Democrats endorse set of changes to Pennsylvania election rules, sending bill to state Senate

FILE - A few Democrats appear on the House floor for the swearing in of Rep. Roni Green, D-Philadelphia, March 16, 2020. (Joe Hermitt/The Patriot-News via AP, file)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania voters would get more than a week of early voting and county election officials would have more time to start processing mail-in ballots under an election law proposal that advanced out of the state House on Tuesday by a single vote, with all Republicans opposed.

The wide-ranging bill sponsored by Speaker Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, addresses an array of election-related matters, including rules for ballot drop boxes, electronic lists of registered voters for election workers to consult, in-person early voting and voter registration.

It passed on a vote of 102 to 101 and was sent to the Republican majority state Senate, adding a potent political issue to the mix as lawmakers and the governor head into the homestretch of the annual state budget season’s dealmaking.

“This bill will make sure we have less ambiguities in the law,” McClinton said in an interview before the vote. “It also accounts for the changes in how voters want to cast their ballot by providing options for early voting, increased access to ballot drop boxes and allowing them to correct small errors on mail-in ballots.”

Its prospects in the Republican majority state Senate are unclear. The communications director for the GOP caucus released a statement saying simply that the House-passed bill will be reviewed by a committee.

It would require counties to pay their elections officials at least $175 per election and change the rules for recounts and contested elections. Every county would have to have at least two ballot drop boxes to return mail-in ballots, with more in larger counties.

In-person early voting would start 11 days before an election and end the Sunday before the election. All counties would have at least one in-person early voting site, and larger counties would have to add one for every 100,000 registered voters.

The early in-person voting proposal would replace a clumsy and time-consuming alternative that led to hourslong lines and claims of disenfranchisement last fall in the nation’s biggest presidential battleground state. That alternative allows voters to go to their election office, register for a mail-in ballot, fill it out on the spot and hand it in. Some county election offices found themselves swamped and unprepared for the influx.

Establishing rules for drop boxes would settle a gray area in state law that led to partisan court battles over whether drop boxes were legal and, if so, what sort of security measures are required. Democratic-controlled counties have embraced the use of drop boxes for mail-in voters, while Republican-controlled counties have generally eschewed them as illegal.

Under the bill, the state would provide $2 million for the Department of State to identify electronic poll books that are compatible with other election software. The state would borrow up to $60 million more to help counties purchase them. Electronic poll books — with lists of eligible, registered voters for election workers to use — would replace paper poll lists with a digital system.

Voters using mail-in ballots would no longer have to provide an accurate, handwritten date on the return envelope, a requirement that has spawned years of litigation. But the voter would still have to sign the envelope for their ballot to count. Household members and others close to a voter would be permitted to return their mail-in ballots — current law requires most voters to return their own ballots.

County workers could begin to process mail-in ballots a week before the election, taking ballots out of envelopes and scanning them if the scanner is able to scan the ballot without tabulating or recording the vote until Election Day. Many counties have long hoped for more time to begin to process the ballots in advance as a way to lessen the Election Day workload.

Asked if Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro supports McClinton’s proposal, his press secretary, Manuel Bonder, said the governor wants to improve the safety and security of elections “while enfranchising voters” and that his team “will continue working with both legislative chambers toward bipartisan reforms that protect our democratic process for all eligible Pennsylvanians.”