Election reform must remain a priority for Pennsylvania | Editorial

Predictably, some shameless Harrisburg Republicans are twisting last week’s resignation by Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar in order to feed a false narrative that fraud cost former President Trump the Nov. 3 election in Pennsylvania. Boockvar’s departure has nothing to do with Trump’s loss; she quit because her department failed to publicly advertise a proposed constitutional amendment to allow more victims of past sexual abuse by clergy members to file claims.

The egregious error on Boockvar’s watch should not be allowed to distract from the need to pursue the sort of reforms of Pennsylvania’s election system being sought by the state’s County Commissioners Association and others. Expanding voter registration opportunities and increasing access to the ballot on and in advance of election day statewide will require training for poll workers, education for voters, and more funding. And Gov. Tom Wolf and his next secretary of state also will have to provide clear guidance to election officials, and voters.

Despite the pandemic and challenges of implementing of major bi-partisan voting reforms enacted late in 2019, Philadelphia and county governments last year statewide provided voters with safe and secure access to in-person voting, as well as to a mail-in ballot process unfamiliar to most. A record voter turnout, along with the abject failure of the wholesale election fraud allegations contained in frivolous lawsuits, suggest that the system worked reasonably well in Pennsylvania.

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The most critical lesson of 2020′s election: sustaining and improving the physical, technological, and staffing infrastructure will require additional resources. Voting-by-mail was implemented under the duress of a public health crisis and political maneuvering in Harrisburg and Washington, DC; it was far from flawless. And a large part of 2020 election expenses were paid for by one-time-only federal and state revenues.

Pennsylvania distributed a total of $35.3 million in federal and state assistance to counties statewide to bolster election-related services in 2020. Philadelphia also received a $10 million grant from the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life to help underwrite the cost of early voting stations; at these temporary, one-stop service centers in 17 convenient locations citywide, voters could walk in, obtain, complete, and submit their ballots well in advance of election day.

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So it’s encouraging that Wolf’s proposed budget would boost spending for the department of state from $7.3 million to $11.7 million. That will cover long overdue upgrades to Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors system, but that’s just a start. The governor also supports ‘pre-canvassing,’ or preparation for counting of mail-in ballots, prior to election day.

But some Republican legislators are fiercely opposed to pre-canvassing and aim to repeal or curtail mail-in voting and other provisions of Act 77, the landmark 2019 reforms enacted with their party‘s support GOP leaders also are holding an epic series of hearings, ostensibly about election security, that seem more about offering aid and comfort to believers in the myth of a “stolen” election.

Allowing local election boards to pre-canvass, and providing their operations with more financial and logistical support, will do more to make elections secure than hearings, efforts to rewrite history, or attempts to placate a president unable to accept the fact that he lost the state — and the office.