting. Rather,
04:25it is a reflection of how people chose to vote, and it seems that more people showed up at the
04:31polls in person today than in 2020.