Pa. House Democrats push voting reform bills
Resembles legislation stalled in Congress
Marking this week’s oneyear anniversary of the U.S. House passing its now-stalled voter reform legislation, Democrats in the Pennsylvania House re-upped calls for the state Legislature to pass a package of bills that they say will make it easier for people to vote and make it harder for corporations and special interests to buy elections.
The package, sharing a name with the federal For the People Act, which now awaits unlikely action in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate, would institute automatic voter registration, same-day voter registration and early voting, and put limits on corporate campaign contributions, among other reforms that House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Oakmont, insisted in a statement would “strengthen democracy” in Pennsylvania.
Allegheny County lawmakers are responsible for a significant chunk of the package.
Reps. Ed Gainey, D-LincolnLemington, and Sara Innamorato, D-Lawrenceville, are sponsoring a pair of bills on automatic voter registration, which would make it so Pennsylvanians are automatically registered when they utilize state services through the departments of Transportation, Human Services, Military and Veterans Affairs or others, unless they choose to opt out.
A bill sponsored by Brandon Markosek, D-Monroeville, would ensure that 16- and
17-year-olds, through participation in high school voter registration events, are registered to vote when they turn 18.
“Only a little over half of the people who could vote actually do vote. Why not more?” asked House Democratic Caucus spokesman Bill Patton. “Democrats want to take down barriers to voting so that more people will exercise that right.”
The House Democratic caucus, in a memo announcing the reform package, included a quote from Daniel Squadron, the cofounder and executive director of a group called Future Now, which houses a policy shop that pushes model legislation and a political action committee with a stated goal of flipping the Pennsylvania House blue — among other legislative chambers nationwide.
In a tweet on Monday, Future Now wrote that it’s helping 10 states roll out voting reform packages in their legislatures. A similar message — which also praised Pennsylvania legislators in particular for their efforts — was posted by Future Majority, a separate group that, according to Politico, is co-chaired by major Democratic donors including Philip Munger, son of Berkshire Hathaway billionaire Charlie Munger.
Part of Future Now’s operations include encouraging legislatures to pass bills that are outlined under its progressive policy framework “America’s Goals,” which provides an agenda, a policy library and sample bills that legislators can introduce themselves.
According to reporting in The Atlantic, the organization has tried to operate as a counterweight to the American Legislative Exchange Council, the policy shop that has been guiding conservative bills through state legislatures for nearly half a century.
Future Now’s model legislation, which is housed online for the public to view, shares many similar concepts — and some specific phrasing — with the bills Democrats in the Pennsylvania state House have proposed.
The Democrats’ package as a whole was presented to the public almost exactly as America’s Goals suggests under its “Repair our Broken Democracy” policy proposal, with similar subject headings and organization — and all of the overarching concepts behind the Democratic bills, from pre-registration of 16 and 17-year-olds to shareholder authorization of political expenditures, pop up in the organization’s separate model legislation sections.
House Bill 1558 — the House Democrats’ early voting legislation — includes entire sections and sentences that are identical to America’s Goals’ “Strengthen Democracy Through Early Voting” model legislation.
Mr. Patton said the Democrats, building on their efforts in 2017 and 2018, introduced their bills before they began working with Future Now. The bills were introduced in 2019.
“Since discovering their interest in our bills, we’ve been working together to advance these common goals,” Mr. Patton said. “The point of the bills is to make our democracy stronger by helping more people take part in it.”
Asked about the similarities between early voting proposals in particular, Mr. Patton said the caucus reviewed laws from other states and “adapted some parts of those to fit Pennsylvania’s needs.”
“Using the experience of other states helps us to get better results here,” he said. “I imagine that Future Now did something similar while developing its model bill because our goals are their goals too.”
With Republicans in control of the state House, the bills — introduced a year ago — haven’t been brought up for a vote. Asked for a time-frame on when Democrats would like to see these passed into law, Mr. Patton said “when the Democrats earn a majority of seats” in November’s elections, “these voting reforms will be a priority.”