Press Release

Fair Election Fund Gives Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt a C- on Election Administration

August 11 2025

Fair Election Fund Gives Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt a C- on Election Administration

WASHINGTON – The Fair Election Fund (FEF), a nonpartisan national election integrity watchdog group, has released its fifth report in a series evaluating election administration officials in key battleground states. This latest report gives Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt a C- grade for his poor record of handling the Commonwealth’s elections, citing mail-in ballot concerns, decentralized election practices, and legal inconsistencies across counties.

While the Pennsylvania Constitution mandates that elections be held by ballot, Act 77 (2019) allows no-excuse mail-in voting, allowing any voter to request and cast an absentee/mail ballot with no excuse or reason. In 2020 alone, more than 2.7 million mail ballots were requested, up from just 266,000 in 2016.

Pennsylvania also grants wide discretion to its 67 counties. From drop box placement to ballot curing, counties often set their own rules, leading to a patchwork of procedures and voter confusion. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court frequently steps in to resolve election disputes, underscoring the lack of legislative clarity.

This decentralized system was on full display during the 2024 U.S. Senate race between Bob Casey and David McCormick, when ballot disputes and legal challenges dragged the recount on for 17 days.

Other offenses include:

  • Weak leadership

    • SOS Schmidt was accused of acting as a political operative after inconsistently enforcing election laws across counties, undermining uniformity and trust in Pennsylvania’s election process.

  • Undated ballot counting

    • In Pennsylvania, the counting of undated mail-in ballots has been a subject of significant legal debate in the 2024 election cycle.

    • Montgomery and Bucks County attempted to count 405 undated ballots in 2024 before being blocked by a court order.

  • Confirmed voter fraud

    • In 2025, three Delaware County politicians pleaded guilty to forging mail-in ballots in a 2021 mayoral race.

    • Double voting: A Pennsylvania man was convicted for voting in both Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties in 2022.

  • Poll watcher confusion

    • Pennsylvania lacks standardized training for poll watchers, leaving legal responsibilities unclear and enforcement inconsistent.

Click here to read the full report.

BACKGROUND:

  • In April FEF launched a new initiative, grading election administration officials in battleground states across the U.S.

    • The first report card graded Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson a “D” for her failures to bring confidence to Michigan voters.

    • The second report evaluated the North Carolina Board of Elections (NCSBE), which received a “C” grade for its election administration.

    • FEF’s third report examined Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, who received a D+ for shifting guidelines that hindered third-party candidate ballot access.

    • The fourth report reviewed the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which received a “D+” grade on its election administration processes.

  • In March, the Fair Election Fund filed commentary with the FCC on the issue raised against CBS for unlawful news distortion and coordination with the Harris 2024 Presidential Campaign in the network’s 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris last year.

  • In August of 2024, the Fair Election Fund uncovered 60,000 potential cases of donor fraud involving the Biden-Harris campaign and ActBlue and turned over the data to Republican attorneys general across the country.

  • The Fair Election Fund successfully stopped national Democrats’ voter suppression scheme in states across the country last year. In October 2024, FEF launched a six-figure paid media campaign that exposed Marc Elias’s failed racist lawsuits that tried to disenfranchise thousands of black voters who signed petitions to get Cornel West on the ballot in their respective battleground states.

  • The Fair Election Fund invested over $750,000 in paid media efforts last year to expose the Democrats’ attempts to block Kamala Harris’s competition from the ballot. The Fair Election Fund invested in states such as North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Click here to learn more about the Democrats’ failed election interference scheme and how the Fair Election Fund stood up for voting rights.

  • Last year, the Fair Election Fund launched an investigation examining the jury summons responses and voter rolls in key swing state counties to identify voter fraud.

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