Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner activated his office's Election Task Force on Monday, November 4, 2024, with a warning to anyone planning to interfere in elections in the City of Brotherly Love: “Fumble around and find Find it out.”

In an announcement event Monday morning, Krasner said his team and partners are trained and ready to ensure the day's elections are free, fair and final.

“We are here on a very important day, before a very important election, and we are here primarily to talk about protecting an election and ensuring that the election that takes place tomorrow is free and fair, and that too “be final,” said Krasner.

He said the task force, which Krasner, a Democrat, noted, operates on a nonpartisan basis — “We don’t care who gets your vote. It's important to us that you be able to vote,” he promised to keep an eye out for possible election problems throughout the day.

While they don't think there will be any problems, Krasner said the task force will be on the lookout for “people working at polling places or near polling places who are making frivolous challenges to voters.”

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“Anybody who thinks they're going to play these games in Philadelphia is going to do it in bad faith – I have no problem with doing it in good faith – but if they do it in bad faith, there's a Election court, there are judges, they have orders and those orders will essentially be, 'Get out of the polls,'” he said. “If you don’t come out, you’ll be arrested.”

And he warned that anyone who thinks it's fun to meddle in Tuesday's election may find out otherwise.

“You can have fun in a prison cell because that’s what’s coming,” he said.

In fact, Krasner took a moment to cursorily warn anyone with plans to interfere in the city's election process – like the two men who came to town and were arrested after being spotted while voting at the Pennsylvania Convention Center found with weapons had counted there in 2020 – would just play around and find out.”

“Anyone who thinks it's time to play militia, go around and find out. Anyone who thinks it’s time to insult, mock, abuse, threaten people, go around and find out,” Krasner said. “We have the handcuffs, we have the jail cells, we have the jury in Philadelphia and we have the state prisons. So if you want to turn the election into some form of coercion, if you want to try to bully people, bully votes or voters, if you want to try to delete votes, if you want to try any of this nonsense, go for it get out there and find out.”

Along with Krasner, Philadelphia Police Department Commissioner Kevin Bethel said Monday his officers are trained and ready to address concerns on Election Day.

“We are ready,” he said.

Bethel said police will have additional manpower on Tuesday and that a command center will be set up to address any concerns on Election Day.

“We will be ready to respond to whatever happens tomorrow,” Bethel said.

How to report problems on Election Day

Voters who encounter irregularities at their polling place can call the DAO Election Task Force hotline: 215–686–9641. The state has also created a form to report voter interference or intimidation on Election Day here.

Voters are also encouraged to contact the national nonpartisan election protection hotline: 866-OUR-VOTE.

Voters with questions about the voting process should contact the Philadelphia City Commissioners' Office at 215-686-VOTE.

If voters experience violence or physical threats at their polling place, they are urged to call 9-1-1 immediately.

Officials said the election task force will continue its work until all ballots, including foreign and military ballots, are certified.