How Mercer County has escaped election conspiracies
HERMITAGE — Election officials and poll workers across Pennsylvania are braced for a potential flood of misinformation and abuse on Nov. 5, Election Day. But in a drab municipal meeting room north of Pittsburgh, Mercer County Election Director Thad Hall preached a radically different vision.
“I think it’s going to be a really fun election,” Hall told a group of roughly 20 poll workers at a training session in late September.
“You’re going to have a great day,” he told another group that afternoon. “Decide what you’re going to eat in advance. That’s the big question.”
It might sound like an odd note to strike in Pennsylvania, a critical swing state riven by voter fraud conspiracies, protests and lawsuits after the 2020 election. But Mercer — a rural county of about 108,000 that former President Donald Trump won by more than 15,000 votes four years ago — represents a rare island of bipartisan detente, if not all-out agreement.
https://penncapital-star.com/election-2024/how-mercer-county-pennsylvania-has-escaped-election-conspiracies/