State video shot in Lebanon County shows how safe and secure Pennsylvania elections are

A video on election integrity and process created by a film crew from the Pennsylvania Department of State and with help from the Lebanon County elections office is making the rounds on social media as the 2024 Presidential Election draws near.

The video, titled 'Your vote, Safe and Secure," was filmed at the Lebanon County Courthouse back on Aug. 7 . Ten actors, a mix of Lebanon County poll workers and employees as well as few people that the State Department brought in, played the parts of voters.

Lebanon County Elections Director Sean Drasher and Cumberland County Elections director Bethany Salzarulo are some of the people interviewed for the film. Drasher said they were interviewed in June, then filmmakers gave him a call a month later to film using county employees and locations.

Close to 500 people will be working the Nov. 5 elections, with Drasher saying residents will know the people who are running the elections in Lebanon County.

"We wanted people to see that we are local to you, we take this stuff very, very seriously and we wanted to give them a behind-the-scenes snapshot of what is going on," Drasher said.

The first floor lobby was set up much like it would be as a polling place on a regular election day, with voting booths and other equipment set out to simulate the actual voting experience.

Actors and the film crew went over the entire process of voting to the point where voters received and applied their “I Voted” stickers. Drasher said he programed a faux election between two parties, dogs or cats, with the department's animals on the ballot.

"It was quite a few hours of just pretending to come in to vote just like on election day," Drasher said. "We set up the polling place in the lobby exactly like it is on election day."

Dasher said dogs won that faux election for president.

The idea to film in Lebanon County came about when Drasher was a part of a video, along with other county election directors from around the state, on election integrity filmed in Harrisburg in July. Drasher mentioned to the crew that similar videos had filmed in Lebanon County about six years ago, and they thought it would be a great idea to come back again.

Film crews also set up and ADA ballot marking device to simulate how to vote for those who might be hard of hearing or visually impaired, and later filmed the election canvassing process. Video footage even shows the vault where ballots are stored

"It's like multiple layers of security and a bomb proof door in a cast iron and concrete vault," Drasher said. "It doesn't get much better than that. When we say we lock them up, we lock them up."

The county is projecting an 88% turnout with both in-person and mail-in voting for the presidential election. As of Sept. 19, 94,000 residents have registered to vote in the Nov. 5. More than 12,000 residents have requested a mail-in ballot.

Residents who have questions about election security and mail-in ballots always have great concerns, according to Drasher. But almost always those concerns have already been addressed with a back-up layer of protection.

Election officials have said there are no free range mail-in ballots being distributed. Mail-in ballots that are sent out by the elections office have been specifically requested by registered voters.

"There's no extras for people to collect and add votes to the tally," Drasher said. "It's just one vote, one person. We want to stress that when a mail-in ballot is requested, it's only from somebody that's already registered, and we're double checking their information."

Residents can see the "Your Vote, Safe and Secure" video at the PAcast Youtube page at youtube.com/@pacastcms.

Election Info

The Pennsylvania 2024 general election is scheduled for Nov. 5. The last day to register to vote is Oct. 21. The last day to request a mail-in or absentee ballot is Oct. 29.

For voters seeking accurate information on their registration status, the Department maintains a lookup tool at vote.pa.gov/status . It also maintains a tracker for mail ballot applications and status, at vote.pa.gov/mailballotstatus .

Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on X at @DAMattToth .

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: State video shot in Lebanon County shows how safe and secure Pennsylvania elections are