Pennsylvania elections: No consistency for 67 counties

(The Center Square) — County boards of elections across Pennsylvania are preparing for November, but warn that more support would help them get the job done quicker — while state laws hamstring their effort.

“We should have one uniform way of handling elections that takes out all the ambiguity,” Jeff Reber, a Union County Commissioner and election reform committee chair of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, said. “Honestly, everybody I’ve talked to from the election administration side would be thrilled if that were the case.”

Speaking during a Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing on mail-in and absentee ballot access, Reber and others noted how election day in Pennsylvania is an event done in 67 ways. Counties, not the state, set their policies around things like ballot drop boxes and whether to notify mail-in voters of errors made on their ballot.

Recent election law changes like Act 88 of 2022 and Act 77 of 2019 brought many changes to voting in Pennsylvania, like dramatic expansions of mail-in voting and more funding for local election boards, but it didn’t always bring clarity.

“We do extensive research and training to constantly improve our processes,” Krista Kerr, deputy director of Chester County Voter Services, said. “This law, when it was enacted, it doesn’t come with standard operating procedures or a manual on how to do it, so we have to be very creative and come up with our own ideas.”

Those election law reforms have created problems, too. Unlike other states, Pennsylvania counties aren’t allowed to prep mail-in ballots, known as pre-canvassing, until 7 a.m. of election day. That prohibition delays results.

Kerr referred to it as “simultaneously running dual elections” for in-person voting and for mail-in ballot counting. There’s another hiccup too: Chester County’s elections office is split between two locations, one in the county seat of West Chester and another outside it a couple miles away. But state law requires ballots to be counted in the county seat.

“We’re trying to instill trust through transparency with the public and we offer them to come to the central scan, it’s open to the public,” Kerr said.

James Allen, Delaware County’s director of elections, advocated for more engagement from county officials to let voters know if they have problems with their mail-in ballots.

“We should be allowed to help voters who aren’t there on election day,” Allen said. “We should be able to call them, email them, send them a letter, whatever means we have, and let them know they did not sign their envelope, did not date their envelope, did not use their secrecy envelope.”

He noted that Delaware County has copied what Allegheny County has done to notify voters.

“If it’s plainly apparent that this voter will be disenfranchised based on the envelope, and based on their lack of signature, date, or secrecy envelope, we’re going to cancel that, notify the voter — but also send out the replacement envelope and ballot right away,” Allen said. “Problems do not get better with time.”

Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt has told legislators he doesn’t expect delays like 2020 in counting votes, but also noted that fewer than two dozen people work on elections full-time in the Department of State. Running elections is extremely local in Pennsylvania.

Local headaches are due to the state’s inaction.

“It’s our fault as legislators — there is no consistency between counties on all aspects of the mail-in balloting or absentee balloting process,” Sen. Judy Schwank, D-Reading, said.

Any changes that come may be a result of the judicial branch; the Commonwealth Court ordered Washington County on Tuesday to notify voters of ballot errors after a controversial decision in April by county commissioners not to do so.

Election officials urged legislators to change the law to allow early pre-canvassing before election day hits. Reber noted that CCAP was asking for pre-canvassing minimum of five days.

“We need to get results out the day of the election or people start to question it a little bit,” he said. “Any sort of adjustment there is gonna help not only give credence to many people’s thoughts about the election results, but it’s gonna help the administration of the counties themselves.”

Lauren Cristella, president and CEO of the good-governance group Committee of 70, made a plea for Pennsylvania to be as good as other states.

“I just want to vote like Florida,” she said. “They allow pre-canvassing I think weeks in advance of election day … every county has been subject to tremendous stress, most of which stems from restrictions and ambiguities in state law.”