HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s top elections official said Wednesday that he is “deeply concerned” counties won’t have enough time to adjust thousands of polling locations for the 2024 presidential primary election if lawmakers wait too long to change the date.
The statement from Secretary of State Al Schmidt was made in a letter to Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, and is a ripple effect of the ongoing budget stalemate in Harrisburg. Many lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro have said they want to change the current April 23 primary date for reasons that include a conflict with the first day of Passover and the fact it makes Pennsylvania late — and possibly irrelevant — in the national primary schedule.
Lawmakers left Harrisburg earlier this month without completing a budget package on time after a sharp break between Republicans who control the Senate and Mr. Shapiro, a Democrat. Currently, they are not scheduled to return until late September, although lawmakers have been put on standby for a short-notice callback before then.
Mr. Schmidt, a former Philadelphia official who ran elections there for years, is worried about the timetable.
“I know that Gov. Shapiro hopes to work with the General Assembly to make this date change a reality,” Mr. Schmidt said in the letter. At the same time, he said, the current schedule for lawmakers means no action on a proposed change would happen for about two months, at the earliest.
“I am deeply concerned we will not give county election officials the time they need to adjust thousands of polling locations to accommodate a new, earlier primary date,” Mr. Schmidt said. “Typically, county election boards reserve polling locations and poll workers a year or more in advance of an election to avoid conflicts with other events and to have ample time to inform voters of where they will cast their votes.”
He said, for instance, that the election administrator in Westmoreland County must secure 307 polling places and the administrator in Montgomery County, 301 polling places.
A spokesperson for Ms. Ward said she had not yet received the letter.
It was sent as top lawmakers in both parties have said they still want Pennsylvania to have an earlier presidential primary election next year. But for some, the budget impasse has undermined confidence that everyone can agree in time to make the change happen.
The split between Mr. Shapiro and Senate Republicans came July 5, when the governor announced he would line-item veto a single, $100 million item in a $46.6 billion spending bill for fiscal 2024. That item would have provided funds for a proposed new, voucher-style school scholarship program that both Republicans and Mr. Shapiro supported, but which was rejected by Democrats who control the House.
Senate Republicans said they negotiated the funding as part of a larger deal with Mr. Shapiro and that he had broken the deal. Mr. Shapiro denied their claims. The impasse reached 26 days on Wednesday
The spending bill — the key legislation in the budget package — must be signed with the Senate in session. Ms. Ward, as Senate president pro tempore, is vested with the power to call the chamber back to session before late September.
Mr. Schmidt’s letter came a day after Sen. Jay Costa, D-Allegheny and the Senate minority leader, and Sen. David Argall, R-Schuylkill and prime sponsor of a bill seeking a date change, said in separate interviews that various options for new primary dates are being considered.
To make a change, the state Legislature would have to pass a bill that would be signed into law by Mr. Shapiro. The dynamics for any callback of the state House before late September changed dramatically last week with the resignation of Rep. Sara Innamorato, D-Lawrenceville. The move cost Democrats their one-vote majority and left them tied with Republicans in the chamber at 101-101.
A special election to replace Ms. Innamorato in the heavily Democratic 21st District is scheduled for Sept. 19.
“I don’t believe October is too late,” Mr. Costa said of passing a primary date change. “But the later in the year we go, the dicier it gets.”
Mr. Argall said nothing would be lost if the Legislature did not act until late September or early October. He and Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, crafted a bill that would change the primary date to March 19.
Mr. Costa, who said he has talked to lawmakers in both chambers and both parties about the issue, said April 2 and March 26 also are being considered. Mr. Costa said April 2 makes the most sense.
Other lawmakers see more urgency. Sen. Judy Schwank, D-Berks, said she’s concerned the Legislature will not act in time.
“While I hope we reconvene sooner than late September, if we return to Harrisburg then, our first order of business will likely be to get the 2023-2024 budget completed,” Ms. Schwank said. “We are running out of legislative days to take care of other important business.”
Sen. Tim Kearney, D-Delaware, said he wasn’t sure lawmakers would have enough time to get the job done. Nonetheless, he said a change makes sense because “it is hard to argue with the idea of relevancy.”
The scholarship program was a prime topic at a Senate Education Committee hearing on Tuesday in Reading. The committee, led by Mr. Argall, heard testimony about public education in Reading and the operations of a private school in Berks County.
Sara Torres, the single mother of a Reading High School student, said her 16-year-old son is in the gifted program but had not been on a field trip or even a no-expense “nature walk” for about 10 years.
“I want him to make it,” she said of her son. Ms. Torres urged lawmakers to pass the taxpayer-funded scholarship program, which would give families in the state’s lowest-performing public schools money so their children could attend private ones.
The Reading school district has a budget of about $429 million. It was referred to at the hearing as the most underfunded in the state. Reading Superintendent Jennifer Murray said its biggest current challenge is the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which created food, mental health and other issues for children in Reading.
Any program that diverts public resources away from school districts, Ms. Murray testified, is a “disservice.”
Ford Turner: fturner@post-gazette.com
First Published: July 26, 2023, 4:03 p.m.
Updated: July 27, 2023, 9:39 a.m.