Keystone Today

Republicans who control both chambers in the Pennsylvania General Assembly are taking another crack at sending Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, a comprehensive change of the state’s voting laws. Wolf vetoed the first version of the Voting Right Protection Act, House Bill 1300, in late June.  

The Republicans are also moving a proposed state constitutional amendment that requires voters to show identification – a voter ID provision in HB 1300 that Wolf cited as one of the reasons he vetoed the measure. (The governor later reversed his position in a July interview with a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter.) The proposed amendment would also make the Secretary of State's position an elected one, and authorize audits before election results can be certified.

Both bills cleared the House State Government Committee on Monday.

State Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), prime sponsor of the legislation (currently House Bill 1800) and chairman of the committee, implored the governor’s office to negotiate this time around.

“It is extremely rare for the Legislature, and the governor, to essentially get a redo on a bill,” Grove said in a statement. “I sincerely hope Wolf realizes this and takes full advantage of the situation to work with the legislative branch of government on this bill. The Voting Rights Protection Act would uphold the integrity of, and restore faith in, our elections.”  

Grove later added in a tweet: “By simultaneously pursuing legislative changes as well as a constitutional amendment, Republicans are presenting Wolf with two options: negotiate or be cut out of the conversation completely."

Grove pointed out that since the 1990s, voters have approved every question that appeared on the ballot. The earliest a constitutional amendment, which must pass in successive legislation session, can get on the ballot is 2023.

A June Franklin & Marshall College poll showed that 74% of Pennsylvania voters approved voter ID.

In addition to the voter ID requirement, HB 1800 would ban election officials from accepting private money to underwrite the cost of holding elections, establish independent audits of election results, establish that only citizens can vote, plus other changes.

The legislation stems from 10 hearings held by the State Government Committee into Pennsylvania’s election process, during which, Grove said, committee members “heard time and again the need to fix flaws in our elections.”

Many of the calls for changes in Pennsylvania election laws followed former President Donald Trump's unfounded complaints that voter fraud caused him to lose the Quaker State in the 2020 election. He carried Pennsylvania in 2016 but lost the state by about 80,000 votes last November.