Keystone Today

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, was instantly at odds with state voters over election reform when he announced Oct. 13 that he was a candidate for governor, according to the former Republican Attorney General of Virginia.

In June, Shapiro praised his fellow Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf’s veto of a sweeping election bill (House Bill 1300), saying, “it's because we have Democrat Tom Wolf in the governor’s office that their voter-suppression legislation won’t become law. His veto pen will stop this bill. And we’ve got to hold onto that veto pen.”

And in a recent campaign video, Shapiro argued against further election integrity measures, stating that Republicans “want to lead us down a dark path, undermine free and fair elections, strip away voting rights and permanently divide us.”

Pennsylvania voters, by a wide margin, believe otherwise on election reforms, according to one poll. A June Franklin & Marshall College poll showed that 81% of respondents, including 88% of independents and 64% of Democrats, support signature matching for mail-in ballots. In addition, 74% voters support photo-ID mandates, including 77% of independent voters.

Reacting to Shapiro’s candidacy, analyst Ken Cuccinelli of the Election Transparency Initiative, and a former GOP Virginia attorney general, said in a statement that “especially after so many Pennsylvania voters have questioned fair-and-accurate voting practices, the first thing they deserve is confidence that the next administration will be led by someone who takes them seriously.

“Unfortunately, with Josh Shapiro, voters are only getting more uncertainty, distrust and doubt that every legal Pennsylvania vote can be cast and counted fairly and openly," he added. "With Josh Shapiro, it won’t be easy to vote and hard to cheat in Pennsylvania elections, it will be easy to cheat and hard to prove.”

Republican lawmakers, who control the majority in both chambers, are already at work on an updated version of the election legislation, House Bill1800, and a proposed constitutional amendment that would mandate voter ID. To get on a statewide ballot, a constitutional amendment needs no approval from the governor. The House State Government Committee cleared both initiatives in September.

In the Senate the Intergovernmental Operations Committee has been holding hearings into the 2020 general election and the 2021 primary. Shapiro has taken legal action to block subpoenas that require elections officials to testify about the management of the elections.