Editorial: Is Pennsylvania prepared for Election Day?

Pennsylvania is ready for the election on Tuesday.

That’s what the state government says.

“Pennsylvania is prepared. We are protected for this election and voters can cast their ballots with confidence. We are going to have a fair election where everyone can vote without interference,” Gov. Tom Wolf said Thursday.

Well, that’s good to know.

The prize fight that is the 2020 presidential election has been a circus four years in the making. As one of the crucial states that swung the victory to President Trump in 2016, Pennsylvania is part of a crucial handful of states that is once again expected to be the difference in tipping the scales.

That has meant a lot of preparation.

As U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed attempts by international actors to influence the U.S. electoral process, there were plans to make it all safer. Pennsylvania demanded a process that would be harder to hack and spent more than $100 million to get one. There were new systems studied and tested and ordered — with a paper trail meant to ensure accuracy.

It was all going pretty well. And then the pandemic happened, upsetting the primary timeline and diverting a large chunk of the election process from in-person polls to mail-in ballots. It touched off court challenges about when the ballots would be accepted, how they would be collected and whether or not signatures have to match.

There have been problems. Allegheny and Westmoreland counties have had issues with the Ohio company they contracted to mail ballots, Midwest Direct. Some Allegheny residents didn’t get the right ballots. Some Westmoreland voters didn’t get their ballots when they should have.

But Wolf and Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and law enforcement officers say everything is ready for Tuesday. Let’s hope it’s ready for days beyond, as Pennsylvania won’t start the process of counting the millions of mail-in ballots submitted until Election Day. Seven counties — Beaver, Butler, Cumberland, Franklin, Greene, Mercer and Montour — won’t touch them until Wednesday. That will likely make it hard to nail down who is getting the state’s electoral votes for days, if not weeks.

“We have been preparing for it,” Wolf said. “We are doing everything we can to make sure we have a free and fair election in Pennsylvania.”

The most important part of preparation, however, is not to assume everything is ready before the job is done. Anyone who has ever planned a wedding can tell you that two years of making arrangements doesn’t end the day of the ceremony. That is when everything can actually go wrong without proper attention.

The next few days are when all the preparation has to pay off, and when it becomes most complicated.

Because now is when we add the most unpredictable element to the equation — people.

The processes put in place have to hold in the face of what has been years of fighting, all coming to a head. While supporters on both sides have spent months sniping at each other on social media and with yard signs, they will now have to stand side by side at their polling places and have enough respect for the process to let it happen unabated.

Wolf says we are prepared for that. Are we?