Having garnered unanimous approval from both chambers of the state legislature on Wednesday, Pennsylvania is set to become the sixth state to postpone its primary election to June 2 because of logistical and safety concerns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
State lawmakers framed the effort to delay the election five weeks as a response to concerns that poll workers and voters wouldn’t participate out of fear for their health, or because limits on social gatherings to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus would still be in place April 28 — the pre-postponement election date.
The suspension of the election officially will be codified in Pennsylvania law when Gov. Tom Wolf signs the bill. Mr. Wolf previously had indicated he’d support the measure, and is expected to approve it by the end of the week.
When the bill is signed into law, Pennsylvania will join Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Indiana and Maryland in moving their elections to the first week of June — on a Tuesday when New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and the District of Columbia were already scheduled to vote.
Postponing the election gives county officials the “latitude” to conduct a primary election despite the challenges they face from the pandemic, said state Rep. Garth Everett, the chair of the House State Government Committee who wrote the provision into existing legislation.
The hope is that Pennsylvanians, by June 2, will “have this health crisis behind us,” said Rep. Chris Sainato on the House floor, while Rep. Dan Miller, D-Mt. Lebanon, said the postponement gives the state and counties time to focus on “more life-sustaining necessities.”
The bill that awaits Mr. Wolf’s signature also gives counties the authority to consolidate their polling places without court approval in an effort to combat a potential shortage in poll workers. It also aims to give counties a jump-start in tallying their mail-in and absentee ballots on Election Day by letting them begin at 7 a.m. instead of 8 p.m.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald applauded the passing of the legislation, and said that in addition to keeping voters safe from the spread of COVID-19, it will give the county more time to train poll workers and teach the public about its new voting systems. All poll-worker training and public voting system demonstrations have been canceled through April 6.
The June 2 election date seems “very prudent,” Mr. Fitzgerald said, adding that no one knows where the county will stand a month or two from now.
“Who knew we would be here a week ago? Two weeks ago? Things are moving and changing so fast on so many different levels in society right now,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “This is just one more aspect where you want to protect the rights of the voter but you also want to protect public safety and public health.”
Mr. Fitzgerald said he will assign the county elections division to start looking at consolidating polling places, and that it’s “certainly a concern” that poll workers — most of whom are elderly and thus more at risk of contracting the virus — will choose not to participate. It’s too early to know the extent of that problem, he said, but in the meantime, the county will continue to encourage residents to apply for mail-in ballot applications.
Christopher Deluzio, the University of Pittsburgh election security expert who publicly called for the general assembly to codify the procedure around postponing elections, said he’s glad the suspension came from the legislature — the “cleanest and most transparent way to do it for voters” without leaving ambiguity, he said.
But Mr. Deluzio said he’s concerned about the polling place provision, noting that it allows counties to move, close or consolidate polling places outside of election districts to elsewhere in the county — even beyond the immediately-adjacent district. He warned that it could “[open] up the door for partisan game-playing” and lead to voter suppression.
County officials could, hypothetically, target certain communities and make them travel far to vote, and there’s no provision in the law that says counties have to directly notify the affected voters either way, Mr. Deluzio said.
“The absence of direct notification here exacerbates the risk of changing polling places — and changing them without court intervention — and frankly, the potential for a lengthy geographic commute for people between polling places,” said Mr. Deluzio, policy director of Pitt’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security,
Some in the state legislature continue to warn that postponing the election isn’t enough.
Rep. Kevin Boyle, speaking before the House vote, said the bill should have included the allocation of funds for counties to send mail-in ballot applications to every eligible voter in the state. Mr. Boyle, ranking member of the House State Government Committee, is sponsoring his own legislation that would do that, but Mr. Everett — the committee chair — has indicated he doesn’t support the measure.
Voters can apply for a mail-in ballot online at VotesPA.com/ApplyMailBallot or by filling out a paper application and delivering it to their county election office by mail or in-person.
The Philadelphia Inquirer contributed. Julian Routh: jrouth@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1952 or Twitter @julianrouth.
First Published: March 25, 2020, 7:37 p.m.
Updated: March 26, 2020, 12:19 a.m.
