Keystone Today

Legislation that would create a Bureau of Election Audits under the state’s auditor general, require audits of every state and county election, and performance audits of election operations at least every five years cleared the House State Government Committee this week.

The bill was one of three election bills the State Government Committee sent to the floor this week.

The sponsor of the election audit bill (HB 1482), House Speaker Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster), said in a statement that the legislation “would ensure all voters know their vote was counted accurately, securely and in a timely manner. These are simple goals to ensure our elections are as transparent as possible.”

Current state law requires counties to review a random sample of at least 2% of ballots or 2,000 ballots, whichever is fewer.

State Government Committee chairman Rep. Seth Grove (R-York) said that the current audit system lacks “uniformity.”

“In election audits it’s the only government function that allow a self-auditing process,” said Grove, who sponsors the sweeping election legislation House Bill 1800. “That’s why we’re moving to an independent process. I think it’s something that’s drastically needed.”

Cutler said he has pushed for enhanced post-election reports and audits for over a year. He was behind legislation, now law, that requires the Pennsylvania Department of State to report the on the impacts of changes that the General Assembly and Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, have made in election law.

“The vote today is a vote in favor of the same transparency as the 2020 bill,” Cutler said. “Making sure we have all the information allows lawmakers to make the best decisions in the future to improve our election processes for all Pennsylvanians.”

Other election bills approved by the committee include Senate Bill 738, which would require the Department of State to post to its website a tracker that monitors actions taken by the department to ensure proper compliance to carry out a proposed constitutional amendment. In January the department failed to properly advertise a proposed amendment that would aid victims of sexual assault. Then Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar resigned shortly thereafter.

Another measure, House Bill 2044, would ban local elections officials from taking private money to help underwrite the cost of administering elections.