Swing state election officials ensure security for ballots, workers

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) and Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Al Schmidt (R) joined CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday and ensured voters, ballots and election workers in their respective states would be secure.

Arizona and Pennsylvania are critical battleground states that will help decide the winner of the upcoming election.

They narrowly went to President Biden in 2020 and have faced legal challenges and heightened scrutiny from the right after former President Trump launched questions about the election's security.

Fontes said Arizona is changing its processes from 2020, but the state is prepared for the election.

“We are in the kind of a circumstance right now where we’re taking whatever precautions are necessary to ensure not just the security of the vote, but all of our employees, or workers at the polls, our tabulation centers, and of course, keeping first and foremost in mind the safety and security of our voters,” he said.

Schmidt said workers in Pennsylvania saw threats in 2020, and the state is now more equipped to handle the issue of security for workers and voters.

“In 2020, it was, as Secretary Fontes said, so different than before, and many of us had to scramble to figure out when threats were incoming — where do we refer them to, and all the rest of that,” Schmidt said. “Now, we have open lines of communication. Everybody is very clear about what everyone else’s responsibilities are, so we’ll be prepared should, again, any of that ugliness return.”

With less than two weeks until Election Day, Trump and Vice President Harris are making their final pitches to voters, particularly in the battleground states such as Arizona and Pennsylvania.

In Arizona, Trump has a 1.9 percentage point lead over Harris, while in Pennsylvania, Trump is in the lead by 0.2 percentage points, The Hill’s Decision Desk HQ poll aggregation shows.