Don’t believe Trump’s lies about vote-rigging in Philly in 2020. I know not because I’ve been there.

Americans are once again being subjected to a barrage of lies about our elections. These fabrications are more than just desperate excuses a a potential loser and its activators. As they did four years ago, they pose a danger to the public servants and volunteers who help our democracy function.

In 2020, election workers across the country faced open intimidation while counting ballots.

In Michigan, angry protesters tried to storm the TCF center in Detroit, chanting:Stop the countdown.” in arizona armed men joined demonstrators outside a vote counting center in Phoenix. Here in Philadelphia were two men from Virginia with assault rifles arrested near the Pennsylvania Convention Centerprobably convinced that elections are being stolen there in real time.

I can assure you it wasn’t because I was there.

Problems with voting

A week before the election — and months before I became a journalist and joined The Inquirer’s Opinion Desk — I was one of dozens of temp workers and city employees at the Convention Center who were trained to count votes and take the public oath. office of City Commissioner Lisa Deeley. All of us there signed up for the unprecedented task of counting what were expected to be hundreds of thousands of mailed ballots.

In 2019, the state adopted a bipartisan election law which eliminated the requirement that Pennsylvania voters needed a good reason to vote by mail. By 2020, the pandemic had given millions of voters many reasons not to go to the polls, and the traditionally small number of absentee ballots had increased more than ninefold.

Nowhere was the task of counting these votes more difficult than in Philadelphia.

In rural areas, voters voted in person much more often. In addition, these districts have fewer votes to count overall and fewer precincts to compare them to. WITH 2.6 million mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania that year 365,000 were cast in Philadelphia.

With no adequate financial support from either the city or the state, city commissioners were forced to rely on nonprofit support manage elections. It created conspiracy theoriesbut without that private support — which not only paid for the vote counters but also helped buy machines to sort, open and count the ballots — counting could have dragged on for weeks, adding to the uncertainty.

When election day came, there was some foreboding. As the results rolled in, it became clear that Pennsylvania was likely to be the tipping point state. The news stations and the Associated Press were waiting for our vote count to make the call. Shortly after polls closed, law enforcement brought in the last batches of mail-in ballots from city precincts that closed at 8 p.m. After that, no more ballots were received.

It’s time to count.

For us at the Convention Center, every batch of votes counted represented progress in our mission, our way of making sure their voices were heard by our friends, families and neighbors. To Donald Trump and his army of delusional sycophants, they were proof of a conspiracy to steal the election.

As you’d expect in a predominantly Democratic city, each party’s vote largely went to Joe Biden, narrowing Trump’s margin on Election Day with each release. Mail-in voting was even more in favor of Democrats. Political scientists predicted this so-called blue shift in before the electionsbut for Trump’s more fanatical supporters, it was further proof that the result was a cakewalk.

I would like those who doubt the results to see how we work in the convention center. Counters scrupulously followed the law, erring in strict interpretation. I have personally reviewed thousands of ballots and had to delete hundreds due to minor and inconsequential errors such as missing a date or missing a secret envelope.

There were also older voters, who were more likely to vote by mail most likely, their votes will be disqualified.

Philadelphia was also the only county in the state to perform poll log reconciliation. That means looking at mail-in ballots to make sure none of those who voted by mail also tried to vote in person. There are already many safeguards in place to guard against this, but given the stakes, the Election Commission chose to err on the side of caution. In 2020, when voters voted by mail en masse for the first time, there were about three dozen examples. There have been no elections since then.

As Trump’s campaign numbers deteriorated, some supporters became desperate and serious threats began.

Under pressure

I have known Seth Bluestein, then Deputy City Commissioner, for over 20 years, since our first day at Central High School. He is a Republican, an Eagle Scout and has spent his entire career in public service.

He has scrutinized city elections and demonstrated that fraud is rare, and on the rare occasions that it does occur, offenders face consequences. Former US representative Ozzy Myers and a notorious host Philip S. Pooley both were convicted in recent years on charges stemming from a referral sent by Bluestein.

None of this has stopped Trump supporters from making death threats and hurling anti-Semitic slurs at Bluestein and his family simply for doing their job. His children, who already missed their father due to his busy schedule after the election, were forced to live under the watchful eye of the Philadelphia Police Department.

Bluestein was not the only election official to be threatened that year. Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, who was a city commissioner when the votes were counted, was singled out by name on Trump’s Twitter account after defending the integrity of Philadelphia’s election.

Schmidt, who I worked with during the vote count, was indispensable four years ago, providing a professional, reliable and knowledgeable voice of authority to the millions of Americans who watched his press conferences during the count. In addition to being the public face of the city’s vote count, Schmidt worked privately to calm concerns about the validity of the vote.

Then-U.S. Senator Pat Toomey once called Schmidt while he was on the floor of the Convention Center. Although I was not involved in the conversation, I personally believe that Schmidt’s unflinching portrayal of the reality of the election played a role in Toomey’s decision to vote to impeach Trump after his second impeachment.

However, regardless of what Bluestein, Schmidt or anyone else said, it was hard to resist the tide of lies coming from Trump. Two men from Virginia believed this lie, grabbed their guns, and came to Philadelphia. Their arrest near the conference center was “a mass shooting that was preventedDistrict Attorney Larry Krasner said.

When the news spread through the Convention Center that we had all been targeted, those of us hard at work counting the ballots were alarmed, but not alarmed. We kept our heads down, followed the law, and helped shape the bottom line that ultimately determined who would be in the Oval Office two months from now.

No matter what happens next week, Trump is steadfast in his lies, and Republican state lawmakers are blocking measures that would help speed up the score — election workers will probably need that calm determination again.

Daniel Pearson is the editor of The Inquirer.