‘RIGHTS’ AND WRONGS
Guv, Dems rip GOP voting ‘reform’ package:
MEDIA » Democrats on Thursday slammed a state House package of election reforms as nothing less than a rebranding of “Jim Crow” style laws in the modern age, guised under a blanket of security to disenfranchise voters.
“Bad faith actors continue to spread lies about the safety and accuracy of our voting system,” said Gov. Tom Wolf at a press conference inside the county council meeting room at the Government Center. “Make no mistake, the leaders of the House Republican Caucus are being driven by fringe conspiracy theories. That is no way to make good policy.”
Wolf, joined by numerous other democrats from the region and Acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid, said he agrees there are things the state can do to improve elections, and some of those are contained in the 140-page package of reforms introduced by state Rep. Seth Grove, R-196 of York, chair of the House State Government Committee.
Among them: Increasing pay for poll workers, allowing early pre-canvassing of mail-in ballots and expanding funding for election bureaus, said Wolf. But he said the bill would also create new barriers for people registering to vote, voting by mail and voting in person that would disenfranchise voters, and that one provision in particular requiring voter ID at the polls was a “non-starter” for him.
“HB 1300 does include some good reforms, but make no mistake: This bill is a Trojan horse for voter suppression,” said state Sen. Tim Kearney, D-26 of Swarthmore. “It imposes new restrictions on who can vote, when they can vote, and how they can vote. That is democracy in reverse. It is a dangerous effort built upon the ‘big lie’ of voter fraud, and we saw just how dangerous these efforts can be on Jan. 6th at our nation’s Capitol.”
House Bill 1300 was crafted following months of hearings with election officials, voting rights activists and various experts. Other provisions call for implementing six days of in-person voting after the 2024 Presidential Election, limiting mail ballot drop-boxes to just seven days before an election, pushing back the voter registration deadline to 30 days from the current 15 days before an election, moving the deadline back for requesting a mail-in ballot from seven to 15 days and allowing voters to “cure” mail-in ballots that are missing signatures.
Degraffenreid said the state has already made great strides to ensure election security and integrity, including new machines that keep a paper record of votes and close collaboration between state and federal officials to verify information is correct. She added that mail-in ballots – including traditional absentee and new “no excuse” mailins provided for under Act 77 of 2019 – must be applied for with some identifying information that is verified before a ballot is issued.
County Councilwoman Christine Reuther noted the drop-boxes were popular with the electorate in 2020 and the 2021 Primary Election, accounting for almost half of all mail-in ballots. The county was only able to pay for those secure, monitored boxes through a grant, said Reuther, which would not be possible under HB 1300.
Delaware County installed 41 such boxes last year, but Reuther said the proposed legislation would limit that number to just five for the county and drastically reduce the time frame that they could be used.
“Where are we going to put them?” she asked. “What criteria are we going to use? Is the Legislature going to tell us that too? This is something that shouldn’t stand. It is a barrier to people being able to vote securely and safely and with the confidence that their vote will be received.”
State Rep. Margo Davidson, D-164 of Upper Darby, called the bill “another step in the march to dismantle our democracy” through frivolous investigation and legislative suppression, while state Sen. Sharif Street, D-3 of Philadelphia, equated it to “Jim Crow” laws implemented after the end of slavery.
Street noted that both state and federal courts found no systemic fraud in the state following the 2020 Presidential Election, and argued that continued assertions to the contrary are intended only to sow doubt about future elections.
Street pointed to literacy, competency and other tests imposed on freed slaves that he said were presented at the time as benign, commonsense ways to ensure the security of the vote.
“That was the Jim Crow system,” Street said. “And today, we have similar assertions, assertions that we need to secure our elections even though there is no documented fraud.”
Grove, who watched the event from the back of the room with state Reps. Craig Williams, R-160 of Concord, and Chris Quinn, R-168 of Middletown, said afterward that much of the hand-wringing over the proposals in the bill was misplaced.
“Let me be clear: House Bill 1300, the Pennsylvania Voting Rights Act, is solely predicated on the 10 comprehensive hearings we had at the state House Government Committee,” he said. “We found salient issues that have occurred in Pennsylvania that we are trying to address. It’s predicated on our law and the administration of our elections.”
Grove said some issues evident from 2020 include nonuniformity of election administration among the state’s 67 counties, late guidance from the Department of State and a “complete removal of any integrity provision” from the state Supreme Court regarding the mail-in ballot process.
“House Bill 1300 was crafted in a bipartisan way with bipartisan hearings, and since Chairman Grove started this effort in his committee, he’s been reaching out to the governor, reaching out to the other side of the aisle, trying to negotiate a compro
mise outcome – and they choose instead to come to Delaware County and conduct political theater and assign a lot of ill-will to House Bill 1300,” said Williams.
Williams conceded that Reuther’s point about the number of drop boxes was merited, but said there should be a conversation on that, rather than a onesided denouncement.
Williams pointed to the voter ID provision – which he noted was supported by a majority of voters in a recent Franklin & Marshall College poll – and said they would be issued free of charge under HB 1300 so voters could bring them into the polls and have them scanned to simplify the process.
“There’s nothing here that is not negotiable and everything is about increasing turnout and making elections easier for everyone,” he said.
Wolf indicated during
his comments that he had sent a letter to Grove’s office Thursday seeking an audience, but Grove said he had not received it yet, being at the same event.
“Everybody wants election reform,” said Grove. “We’ve put out a comprehensive package that increases accessibility, tightens security and modernizes our election system to the benefit of the voters. We’re looking to have that conversation with (Wolf) and his staff to find a middle ground forward. We have not had that yet.”