Philadelphia, surrounding counties, certify the 2024 election

PHILADELPHIA — After intense campaigns, dozens of lawsuits, half a recount and rampant misinformation, Philadelphia election officials certified the 2024 general election Monday.

In a meeting that lasted less than 10 minutes, the three-member Philadelphia Board of Commissioners approved minutes from their prior meeting and asked for public comment. (There was none.)

Then they passed around paperwork to sign, formally certifying the election. And with that, they were on to the next contest, the May 2025 primary.

“We don’t go fishing between elections; we start working on the next election,” board chair Omar Sabir, a Democrat, said before adjourning.

The low-key meeting, which mirrored similar proceedings across the commonwealth, was a stark contrast to what many feared and prepared for in the aftermath of 2020, when then-President Donald Trump, now the president-elect, contested the results of the election based on lies about voter fraud.

Each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties were required to certify their election results by the end of the day Monday. In the Philadelphia area, Chester County certified its results Friday, and Delaware and Montgomery Counties also met to certify Monday. Bucks County election officials were expected to sign the certification paperwork Monday.

In a statement, the Pennsylvania Department of State said that as of Monday afternoon a small handful of counties had not yet certified the election but would do so after resolving “outstanding issues.”

Once each county submits its certified results to the Department of State, the department will certify the statewide results and Gov. Josh Shapiro will formally allocate Pennsylvania’s Electoral College votes to Trump on Dec. 11.

Counties began a recount of the U.S. Senate race between Sen. Bob Casey and Senator-elect Dave McCormick but stopped after Casey conceded last week.

Trump entered Election Day falsely claiming that Pennsylvania’s elections were already fraught with cheating — misconstruing investigations into fraudulent voter-registration applications as proof of fake ballots. Right-wing activists entered frivolous 11th-hour challenges to thousands of mail ballots that were all dismissed or withdrawn. And overturned county-level votes to count undated mail ballots (despite court orders not to) prompted claims from Republicans that Democrats were trying to “steal” the Senate race.

No evidence of election fraud emerged. And officials across the Philadelphia area voted on unanimous, bipartisan bases to certify the results.

Certification meetings weren’t entirely drama-free, though.

Individual community members arrived at board meetings in Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester with concerns about alleged election irregularities. In Delaware County, residents echoed debunked claims about machine-testing issues, and some in Chester County urged a delay in certification until more data was available.

In Montgomery County, the meeting became tense as dozens of members of the public flooded the meeting room to express frustration with the election board on a variety of issues, including its vote to count undated mail ballots. Some argued that the decision had irreparably harmed faith in elections in the county.

At times, that testimony moved into false claims of election fraud, and some called for the election board chair, Neil Makhija, to resign. Makhija often engaged in a back-and-forth with constituents, defending his actions and forcefully rejecting their arguments that he and fellow Democratic member Jamila Winder were election deniers.

“We’re about to certify an election, and I think we expect to do that, and perhaps neither of us agreed with the outcome or wanted, but here we are upholding the process,” Makhija said.

But there was also bipartisan approval of the work election officials had done this year.

In Chester County, officials from the county Republican party showered compliments on the local election staff, suggesting that the Democrat-controlled board should look into giving the director of voter services, Karen Barsoum, a bonus. They still reiterated concerns about transparency by the board and urged it to do more to work with Republicans moving forward.

“Karen always found time to answer our questions, amazingly patient with some of the questions,” said Delores Troiani, an attorney for the county GOP.

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