Allegheny County’s administration of the November 2020 election suffered from inconsistent poll worker training and public communication, among other errors, a new report showed. The county has not outlined plans to address the problems.
“By putting an emphasis on systems, we wanted to make the county implicitly and explicitly more accountable,” said Juliet Zavon, the report’s primary author. “What is the level of competency required of poll workers in this county?”
The report was produced by the Elections Task Force, which Zavon described as an independent group of local residents with expertise in cybersecurity and election administration. The document describes an antiquated poll worker management system, a lack of training for many poll workers and insufficient means for the public to ask questions and learn about voting.