Keystone Today

The Republican-controlled Pennsylvania General Assembly is looking to send election reform legislation to Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, by the end of June.

Timing of the passage will give the state’s 67 counties, which administer the elections, time to implement changes before the November elections, said Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), chair of the State Government Committee, during a news conference following three months' of hearings into alleged failures within the voting system.

Grove said that particulars about the legislation are still being ironed out, but that modernization of the state’s 1937 election code is a must “to make voting easy and cheating hard.”

Other committee members who spoke at the news conference provided hints of probable reforms.

State Rep. Eric Nelson (R-Westmoreland) said private money involved in the administration of the elections in some counties – totaling $18 million at last count in Pennsylvania – unbalanced voter accessibility. Private money flowing through progressive groups boosting the vote in Democratic strongholds was a big point of contention in other battleground states in the November 2020 elections

“It’s no different than if the NRA (National Rifle Association) showed up with $2 million and told Westmoreland County how to run its elections,” Nelson said. “Those dollars should be dispersed equally so that all voters are treated equally."

Rep. Clint Owlett (R-Tioga) said that in Pennsylvania first-time in-person voters must present ID but identification for mail-in ballots is required only on the back end of the process.

“Integrity in elections is the cornerstone of our system of government,” Owlett said. “A large part of the population has lost faith in the voting process.”

Most of the post-election complaints following the November defeat of former President Donald Trump have come from Republicans. Democratic challenger Joe Biden carried Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes. Trump had won the state in 2016 by 44,000 votes.

Other possible reforms include as requiring mail-in ballot requests be submitted longer than seven days before an election, providing more financial assistance to the counties, and removing a county’s authority to audit its own election performance.

Grove said their model in drafting and enacting legislation is Kentucky, where a Republican legislature worked with a Democratic governor to approve reforms in the system. It’s unclear if a such bipartisan approach can work in Pennsylvania.

At the conclusion of the hearings, the Democratic chair of the State Government Committee, Margo Davidson (Delaware), called the hearings “a deep mockery, in fact, a sad mockery of the hardworking election officials that carried out and executed our elections across all 67 counties.”

Grove responded in a statement: “It is unfortunate some of my Democratic colleagues ended our successful hearings with political theatrics, instead of highlighting the several hours of testimony from numerous nonpartisan testifiers about various legislative changes we must make to ensure we have an election process which works for our voters and election officials. That was truly a sad moment for all Pennsylvanians who want to see bipartisan fixes to our election system as Pennsylvanians know accessibility and integrity are not mutually exclusive.”