Pa. voters deserve a safe, secure election

This election year is unlike any other. For the first time in over a century, Pennsylvania voters will participate in an election during a global pandemic. As we prepare for this election, state officials must make special preparations to ensure voter safety and security. That means making sure voters know they have the option to submit their ballot by mail if they choose. It also means ensuring in-person voting locations allow voters to participate in the election without having to fear for their health and safety.

To meet this dual objective, state and county election officials must meet five obligations in service of public health and voter safety.

First, Pennsylvania should ensure all voters have the option to vote with a mail-in or absentee ballot. Second, voters who opt to vote by mail must receive their ballot on time. Third, Pennsylvania should ensure voters have the option to vote at safe, in-person polling locations. Fourth, there needs to be a sufficient number of polling sites to allow for safe, in-person voting. Finally and critically, Pennsylvania should make necessary changes to rules to facilitate the process to count what is sure to be a record number of absentee and mail-in ballots in a timely fashion.

Our state can meet these obligations if it is equipped with sufficient resources.

Pennsylvania has made important changes in recent years to improve its vote-by-mail system. Well before the coronavirus pandemic spread to the United States, the commonwealth changed its mail ballot rules such that any voter could request a mail-in or absentee ballot if he or she prefers to vote by mail. By the time the pandemic reached the United States, Pennsylvania was prepared.

In the June 2 primary, 1.4 million voters cast their ballot by mail or absentee — the first time mailed in votes exceeded in-person voting in history. While results took longer than usual in some parts of the state, Pennsylvania voters successfully made their preferences known leading up to and on Election Day.

Voting by mail is not a new phenomenon. Since the Civil War, members of our armed forces have consistently voted by mail. In the 2018 election, 31 million Americans across all 50 states — approximately one-quarter of voters — cast their ballot by mail. Voting by mail has worked effectively for decades in Pennsylvania for those who have submitted ballots from outside their municipality.

Voting by mail also helps to limit long lines at polling places and crowded spaces on Election Day. Our primary challenge in meeting the needs of Pennsylvania voters this year is the challenge of scale. This November, a record number of Pennsylvanians are expected to vote by mail.

Preparing for the general election will require bipartisan collaboration in Harrisburg and unified action to ensure Congress provides our state with needed resources. For this reason, we have come together as former elected officials from both major political parties and different parts of Pennsylvania. Along with the VoteSafe PA coalition, which includes current and former elected officials of both parties from across the state, we are urging our leaders to take important actions to give voters confidence that the 2020 election will be successful.

The surge in voter participation and mail-in ballots means it could take several days to process results. That is an understandable reality. Elections aren’t about speed but accuracy, and we need to ensure every vote counts. Due to the high volume of mail-in ballots expected in November, state lawmakers are considering provisions to give counties the tools they need to deal with the volume, such as allowing pre -canvassing, for example. Pre-canvassing could allow counties to open envelopes, flatten and stack the ballots, and then lock them up securely, so results can be determined more quickly once tabulation begins on Election Day.

The practice is fairly common. Among the states that allow mail-in voting, more than two dozen already allow election officials to begin the process of preparing the ballots for tabulation before Election Day because it can be done safely and securely.

Nobody in the Keystone State should have to choose between their health and their right to vote. Through partnership and collaboration, Pennsylvania can deliver for our people what they deserve: an efficient, accessible, secure mail-in ballot process and safe, in-person voting sites that ensure voter health and confidence in the 2020 election.

Dave Reed and Patrick Murphy are coalition co-chairs of VoteSafe PA. Mr. Reed served as Pennsylvania House majority leader from 2015 to 2018 as a Republican state representative from Indiana County. Mr. Murphy served as a Democratic congressman representing a district encompassing Bucks County from 2007 to 2011 and as the 32nd undersecretary of the U.S. Army.