NEW YORK (Gray Media) – Election Day is in sight as what appears to be a very close presidential race nears the finish line. With one major candidate questioning whether U.S. elections are free and fair, election workers around the country are preparing to calm any concerns.
Millions of Americans have already voted. With those votes and the votes to come, questions over election security loom.
“It was never an easy job, but now it’s very public,” said Carolina Lopez, executive director at the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions (PLEJ).
PLEJ is an organization sharing best practices and standards for holding elections in the most populous areas in the U.S. Lopez says heightened interest in the election process is adding some difficulty.
“Even when presented with evidence, folks are not quite understanding,” said Lopez.
Despite evolving challenges, Lopez says officials are prepared. When ballot boxes were destroyed in the Pacific Northwest earlier this week, years of planning allowed officials to act fast – notifying voters and coming up with solutions.
“That particular scenario, I remember that we triage that, you know, 15 years ago, ten years ago, five years ago. We are seeing it now in in real life,” said Lopez.
And with states like Virginia purging voter rolls, they say to prevent non-citizens from voting, Lopez says it adds yet another layer of difficulty, but, again, one they can handle.
“It’s not optimal, but also this community is resilient and whatever it is legally required come hell or high water, they’re going to do whatever is required,” said Lopez.
Carolina says she is focused on transparency, explaining how differing processes work in different states, and making sure Americans have reliable, current information. She does have a request for voters that she repeated many times:
“Please don’t wait until the last second.”
As election officials work hard to make sure the tabulation processes are done efficiently, but more important, correctly, final results for the general election are not expected to come for days after Election Day.
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