Philadelphia officials provide election updates

With neighbors to cast their vote in person. Name exhibit tremendous patience as they continue to wait for our election staff account every single vote. Our personally thank city commissioner lisa deeley. L. Schmidt and more severe. Who oversaw tuesday’s election and continue to lead this impressive accounting operations. I thank their hard working staff and hope they all can get some rest soon. Also one thank you police the many city departments which help stand up and

staff this operation. The office of innovation and technology the managing director’s office finance department or police department chief administrative office and others of help support the city commissioners. In preparing for the selection

for over a year. And there are hundreds of others including many city employees who helped election day. And by stepping this ballot counting operation for all the world to see. You’re all too numerous to name the please note you have my thanks and thanks to the people of the city. The most i think most of all i thank the people philadelphia. Earlier this

week commissioner deleon i sent out an open letter to voters urging patience and calm on election day. In the days that followed. You have showed in spades. We ask that you stay calm and stay above the fray he did exactly that. What we’ve seen on the streets outside this convention center was not anger or contention but music dancing and celebration. As we

predicted the voters and residents of philadelphia. Ensured that our city shines as an example of how to run an election correctly. So in the days ahead please remember. This is not about us a victory for single candidate or single political party. This is truly a victory for our democracy. That may sound cliche. But today is oh so true. The votes will continue to

be council every valid mail in ballots absentee ballots and provisional ballots counted. So while some including the president continued to spew baseless claims of fraud claims for which is team has not produced one iota of evidence what we have seen here in philadelphia is democracy. Pure and simple. Our founding fathers who could see the system just a fifteen minute walk down the street. I know would be proud. Two hundred thirty three years after the constitutional

convention. We stand at this convention center and will claim. The system still works the people have spoken. And god willing we want a peaceful transition to power a power in january. Like take just a moment now to introduce commissioner lisa deeley who’s the chair of the filthy city commissions. Thank you mr mayor. First of all i want to thank

all of you and the public for your continued patience our goal has been to produce accurate results as quickly as possible and we continue to work toward that end. We’ve counted a total of six hundred ninety thousand three hundred and sixty votes. Of that. Three hundred thirty seven six hundred nine ballots were cast by mail. And three hundred and 533-005-

3000 twenty one were cast at a polling place. This is by far the largest number of mail in ballots in the city’s history. I’m very proud of the work our staff did. They’ve been working around the clock. Since tuesday and before. Here’s what you can expect in the upcoming days. At some point this afternoon we will report another updated mail in ballot results i expected to be. Two thousand three thousand after that the remaining balance generally fall into- one hour of three

categories those that require review provisionals us military overseas ballots. I would estimate there’s approximately. Forty thousand remaining to be counted. Are we can also tell you that it may take several days to complete the reporting of that and i you know election results are not officially certified until twenty days after the election. Thank you again

thank you to the citizens of philadelphia. And now i would like to invite commissioner omar severe to the podium. After. Good afternoon i like to think on the county board of elections staff i like to think the taxpayers citizens philadelphia

across america. I think it’s safe to say that democracy has won. Democracy is beautiful. We saw octavius the statue of octavius catto right on city hall. He died so that americans can have access to the to the democratic process let me stand

here today in twenty twenty people still have access to democracy. It’s a beautiful thing but we still want everyone to exert patience. Ignore a lot of the noise going on allow us to complete. The counting process. And again like to thank everyone

one of us like to think my beautiful wife at home- with my six children. While i’m down here doing all the killing of like to say. How wife i love you and thank you. Right now like to bring on a council president darrell clarke. Who’s a friend who’s a mentor and a true leader a philadelphia. Thank you commissioner good afternoon everyone. So to say this was a

tumultuous year would be the understatement of the year- we in the city of philadelphia across the nation of voters are very very challenging times but in spite of that all the markers he works the marcus he works- i want to thank the commissioners who would give in a short time frame to transition from the traditional in person. That philadelphians are

known for having a meltdown the system have multiple options and guys i just want to say you did a great job you did a great job. But not the respect to you you guys i want to thank the people that work every time you went five. Broad street or you went by city hall or you went five. Elsewhere in spring garden the lights were on because we had a literally

hundreds of hard working individuals in there making sure that this process works. So i just want to thank everybody i want to particularly thank the citizens of our city of well understood the need to participate- at record numbers to a degree- i want to thank the country- for understanding the need to have a reasonable process that allows the citizens to

speak so. Everyone involved vertically these individuals here to mayor commissioners thank you all and thank you for giving us an opportunity to allow democracy to work thank you. Questions from what i see what you see. Five realized. Out of six months yes one can barely. Thank you. Thirteen they are segregated as per the instruction of the secretary. One of the- things we can’t. Thankfully we number one from. Abroad that’s the bill military ballots now. It’s raw it’s upwards

of forty thousand we don’t the u. S. Military overseas ballots aren’t due to last until the tenth. No we- we are counting hundreds of thousands of ballots- in an industrial process. And it we are fortunate to have that machinery to allow us to allow us to count faster. But it still is a process so we get all these envelopes in. And it’s like an assembly line so first you know you you got the envelopes you have to sort them. And then you have to. Open them and then you have to have open

them again to get the secrecy envelope out then somebody actually sits there. At a desk and is pulling the contents and then i the ballots have to be back bended and prepared for the scanner. So even though. You know we have all this machinery it does help us but we have to build up to that as we start the process. So with the first time we did it we’re

really happy with you know the speed in which we were able to do it- and- you know we’re really happy that the- people of philadelphia- afforded us the opportunity to be able to do this for the first time in philadelphia. As is the first time we’ve been able to vote by mail is no excuse. Separate. Right now what. Twenty i don’t know they’ve been saga. In addition of

president. At monitoring have a live stream can watch you been watch. The there have been observers in the camp and during the during can could see them in the in the live stream. I can’t answer two questions at the same time it’s not possible. I three questions around the same time. Yeah me too to our foreign friends yes. Thank no i think what the

president needs to do is frankly put his big boy pants on he needs to acknowledge the fact that he lost and he needs to congratulate the winner justice jimmy carter did justice george h. W. Bush did and frankly just as al gore did and stop this and let us move forward as a country and that’s my feeling i doubt to listen to me but- that’s it. Yeah i left. When i. He

wrong he’s wrong is baseless and he’s rudy giuliani sources and everyone’s. Donald. Yeah you just want on. No. Uhhuh. We’re going to continue to count the ballots as quickly as we can without sacrificing accuracy as we have from the beginning. That’s where we’re at we’re going to be will be done you know when we get done at because we are we are we still have valid so we’re we’re skating today- that they’ll be another update as i said. I will continue to do as we have been

doing ensuring that the balance that we have are counted as quickly and as accurately as possible. With what. We should have a little update at the at this afternoon it might have. Been going up now or- actually. I think. We are we are we are in the process right now of canning just like we were yesterday and the day before. It’s the same process we are counting

ballots. And we will continue to do that as quickly as possible without sacrificing accuracy. Two more questions. One we are going to continue i don’t have that i don’t have that number we’re going to continue we are going to continue to count

the ballots until they’re all done in a in a very in a in a in a in a way that people like that but as we have been doing for these past few days we’re going to get it done as quickly as possible and it will be accurate and will come out if we have something to tell you you’ll you’ll know we have read we have we citizens return board. You’ve been on our website the

numbers get updated there is a live stream everybody can watch it’s a very transparent process it’s a process that has been working for the past few days it’s the same process we’re just gonna keep counting we’re going to keep happening we’re going to keep going to keep counting. Thank you. This week. That’s it thank you very much.