Pennsylvania to pay for mail-in ballot postage in election
HARRISBURG, PA. » Pennsylvania will foot the cost of postage for voters to mail in ballots in November’s general election, officials said Friday, a move that Gov. Tom Wolf has made a priority as the coronavirus pandemic unexpectedly fueled high interest in voting by mail under a new state law.
The administration plans to use money from federal emergency coronavirus aid to foot the bill, which could run to several million dollars to cover 55 cents for millions of ballots.
Wolf’s top elections official, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, said paying for the postage is a way to make voting more accessible during the pandemic. Advocates also said it should help people get their ballots in faster and on time.
Under the plan, voters who apply for and receive a mail-in or absentee ballot in the mail will also get a postage-paid ballot-return envelope. Each county will have options on how to carry that out, whether using stamps, a metered machine or a business-reply mail account linked to the state’s, Boockvar said.
The step by Wolf, a Democrat, comes as his administration and lawmakers discuss legislation to help counties deal with the expected avalanche of mailedin ballots in a premier presidential battleground state.
It also comes as the push to expand voting by mail ahead of the November presidential election has become increasingly partisan.
President Donald Trump has made clear he believes widespread mail-in voting would benefit Democrats. He has alleged — without citing evidence — that it will lead to massive fraud, and the Republican National Committee has budgeted $20 million to fight Democratic lawsuits in at least 18 states aimed at expanding voting by mail.
Seventeen states cover postage for mail-in ballots, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, including in states under Republican governors such as Arizona, Maryland and Missouri, and under Democratic governors, including California, Minnesota and Virginia. Covering ballot postage is also the subject of a push in statehouses and courts in several other states with Republican governors, including Ohio, Florida and Georgia.
While the U.S. Postal Service has said the post office delivers every piece of election mail to its destination — with or without adequate postage — advocates for postage-paid ballot envelopes argue that most voters are unlikely to trust that a ballot without postage will get delivered.
Advocates also compare the cost of a stamp to a poll tax. A federal judge in Florida rejected the idea in a court case there in June, comparing stamps to the costs of a voter driving or riding the bus to the polls.
In Pennsylvania, both the Republican and Democratic parties urged voters to cast ballots by mail in the June 2 primary election.
More than 1.4 million Pennsylvanians voted by mail in the primary, or about half, smashing a state record made possible by a sweeping new election law Wolf signed last fall.