HARRISBURG — County election officials are preparing for their sixth election filled with uncertainty since Pennsylvania made its biggest changes to its election law in 80 years.
Since the state’s election law expansion took effect at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, county elections officials have had to adapt to the new law, new guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of State and a never-ending slew of lawsuits. Republican lawmakers point to Gov. Tom Wolf and his administration as the source of any outstanding problems with the law; Mr. Wolf and his allies say the Republicans want to make voting harder.
“Instead of having nice things, we have chaos,” said Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, who chairs the House State Government committee, in a press conference last week. Mr. Grove released a report detailing the outstanding issues with the state’s election law and its interpretations by state courts and Mr. Wolf’s administration.
By now, however, elections officials said they feel they have figured out how to best administer the elections under these changes — though this is still up in the air as GOP lawmakers in Harrisburg continue to challenge the constitutionality of the election law expansion that they almost unanimously approved in 2019.
“Our challenges remain the same,” said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald in a statement. Among those challenges: having enough poll workers to cover shifts at precincts on Election Day and processing all of the mail ballots quickly so they can be made available soon after the polls close, Mr. Fitzgerald added.
Fourteen House GOP lawmakers — including four southwestern Pennsylvania representatives — filed a suit on Wednesday that asked a state appellate court to rule that the state’s mail-in voting law, Act 77 of 2019, is void based on past rulings on the law. This is in addition to other ongoing suits about the constitutionality of the state’s mail-in voting laws, including one being considered by the state Supreme Court.
Butler County Commissioner Leslie Osche, a Republican who oversees the county’s election board, said the state’s new election law has so many problems that lawmakers should just repeal Act 77 entirely. The Republican caucus of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania has advocated for this.
“While I think the election code was long outdated, Act 77 was flawed in its intent,” Ms. Osche said. “You just have to go back and start over.”
In Butler County, officials have learned to sort its mail ballots by precinct as they get delivered to the county elections office. On Election Day after the polls close at 8 p.m., having these ballots sorted in advance helps the county post all of the results per precinct at the same time, instead of uploading the in-person ballots and then the mail ballots once they’re ready.
“All of a sudden, the numbers could change dramatically once [officials] dump a ton of votes into the totals,” Ms. Osche said. ”That’s really what makes people suspicious when that kind of thing happens.”
They won’t offer a ballot drop box, just as they declined to do in the May primary election. These drop boxes and other interpretations from state courts are leading to mistrust among voters, Ms. Osche said.
“Every time you add another variable, it creates an opportunity for the election integrity to be questioned,” Ms. Osche said.
Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, a Democrat and member of the county board of elections, said GOP lawmakers are spending too much time trying to make it harder for people to vote. Instead, leaders should be opening satellite voting offices for early in-person voting, instituting ballot drop boxes and more. These changes would make voting more accessible for those who have to work, have transportation issues or have young children at home.
“We only have a truly representative democracy when everyone participates,” Ms. Hallam added.
One change that did come out of the 2022-23 budget negotiations in Harrisburg was the addition of $45 million set aside for counties to help them administer and increase staffing for their elections. It came with a catch, however: counties are now banned from accepting outside money to help administer their elections, and they’re also required to work continuously after the polls close if they accept the state’s election grants.
To Ms. Osche, attaching strings to the state grants showed that lawmakers now believe the state doesn’t need to allow for pre-canvassing of ballots.
“Their intent, I believe, was to say ‘You can take this money and add as many staff as you need to get this job done,’” Ms. Osche added. “Any opportunity that you create for anyone to handle ballots prior to Election Day is an opportunity for something to go wrong.”
Gillian McGoldrick: gmcgoldrick@post-gazette.com
First Published: July 23, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
