Police escorts, sealed containers and chain-of-custody documentation: These are some of the measures Pennsylvania counties take to secure ballots as they are transported from polling places to county facilities after polls close on the day of the elections.

Exact protocols vary by county. For example, in Berks County, election workers will transport ballots in sealed boxes back to the county elections office, where they will be locked in a secure room, according to Stephanie Nojiri, deputy director of elections for the county located east of Harrisburg.

In Philadelphia, local authorities play a direct role in collecting votes at polling places.

“Philadelphia police officers will travel to polling locations throughout the city after the polls close and collect those ballots to transport them back to our headquarters at the end of the night,” said Philadelphia City Commissioner, Seth Bluestein, who serves on the board that oversees the elections. in the city. “Each precinct is given a large canvas bag, and the police place the containers containing the ballots in that bag and transport them.”

After polls close in Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, election workers will transport ballots in sealed, locked bags to regional reporting centers, where election results are recorded, said David Voye, manager division of the county electoral division.

From there, county police escort the ballots to a warehouse where they are stored in locked cages under 24-hour surveillance.

Poll workers and county election officials also use chain of custody documentation to document the transfer of ballots as they move from polling locations to secure county facilities.

For example, in Allegheny County, chain of custody forms are used to verify how many used and unused ballots election workers return to county officials, Voye said. Officials also check the seals on the bags used to transport the ballots to confirm they are still intact.

Similar security procedures are in place for counties that use ballot drop boxes to collect mail-in and absentee ballots. In Berks County, sheriff’s deputies monitor the county’s three drop boxes during the day, according to Nojiri. When county election officials come to empty the mailboxes, which are secured with four locks, they open two of them, while sheriff’s deputies open the other two.

Officials remove the ballots, count them, record the number of ballots on a custody sheet and place them in a sealed box before transporting them back to the county processing center.

“There are all kinds of different custody sheets and all of that, again, is reconciled in the days after the election,” Nojiri said.

Philadelphia has 34 ballot boxes, which poll workers empty daily and twice on Election Day, according to Bluestein. The bags used to transport ballots from drop boxes are also sealed, and workers returning these ballots complete and sign a chain of custody form.

“The transportation of ballots is done in a safe and controlled manner, and the public should have confidence in the integrity of that ballot collection process,” Bluestein said.