Give us a sense of the kind of incoming demands you have gotten from the federal government.

Well, there have been several, primarily from the Department of Justice and from the Department of Homeland Security.

The biggest, of course, was a demand that we provide Pennsylvania's voter rolls to DOJ, and not just the publicly available voter rolls, but the Social Security numbers of every registered voter in Pennsylvania that we have, every driver's license number, and all the rest.

So that's information that we are, uh, obviously typically prohibited from sharing.

It would not be legal for us to share.

And it was clear that we weren't going to provide that information, and we declined their demand.

Uh, that information has to be safeguarded.

You actually looked into this once, right? Tell us that story.

How much of a threat to elections are attacks on the trustworthiness of elections?

I, I ...

It's extremely harmful.

I mean, you, you ...

A- a- anything that, um, undermines confidence with no basis in fact is harmful.

We want every eligible voter to register to vote, and every registered voter to cast their vote, and their voice to be heard in every election.

Not all voters take advantage of that.

Are you getting sufficient support from the federal government?

How much of a threat to elections are attacks on the trustworthiness of elections?

I, I ...

It's extremely harmful.

I mean, you, you ...

A- anything that, um, undermines confidence with no basis in fact is harmful.

We want every eligible voter to register to vote, and every registered voter to cast their vote, and their voice to be heard in every election.

Not all voters take advantage of that.

Are you getting sufficient support from the federal government?

How much of a threat to elections are attacks on the trustworthiness of elections?

I, I ...

It's extremely harmful.

I mean, you, you ...

A- a- anything that, um, undermines confidence with no basis in fact is harmful.

We want every eligible voter to register to vote and every registered voter to cast their vote and their voice to be heard in every election.

Not all voters take advantage of that.

Are you getting sufficient support from the federal government?

Have you had a chance to look at this report and how worrisome is it to you?

I have, but I would encourage our voters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere to know that despite all of this, nothing has changed when it comes to mail ballot voting.

It remains safe and secure.

The courts have prevented any of this from going into effect or being implemented, and that voters should vote however they choose and feel most comfortable voting, whether it's in person or online.

or by mail, and that in Pennsylvania, the Shapiro administration will stand up to any of these efforts at federal overreach to protect our voters' rights and to make sure that they can make their voice heard on Election Day.

So do you think that the mail ballot changes, if they go through, could impact the outcome of races this November? Or are you more sanguine about that at this moment?

Well, it's not really a question of being sanguine.

It's knowing that the United States is a country of laws and that the laws are on the side of our voters and voter rights, and that the courts have, certainly in this case, hurt us out, and it's moving forward in the courts.

Is there any movement? What has to happen where you didn't have to live in Philadelphia in order to be able to go to a polling place, go through the process and be an observer?

Right.

In Pennsylvania, our laws require that if you're going to be elected to one of those positions, to work the polls down the street at the church down the street or the rec center or whatever else.

And you mentioned Philadelphia specifically.

And I know how challenging it is, both when I was executive director of the Republican Party in Philadelphia and when I was a senior advisor to the state Republican Party.

how challenging it is to recruit people to serve as poll workers, especially because our whole system is built on checks and balances.

where you have Democratic and you have Republican representation at the polls.

What are you looking at for the midterms?

Yep

... executive director of the Republican Party in Philadelphia and when I was a senior advisor to the state Republican Party, how challenging it is to recruit people to serve as poll workers, especially because our whole system is built on checks and balances, where you have Democratic and you have Republican representation at the polls.

So that is why it's so important that at the local level, at your polling place, at your precincts or divisions, they're called in Philadelphia, that you have both parties represented.

It is absolutely a challenge when we have many precincts in Philadelphia where there are not a, a sizable number of people from both parties.

So having people represented from both parties is really important to the process.

The city commissioners do a lot of work with that.

Outside groups when, uh, uh, are aware of people who wanna work at the polls, they refer them to the city commissioners.

What are you looking at for the midterms?

What do you think is happening here, Secretary?

Well, I think the most concerning aspect of it that we've seen is a continuing pattern, and it's a pattern of reducing federal support for elections.

Fortunately, in these United States, it's the states and our counties that run elections, not the federal government.

And what we saw with the EAC, the Election Assistance Commission, yesterday is not something that is going to affect our voters in the short term.

So voters in Pennsylvania can rest assured that when they show up to vote on election day, it will be free, fair, safe, and secure, and that when they make their voice heard, their vote will be counted.

But it's the pattern that you describe and that I mentioned that's most concerning here.

Do you see the current situation the same way as David Axelrod does?

Well, I certainly hope that we don't revisit any of the ugliness that we saw in the 2020 election cycle, that's for sure.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, this is a very popular item as well.

Uh, locally sourced, uh, meat, uh, from local farmers.

Just trying to support local.

Okay.

If you get a stamp from one of our restaurants after you dine in, um, you can collect all six.

You'll be entered, uh, into a drawing where you can win up to, uh, a $500 gift card or two $100 gift cards.

And upon completing that, getting all the six stamps-

Is there a process that the Secretary's office goes through to clean up the voter rolls?

Every election in Pennsylvania is subject to two audits after every election, conducted at the county level, to make sure that the results are accurate.

So I can assure you that we take election integrity very seriously.

We appreciate the, the government's, the federal government's interest in all this, but I've been an election commissioner in the largest county in Pennsylvania for more than 10 years, when I was city commissioner of Philadelphia, and I assure you, as a Republican election commissioner, I take election integrity allegations very seriously.

I've investigated hundreds of cases to determine whether voters are eligible or not, and when warranted, referred them to federal, state, or local law enforcement for further investigation and, when warranted, prosecution.

Are you worried that the President may send in the National Guard to voting locations in next year's midterm elections?

It's really not a matter of worrying.

It's a matter f- of preparing to make sure elections are run smoothly in, in Pennsylvania.