PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A bill that would speed up election results by allowing county officials to prep mail-in ballots for counting one week before Election Day is on its way to the Pennsylvania Senate after passing the state House on a party-line vote.
Under current law, county election officials cannot start opening mail-in ballot envelopes until 7 a.m. on Election Day.
Democratic state Rep. Scott Conklin is the prime sponsor of the bill that would allow “pre-canvassing” — one week to open mail-in envelopes and flatten the ballots to feed into the machines.
He said county officials have been asking for this for years — opening the envelopes and prepping the ballots to count takes a lot of time and manpower, and if they could prep them in the week leading up to the election, they could get results out much quicker.
Under the proposed bill, “they can, if they so wish, seven days before, begin to open up and get ready for those ballots to be able to put in the machine,” Conklin said, “but those ballots cannot be counted until the polls are closed.”
However, Republican state Rep. Jeremy Shaffer said that to preserve the anonymity of ballots, the first step is separating the identifying outside envelope. And once that is done, there is no way to track down the ballot.
“The ballot becomes anonymous at that point,” he argued. “Even if we learn that the voter has died, there is no way to remove the ballot.”
He continued, “Processing mail-in ballots beginning at 7 a.m. on Election Day is a burden. I’ve heard that testimony, and I respect it. But the bill, as written, trades election integrity for administrative convenience, and that is not acceptable.”
The bill passed the House 103-99, with one Republican joining all Democrats in voting in favor, which means it is unlikely to get traction in the Republican-majority state Senate.
Opponents argue the legislation sacrifices election integrity
Opponents argue the legislation sacrifices election integrity
