Philadelphia is the most populous city in a battleground state, and there is a lot of attention being paid to its polling locations Tuesday. Of the 25 complaints of potential polling place or Election Day concerns the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office received by noon ET on Tuesday, 21 were already resolved.
In a press release, they said the vast majority of complaints were about alleged interference, like a polling place being partially blocked by construction or members of the press.
The Philadelphia District Attorney responded on social media to a concern shared by Trump’s Election Day operations director.
“Members of our Election Task Force have investigated this allegation. This polling place is located in an interior room and the sign in question is further than 10 feet from it. This tweet is deliberately deceptive,” the district attorney’s official Twitter account stated.
Members of our Election Task Force have investigated this allegation. This polling place is located in an interior room and the sign in question is further than 10 feet from it. This tweet is deliberately deceptive. #PhillyVotes #Election2020 https://t.co/szKgxoigVm
— Philadelphia DAO (@philadao) November 3, 2020
They were responding to a tweet from Mike Roman, a member of Donald Trump’s campaign staff, who shared a photo showing a sign promoting certain candidates taped to the outside of a building.
The district attorney’s response was a subtle reminder that laws about the distance between political signage and where ballots are cast varies state to state. No matter how Roman, or others, may have felt about the sign, in the State of Pennsylvania, politically-motivated signage has to remain only 10 feet away from a polling place according to law.
Some states, that distance is up to 100 feet.
Philadelphia officials acknowledged Roman’s tweet was not the only misleading post on social media they were working to address and correct.
“The most ‘excitement’ the Task Force has seen so far today can be attributed to bad information or misinformation being shared on social media,” Jane Roh, spokeswoman for the Office of the District Attorney, wrote in a news release.
On Monday, Philadelphia said they had assigned more than 90 prosecutors, detectives and others to their Election Task Force to investigate complaints and issues.