Pennsylvania Rep. Seth Grove (R- York) has reintroduced the Voting Right Protections Act after learning that Gov. Tom Wolf (D) had changed his opinion about some aspects of election law, despite the fact that the governor vetoed the measure earlier this year, according to Yahoo! News.
“So we have all these provisions for increasing access and then we have increased security features — voter ID, signature verification — and people are supporting those measures as well,” Grove told City & State Pennsylvania. Grove was referring to the results of a poll that shows a large majority of Pennsylvania voters support strengthening the state’s voter ID laws, in addition to allowing for earlier voting and increasing funding for election administration.
The reintroduced election integrity bill, House Bill 1800, was referred to the House State Government Committee on Sept. 20 and passed out of the committee on Sept. 27.
“It’s really a shame for the counties and those who are looking to improve our election laws that the governor vetoes a bill that he refused to be engaged with even for one minute of his time,” Jason Gottesman, House Republican spokesperson, told AP News in June.
Grove’s website noted that HB 1800 is the reintroduced Voting Rights Protection Act. The release states that the new bill includes all the provisions outlined in the original bill, in addition to adding bipartisan efforts to retain poll workers and modernize polling location language and ballot delivery to election judges.
Wolf vetoed the original election integrity bill in June, according to AP News, claiming that it was an effort to suppress voters, but polls show wide support for mandating voter ID in Pennsylvania.
