Amid partisan debate, Pa. House passes voting reform bill

A sharply divided Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted largely along party lines Wednesday to send the state Senate an election reform bill that backers say give counties more time to deal with an anticipated flood of mail-in ballots as voters make their voices heard in the middle of a pandemic.

The Republican-controlled chamber voted 112-90 to approve an amended bill sponsored by Rep. Dan Moul, R-Adams, that Democrats derided because they said it would suppress the vote by effectively banning remote drop-boxes, and because it moves the deadline for requesting a mail-in ballot from the current seven days before an election to 15 days before the election, according to published reports.

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“Last week we were here celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, where women won the right to vote,” Rep. Mary Isaacson, D-Philadelphia, said. “I will never vote to support restrictions on voting rights. And that’s what this bill does. Counties are trying to hold elections in a pandemic. And we’re going to pass a bill that restricts voting rights? In a pandemic we need something to believe in, and that’s voting rights. We should be making it easier, not harder.”

Republicans countered that the House was acting on the recommendations of a June report by the Department of State that concluded that officials learned “valuable lessons from the primary that we can use to ensure an even smoother voting experience in the general election in November.”

“After primary my county called me and said we have problems, you need to fix these things, There’s no such thing as a perfect bill, but this bill moves the ball forward,” Moul said at the conclusion of Wednesday’s debate. “You’ve heard that the [state county commissioners’ association] supports moving the ball forward. As far as the bill is concerned — does it help our county election bureaus? Thea answer is yes. So why wouldn’t you want to help your counties … especially with an election coming up in a couple of months?”

In a statement released to the investigative news site Spotlight PA, the Wolf administration said it opposed the bill, as it was amended, “for a multitude of reasons, including the fact that the bill makes it harder, not easier, for citizens to vote.

The amended measure allows counties to start counting mail-in and absentee ballots three days before Election Day. A prior version would have allowed for 21 days, Spotlight PA reported.

Wolf is calling on “the Legislature to act on a limited number of priorities to ensure that every vote will be counted, guarantee results will be known in a timely manner, and afford counties flexibility in staffing in-person polling locations,” administration spokeswoman Lyndsay Kensinger told Spotlight PA.