{"id":302866,"date":"2026-10-09T05:12:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T05:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/302866\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T05:12:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T05:12:49","slug":"berks-officials-address-concerns-about-law-enforcement-at-polling-places-on-election-day-berks-regional-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/302866\/","title":{"rendered":"Berks officials address concerns about law enforcement at polling places on Election Day | Berks Regional News"},"content":{"rendered":"

READING, Pa. \u2013 Berks County Commissioner and Elections Board Chairman Michael S. Rivera said the county has been receiving calls about law enforcement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and who is permitted to be at polling places on Election Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe county is reminding voters that Pennsylvania and federal law places strict limits on the presence of law enforcement officers at and around polling places,\u201d Rivera said at Thursday morning\u2019s meeting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder Pennsylvania’s election code, police officers and other law enforcement officers generally may not be within 100 feet of a polling place during an election unless they are in the act of voting, serving warrants, called upon to control the disturbance, or the polling place is in a police station,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

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Federal law already prohibits armed agents at polling places, but Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta has a bill to clearly ban it on the state level.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditionally, with limited exception, federal\u00a0law enforcement officials and the US military personnel should not be at polling places, unless they are in the act of voting. Pennsylvania law constables and deputy constables may be present at polling places for the purpose of preserving the peace,\u201d Rivera said.<\/p>\n

Rivera clarified that the 100-foot distance is defined from the polling place and not necessarily the building where the polls are located.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to make sure that people feel safe at their polling locations, do not feel intimidated, and know what should and should not go on at polling places,\u201d Rivera remarked.<\/p>\n

Berks County Commissioner Dante Santoni Jr. said there has been lots of confusion that\u2019s been caused by officials in Washington, which he said is unfortunate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage people to make sure that they get out and vote, make sure you get to the polls or do your mail-in ballots, because that’s the important part,\u201d Santoni said.<\/p>\n

Deborah George of Exeter Township says she has concerns about ICE agents being at the polls.<\/p>\n

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Anne Norton says ballots in the first batch of data election services sent are anticipated to be mailed by the end of the day Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m happy that you’re thinking of this, but I’m still nervous we get conflicting messages,\u201d George said. \u201cOne hundred feet from the polls protects the polls, but it doesn\u2019t protect that person who\u2019s afraid to leave their house to go vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo even if you can keep law enforcement away from the polls, I’m concerned about ICE or even just the rumor of the presence of ICE intimidating people,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Jeff Wolfe of Brecknock Township, who is a weekly commenter at the board meetings, said citizen voters should not have anything to fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy recommendation is that the commissioners should coordinate countrywide with law enforcement to have a rapid response to any such drama that might occur at or near the polls,\u201d Wolfe said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013 Berks County Commissioner and Elections Board Chairman Michael S. Rivera said the county has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,2443,1856,13135,65829,87338,128,130,129,87101],"class_list":["post-302866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-ice","tag-law-enforcement","tag-mail-in-ballots","tag-pennsylvania-election-law","tag-polling-places","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-voter-intimidation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}