During today’s hearing in Pennsylvania, two poll observers testified and described how they were obstructed from observing the ballot-count.
Justin Qweder, one of the witnesses, described his 85 hours of observation as “problematic.” Specifically pointing towards the Philidelphia board of elections saying they, “processed hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots with zero civilian oversight or observation.” He went on to say, “The board of elections erected a fence about 50 feet into the hall that ran the length of the room, all observers were corralled behind the fence. More than a hundred board workers processed and opened mail-in ballots on the other side of the fence.”
The distance separating observers and election workers was another hindrance to accurate observation. Within a room that spanned about 350 feet, Qweder said workers work distanced, “10 feet to more than 200 feet away.”
His testimony went on to detail how election workers were instructed to re-scan more than 5,000 ballots, all of which could not be observed or confirmed to require a re-scan. During the process, two workers, with no observation, marked “thousands of blank mail-in ballots.”
