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Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt dodged an important question this week in a cozy interview on “60 Minutes.”

“If a noncitizen tried to cast a ballot, would you be able to catch it?” interviewer Cecelia Vega asked.

It is a yes or no question, but like the first kid picked in gym class, Schmidt is pretty good at dodgeball; he didn’t answer directly.  

“That’s just not something that happens, because when it gets identified, there are severe consequences, whether it’s prosecution and/or deportation from the country,” Schmidt said.  

Vega could not muster a follow-up question to press Schmidt. She was happy to accept his denial as a complete answer.

Schmidt had to respond this way because, in truth, the answer is no, election officials could not catch a non-citizen from voting in every scenario, for several reasons.

First, Schmidt’s Department of State has given a counterintuitive directive to counties.

When county election workers receive voter registration applications, they use a database to match the last four digits of the Social Security Number or a driver’s license number to the information on the application. The Federal Help America Vote Act requires counties to make this comparison. This way, counties verify the requester’s identity and assure they are eligible to vote.   

But the Pennsylvania Department of State’s directive says voter registrations may not be rejected based solely on a non-match between the applicants’ identifying numbers on their application, and the comparison numbers in the drivers license or Social Security databases.

If a county cannot deny an application that they cannot verify, it opens the door to fraudulent voter registrations, which can include noncitizens illegally voting.

In a country that has welcomed millions of illegal border crossers with impunity, the suggestion that those tempted to vote illegally would be deterred by the threat of deportation is laughable.

In a state where former President Donald Trump was shot in the head during a campaign stop, it is not beyond the scope of imagination that someone would be willing to tamper with the election.

Is a government that throws a series of bogus court cases at its political foe, and stages a quiet coup to remove the primary-winning sitting president, above rigging an election?

Please. Forgive half the country for asking these totally rational questions.

It is worth noting that noncitizens can get Social Security numbers, so even if the number on the voter registration application matches, the requester could still be a noncitizen who is not eligible to vote.

Pennsylvania has no citizenship verification for voting, so there is no way for election officials to be sure only citizens get a ballot.

The “60 Minutes” segment included an interview with Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Penn., who painted Trump, and by extension his supporters, as agents of lies for questioning the anomalies of the 2020 election.

“I understand he is a sore loser,” Shapiro said of Trump. “I understand he wished he would have won in 2020. But attacking this system, made up of our neighbors and communities all across Pennsylvania alike, is not the answer.” Shapiro said he is worried there could be violence if some voters don’t accept the results.

Vega asked Schmidt if there is widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania. Another yes or no question. (More skilled interviewers ask open ended questions to get broader answers, but this was a friendly interview.)

“There is no evidence whatsoever that voter fraud takes place, in any way, that is widespread, at all,” Schmidt said in a halting voice. But moments later, Schmidt said that he did find voter fraud during his 10 years on the board of elections in Philadelphia. Just not a lot. A little bit of cheating, in small races. No biggie.  

“Whenever it has occurred, however rarely, it is to affect some very down ticket race that is decided by a handful of votes. It’s not to decide who the president of the United States is, or who the governor is, or who a senator is, or anything else like that.”

Schmidt seems to be saying the small races don’t matter, and people mostly don’t cheat. But what he admits in this comment — what is true — is that the Pennsylvania voting system has vulnerabilities. People concerned about election integrity don’t shrug off vulnerabilities; they fix them.

Pennsylvania voters would benefit from a secretary of state who cares about the little races and recognizes that if cheating can be done small-time, it can be done big-time.

For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.