It’s easy - and important - to vote in Pennsylvania
Nov. 3, 2020, will be a different kind of Election Day in Pennsylvania.
Across the commonwealth, government officials and civic leaders are working hard to ensure a successful election in spite of the global pandemic.
Pennsylvania is getting ready to meet this challenge.
Pennsylvania residents who are registered to vote can now vote by mail. Thanks to bipartisan legislative efforts last year, you don’t have to be out of town or unable to go to the polls. You can apply to vote by mail at votespa. com, and your ballot will be mailed to you. If you include an email address with your application, you will receive notifications about changes in the status of your application and your ballot as the process proceeds.
If you prefer to cast your vote in person, you will be able to do so safely. Local leaders are instituting social distancing measures, as well as mask wearing and sanitation practices at the polls. In addition, poll workers will be trained to keep polling sites safe.
The primary election in June was a good start. More than 1.4 million voters used mail-in ballots. Counties successfully and accurately tabulated the results, and although in some areas the count took longer than usual. Since then, these areas have been changing their procedures to be more efficient.
Even so, our Pennsylvania legislators can and should take action to reduce the time it takes to count the votes. Currently, counties must wait until Election Day to prepare mail ballots for scanning. We could have the election results faster if county officials were allowed to pre-canvass. Precanvassing means that officials can open the outer envelopes, remove, stack, and secure the ballots so they could begin counting them promptly on Election Day. Legislation permitting county officials to do this has been introduced in Harrisburg, and our leaders should work together to ensure that pre-canvassing is allowed to occur.
But, there are people who do not live in Pennsylvania who oppose the legislation because they claim that encouraging mail ballots will encourage fraudulent voting. They have no proof of this. Some of them also believe that voting by mail provides an advantage to one party over another, but the evidence that this occurs is unconvincing.
Please don’t believe the stories you read on social media or in various media outlets that may be trying to discourage you from voting. If you are not yet registered to vote, you have until Oct. 19 to do so.
Finally, if you decide to vote by mail, make sure you complete your ballot and put it in the secrecy envelope. Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballots have a secrecy envelope so that your vote choice is kept secret. Once you do that, put the secrecy envelope inside of the larger envelope, sign the back of it, seal it, and then put it in the mail.
As Pennsylvanians, it is up to us to decide who will lead the commonwealth and the nation. This election and our democratic process will succeed because you and our fellow Pennsylvanians will vote by mail or vote safely at the polls and make our voices heard. Thank you for reading this message and stay safe.
Connie Williams, a Democrat, represented the
149th Legislative District in Pennsylvania from
1997 to 2001 as a member of the Pennsylvania
House of Representatives, and she represented the 17th Senatorial District from 2001
2009 as a member of the Pennsylvania Senate. She is a member of VoteSafe Pennsylvania, which is a coalition of former elected officials, community leaders, nonprofit organizations, and election experts working to ensure that every Pennsylvanian feels safe to vote in the upcoming General Election.