Republicans move ahead with plans to review Pa. election process
HARRISBURG— Republicans in both chambers of the General Assembly have moved to carry out in-depth reviews of how Pennsylvania conducts elections, including a tentatively scheduled series of 14 hearings by a House committee starting Jan. 21.
The Republican steps came Tuesday, before the violent breaching of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump.
York County Republican state Rep. Seth Grove on Tuesday issued a set of 14 dates for the hearings, which will carry into April. On the same day, the Republican-led Senate passed a motion in a split vote to form a special bipartisan committee on election integrity and reform.
Republicans on Thursday said their plans likely would not be greatly affected by the events in Washington, D.C.
Grove, chairperson of the State Government Committee that will hold the hearings, noted that the first date is still two weeks away. And Jason Gottesman, a spokesperson for the House Republican caucus, said nothing that would take place in the hearings would reflect the lawlessness seen in Washington.
The moves appear to follow through on Republican leaders’ vow in early December to look into voting security and counting; management of the election by Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar; and the impact of judicial decisions on the election.
Three Lehigh Valley region Democrats did not oppose the notion of hearings, but all were mindful of the shadow cast by the violence at the Capitol.
“Yesterday was an embarrassment and sad for our country. We all know that was wrong,” said state Sen. Lisa Boscola of Northampton County. “We have to just try to move forward.”
Democratic Rep. Mike Schlossberg of Lehigh County said the violence put a new light on any discussions at hearings. He said he did not oppose them but “I hope they would be really cautious in what they say, and how they say it.”
Democratic Rep. Maureen Madden of Monroe County said she was “skeptical as to whether they will be fair hearings” but thought better of them now that there was no chance to affect election results.
Grove said the main goal of the hearing was to lay out exactly how elections function in the state. Each hearing is expected to have its own focus, and scrutiny of many details is expected to include certification of voting machines, reporting of votes, and what Grove called “election IT stuff.”
“The main goal is to get into how elections operate in the commonwealth,” Grove said in an interview. “We are going to
walk Pennsylvanians through the path of how elections occur, step by step by step.”
The election law that governs Pennsylvania originally was written in 1937. A sweeping update was passed in late 2019 that included allowance for widespread use of mail-in voting.
Onthe Senate side, the motion to create the election review committee passed in a 29-20 vote on Tuesday. The action was overshadowed that day by a contentious faceoff in which Republicans blocked the seating of Democratic Sen. Jim Brewster of Allegheny County.
On Thursday, Democratic leader Sen. Jay Costa said, “I reject the notion that the Senate body has the authority to investigate or determine the outcomes of elections.”
But, Costa said, that is exactly what the newly approved committee — and the decision to not seat Brewster — attempt to do.
Mike Straub, a spokesperson for Republican House Speaker Bryan Cutler, said a key aspect of conducting a legislative review of election processes was to assert the General Assembly’s role.
The state’s judiciary, Straub said, overstepped its bounds in rulings made during the 2020 process.
Boscola was prime sponsor of the bill that became the 2019 election reform.
She said she was against Tuesday’s motion on a special committee because it isn’t needed. Boscola said the Election Law Advisory Board — approved by the General Assembly early last year — is supposed to evaluate election processes and identify best practices.
Unlike the just-approved special committee, Boscola said, the board includes people who are not in the government in Harrisburg. One of them is Amy Cozze, chief registrar in Northampton County.
“They are scheduled to meet later this month,” Boscola said. “The makeup of the board is very broad and bipartisan.”