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of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

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    Secretary of the Commonwealth

    Al Schmidt

    “Elections are the foundation of our democracy – and we at the Pennsylvania Department of State work hard to ensure every eligible voter can make their voice heard.”

    Department of State
    Al Schmidt

    Gov. Josh Shapiro appointed Al Schmidt as Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth on Jan. 17, 2023, and Schmidt officially became Secretary on June 29, 2023. 

    During his tenure, Secretary Schmidt has directed multiple changes aimed at ensuring free and fair elections in Pennsylvania, including:

    • overseeing a safe and secure 2024 presidential election in a highly scrutinized battleground state with the highest voter turnout in almost 50 years,
    • implementing Automatic Voter Registration for eligible Commonwealth residents obtaining driver licenses and ID cards at Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) centers, 
    • updating election-related guidance and directives for counties that improved election administration and uniformity of elections across the Commonwealth, and
    • redesigning mail ballot materials, which helped to significantly reduce the number of mail ballots rejected due to envelope completion errors. 

    Other improvements Schmidt has overseen at the Department include: 

    • slashing waiting times for corporate registration from 8 weeks to an average of 2-3 days,
    • cutting processing times for professional and occupational licenses by over 50%, and
    • leveraging resources and stakeholder engagement to implement critical pieces of legislation that prior administrations had been unable to accomplish, including interstate medical compacts approval.

    Prior to his appointment, Schmidt was president and chief executive officer at the Committee of Seventy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan good-government organization focused on strengthening democracy and combatting political corruption.

    Before that, Schmidt served for 10 years as a Philadelphia City Commissioner, where he was vice chairman of the three-member bipartisan Board of Elections. In that time, he improved government transparency, investigated voting irregularities, and modernized Philadelphia’s elections.

    Schmidt also previously worked as a senior performance analyst at the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office, where he conducted performance audits of federal programs on behalf of Democratic and Republican members of the U.S. House and Senate, and he previously served as a policy analyst for the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. 

    Originally from Pittsburgh, Schmidt holds a doctorate in history from Brandeis University and a bachelor's degree in history from Allegheny College.