Keystone Today

A newly released report by Pennsylvania House Republicans outlines proposed reforms to what state Rep. Seth Grove (R-York) called the state’s “God awful election laws” is up against federal election law changes approved by the U.S. House in January. 

H.R. 1 would not only nullify any prospective reforms to Pennsylvania’s election laws, but many of the laws already on the books.

Current Pennsylvania law, for instance, verifies absentee ballots by a sworn statement included with the ballot. In addition, the signature on the ballot and other provided information are matched with the voter's registered voter file.

Under H.R. 1, Pennsylvania would be forced to do away with sworn statements, and the signature matching procedure would become a highly partisan one, writes former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli in RealClearPolitics.

“H.R. 1 puts forth a new standard: In order to reject a ballot based on an unverifiable or incorrect signature, both judges would have to agree that the signature on the ballot is questionable,” Cuccinelli wrote. “Since the standard operating procedure in most localities is that two judges be present, H.R. 1 essentially states that the authorization of only one judge is needed to approve signatures, regardless of how they compare with the signatures on file."

He continued: ”This failure of election mechanics opens the door to a partisan veto built into the process. H.R. 1 would devastate the effectiveness of signature verification, as regardless of any issues with signatures – no matter how clear or evident – either party could choose to verify any amount of dubious signatures.”

Sections 1621-1624 of H.R. 1 requires states to allow voters whose signatures are rejected to cure the discrepancy over-the-phone, vocalizing their identity versus providing physical proof.

The Pennsylvania House report was released on the heels of weeks of election law hearings by the State Government Committee, which Grove chairs.

Suggested changes in the report include requiring signature verification for all mail ballots (the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last fall that existing law does not require this for all ballots), setting stricter voting ID rules, and banning third party mailing of ballot applications.

Republicans have strong majorities in both the House and Senate, but Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, could block any significant election reforms that reach his desk. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Wolf’s chief of staff told The Associated Press that the governor opposed changes to the state’s voter ID rules.