Success and areas of improvement for State Department budget hearing

(The Center Square) – Congratulations were in order for the Department of State during its appearance before the Senate Appropriations committee following last year’s successful election.

Yet lawmakers were keen to discuss ways to improve the commonwealth’s voting process for the future.

Senators asked Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt and his deputies about early voting, mail-in ballots, and election security. They also dove into the department’s licensing and regulatory functions, including the State Athletics Commission.

The agency’s budget request was modest at just one-tenth of 1% increase. Its projections over the next five years didn’t seem to anticipate any significant new demands in day-to-day operations, though Kim Mattis, director of the Bureau of Finance, noted that needs could change along with circumstances.

One of those needs is the state’s push to modernize its voting infrastructure, a project that is already under contract negotiations. It was left out of the current budget until all parties sign off on a final number, but the department has set aside finances from the previous year’s budget for the occasion.

Schmidt wasn’t able to speak publicly on the specifics of the contract but was confident that it would bring the state’s system up to date. The current SURE system was implemented in 2003. The administration had canceled a previous contract to modernize with Missouri-based KNOWiNK, from which it was able to retrieve all invested funds.

Discussion of voting processes revealed the interplay between the Department of State and county election officials, one Schmidt said is a partnership. His agency has committed to refraining from making any changes within 45 days of an upcoming election.

A former county election director, Schmidt says he seeks to work as partners rather than issuing top-down orders.

“I can easily say that our working relationship with our county partners has never been better,” said Schmidt.

Turnover at the county level has been high, even since the 2024 election. Schmidt says it’s the agency’s role to work closely with each of the state’s 67 counties to address their unique challenges.

Legislators have ideas around how to make voting easier and more accessible. For many Republicans, that conversation leads back to voter ID laws, a premise that was tested in 2012 and ultimately was found unconstitutional.

Sen. Cris Dush, R-Brookville, chairman of the State Government Committee, said his committee would only pass it as a standalone bill and would not consider it packaged with other legislation. He said 80% of voters want a law of this kind.

“I know the governor has been very clear,” he said, “in terms of his willingness to work with anyone to improve accessibility and improve election integrity again provided that it doesn’t result in the disenfranchisement of voters, and the details of something like that are very important.”

He cautioned that any new legislation avoid the mistakes of the past. On top of concerns around disenfranchisement, any new complications to the voting process can exacerbate delays in crowded precincts.

Last year’s election had a huge turnout, which Schmidt characterized as “historic.” Though officials were praised for its overall success, hiccups in specific locations included long wait times that deterred some voters. This issue was especially pronounced on college campuses.

A solution many are seeking is the opportunity for early voting. Schmidt called the state’s current process “a bit of a misnomer” as early voting amounts to receiving a mail-in ballot either in the mail or at a local election office. In other states, early voting entails using the same system and process precincts use on Election Day. These are generally active in specific locations days or weeks before the election.

The current process requires county officials instead to begin counting mail-in ballots separately on Election Day, a time-consuming process that doubles the work of election officials and volunteers.

When voters don’t complete the process correctly, their ballots can be invalidated, a circumstance which led to Democratic officials in Bucks County overstepping their authority last year. Early voting advocates would like to see voters walking away with the same experience and confidence they have when voting on Election Day.

Just as it has appeared in other areas across state government, the impact of federal orders was felt in discussions of election security. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency announced a pause on all election related security efforts.

“Federal partners like CISA are very valuable to our state and to other states. They have a national and global perspective when it comes to cybersecurity risks and all the rest that each individual state can’t do on its own,” said Schmidt.

He noted that all states across the political spectrum rely on the agency.

“There has to be a federal partner with that perspective with those resources to make states and counties aware of efforts to compromise the integrity of their voting system whether its cybersecurity or physical security,” he said.