Mail-in voting law proves up to challenge

Elections are emotional events, and the 2020 election was an election on steroids — a hypercompetitive presidential race during a pandemic.

Pennsylvania added a wrinkle that placed even more pressure on the counties running our elections. This fall was the first general election using changes brought about by the passage of Act 77.

Act 77 permitted an additional 15 days for voters to register before an election, provided funding for the purchase of new voting machines, eliminated the straight-party voting option and gave Pennsylvanians 50 days before an election to cast a no-excuse mail-in ballot.

When Act 77 was enacted, Pennsylvania joined 31 other states and the District of Columbia in offering a no-excuse vote-by-mail option. States have been operating robust mail-in voting options for decades without controversy.

Given all the rhetoric surrounding the election, it is easy to forget that this bill was passed on Oct. 29, 2019, in a bipartisan fashion — well before anyone knew of something called COVID-19. More House and Senate Republicans supported the bill than Democrats.

No one expected that the mail-in voting provisions would play a key role in the 2020 election. At the time, safety was the primary concern, focused on our voting machines and needed security upgrades based on what we learned in 2016.

Fast-forward three months. COVID-19 hits, we need to postpone our primary until June, and suddenly our new, untested, no-excuse mail-in voting option becomes the cornerstone for a safe election.

During the primary, the demand for mail-in ballots brought to light some technical issues that would have benefited from clarification by the Legislature. One fix that garnered near-universal support was the need to allow counties to pre-canvass ballots earlier than 7 a.m. on Election Day. Every county warned that would lead to a delay in the vote count.

Counties also would have benefited from other key questions being answered, including: Can counties use secure drop box locations to collect ballots? Can a county official or representative call a voter and let them know their vote might not count because their return envelope was not signed or a secrecy envelope was missing? Can a vote be counted if a return envelope is missing a date or the name of the county?

I was hopeful we would have found common ground to remedy these concerns. Unfortunately, we in the Legislature were unable to come to an agreement. Consequently, everyone turned to the courts as the secretary of state attempted to guide the 67 counties through implementation of this new law.

It is never prudent to have courts resolve elections. Perhaps the most surprising lawsuit was the constitutional challenge to Act 77 raised at the conclusion of the election, especially considering the broad bipartisan support demonstrated for the law in 2019.

The mail-in voting law is an overwhelming success. We had anticipated that interest in mailin voting would grow incrementally. COVID-19 changed all that, and the law proved up to the challenge. About 2.6 million people cast their vote by mail this fall, roughly 37% of all ballots cast. That number was beyond my wildest expectation when the bill passed. I wonder how many of those voters may not have voted this year without the ease of our new mail-in option.

As some elected officials continue to politicize mail-in voting, it is undeniable that voting this year was more secure, more convenient and safer than ever in large part due to Act 77. I look forward to working with lawmakers to strengthen it and clear up the ambiguities. It is good legislation born out of an all-too-often forgotten word in politics, “compromise.”

Amending Act 77 will require us to step away from the noise coming from extremes of our parties and meet in the middle. I plan to have a role in making certain our voting laws do not go backwards.

When the bill became law, I was thrilled to be the prime sponsor. Having seen it in action, I am honored to have my name forever attached to Pennsylvania’s most significant voting reform in 80 years.

Boscola, a Democrat, represents the Lehigh Valley’s 18th District in the state Senate.