Keystone Today

Pennsylvania Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), the prime sponsor of sweeping election reform initiatives in the General Assembly, said that media reaction to Gov. Tom Wolf’s (D) voting misstep has been “interesting.”

“Most newspapers covered, some ignored it (you know who you are),” Grove tweeted on Nov. 7. “Some TV shows tried to make a joke of it – not a joke. Had this been a GOP governor, there would have been calls for resignations in editorials.”

In a Nov. 2 interview with the KDKA Radio Morning Show, Wolf said that his wife turned in his mail-in ballot for him during the state’s recent municipal elections.

Rep. Seth Grove | Wikimedia Commons

“This is illegal under the election code but would have been legal had he signed HB 1300 (his election reform legislation),” Grove also tweeted.

State election law prohibits all but those with disabilities or emergencies from giving their mail-in ballot to someone else to bring to an elections office or drop box. The penalty for violation is a year in prison or a $1,000 fine.

A provision in House Bill 1300, the Voting Rights Protection Act, regulating locations and availability of drop boxes, would have allowed a family member to drop off a ballot after an elections inspector checked that the ballot was complete. The General Assembly approved the bill in June, but Wolf vetoed it.

Wolf argued that provisions in the bill, including a section requiring voter ID for in-person voting, would suppress voter participation, especially among minority voters. A month later, he reversed his position on voter ID in a Philadelphia Inquirer interview. 

Other provisions in HB 1300 would “tighten security by expanding upon Pennsylvania’s current voter identification law, require regular election audits, improve election uniformity among the 67 counties as required by the Pennsylvania Constitution, enhance certification processes for all machines used in elections, require signature verification using ballot scanning equipment for mail-in and absentee ballots, improve lists of registered voters and more,” House Republican leaders said, according to Grove's website.

In September, Grove introduced HB 1800, an updated version of HB 1300. It was quickly approved by the state Government Committee and now awaits action on the Pennsylvania House floor.