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With a major election now just a few months away that has national repercussions, a state lawmaker is calling on Gov. Tom Wolf to sit down and negotiate election law changes that would smooth out concerns that have led to lawsuits, ballot issues and lingering questions about election results.

Rep. Seth Grove, R-York County, released a report on Tuesday detailing the litany of issues that have cropped over the past three election cycles that he said documents the need for changes to ensure uniformity to the election system across the commonwealth.

Among them, video recordings of individuals dropping off multiple ballots in Lehigh County, a Luzerne County man using his deceased mother's information to apply for an absentee ballot, shortages of paper ballots at polling places in multiple counties including York and Lebanon, and the Spanish-language ballot instructions on mail-in ballots included the wrong date of the election in Berks County.

Doing nothing to address these and other issues will result in more lawsuits like the one that arose out of the May 17 primary that centers on whether to count undated mail-in ballots, said Grove, who chairs the House State Government Committee.

"Hopefully, things get better. I'm not holding my breath on it just based on past precedence of what we've seen in 2021 and this past election," Grove said at a Capitol news conference. "The entire country is taking notice."

Given the stakes in the November election with control of the U.S. Senate and potentially the U.S. House riding on Pennsylvania's results in addition to the election of a new governor, he said. "It's a big election with big repercussions and we should get it right. I'm not seeing that in our election process."

Grove's motivation in issuing what is his third report on problems plaguing Pennsylvania's election system is to spell out the need for action in hopes it will lead to the Democratic governor and Republican-controlled House and Senate working together to come up with a plan to fix it.

The fixes that his caucus has in mind were initially included in House Bill 1300 that passed both legislative chambers last June. It included such provisions as ones allowing early in-person voting, making it easier for disabled people to vote, and giving counties what they most want – more time before Election Day to begin preparing mail-in ballots for counting to ensure timelier election results. Current law allows election officials to only begin that ballot preparation process when the polls open on Election Day.

Wolf vetoed House Bill 1300 on June 30 last year.

One of the governor's primary objections was its inclusion of a requirement for voters to show identification every time they vote.

That issue has been taken out of the equation through the General Assembly's passage earlier this month of a package of proposed constitutional amendments that included one requiring voter ID. The governor has no veto power over constitutional amendments, only the majority of voters do.

Grove introduced a separate but similar bill to House Bill 1300 that included additional refinements such as one that required counties to have all their ballots – minus ones from qualified absentee military or overseas voters – counted by 2 a.m. the day after the election. That measure, House Bill 1800, awaits action in the House. Grove said he's hopeful that might serve as a foundation for negotiations with the governor and lawmakers.

"It's July," Grove said. "I'm here. We could fix this on his porch in Mount Wolf over a nice cup of tea."

What won't pass muster with the House Republican Caucus, though, is a standalone bill that addresses counties' top priority – getting more time to prepare ballots for counting. Grove said his caucus would not support it without additional election integrity provisions being included.

Wolf spokeswoman Beth Rementer noted that point in her response to Grove's call for improving the state's election law.

"As Rep. Grove admitted today, the House Republican Caucus is unwilling to support even the simplest, most non-partisan agreed-upon measure – pre-canvassing – without tying it to efforts to make it more difficult for eligible people to vote. Pennsylvania voters deserve better," she said.

Rementer added that Wolf supports voting reforms "that remove barriers and increase access to voting, like early in-person voting, expanded use of ballot drop boxes, same-day registration, pre-canvassing, and more."

Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa of Allegheny County said his caucus has been laser-focused on ensuring that each and every voter's voice is heard.

"But Rep. Grove and other members of the GOP have added measures that would make voting harder, especially for seniors, Black and brown voters, and anyone who votes by mail," Costa said. "Our caucus is always looking for ways to make voting more accessible to all of us. It's clear to us that Rep. Grove's top priority is to pick and choose who gets to vote, and that is not democracy. Pennsylvanians deserve an easy and accessible voting system, but Rep. Grove's legislation would silence and suppress voters."

The Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are seeking resolution to two election-related issues that chamber had passed.

One was loosening the requirements on partisan poll watchers, which Wolf vetoed earlier this month. The other is legislation that awaits action in the House that would eliminate the use of ballot drop boxes that have given rise to a myriad of issues cited in Grove's report that are blamed for eroding voter confidence in elections.

"Our members have received countless messages, calls, emails and letters regarding Pennsylvanians lack of confidence in our state's election results," said Senate Republican spokeswoman Erica Clayton Wright. She cited a January 2022 Muhlenberg poll that found that 4 in 10 voters reported they were not confident in the fairness of the election, with 24% not confident the election was conducted fairly, a percentage that remained unchanged since January 2021.

Wright also touted election-related changes included as part of budget package, namely the prohibition on private funding of elections as well as giving voters a say on the adoption of proposed constitutional amendments on voter ID and empowering the state auditor general to conduct regular election audits.

"This package is a significant step in the right direction to restoring voter confidence; however, it was not an easy path, as the governor has vetoed every election reform measure put before him by the legislature including voter ID and election audits," Wright said. "Voter ID and election audits are something Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly want and we will give the people the opportunity to decide."

Calls for improvements to the state's election process are also coming from outside the Capitol.

CASA, an organization that supports immigrant families in ensuring their full participation in society, issued a statement urging lawmakers to put aside their hyper-partisanship and focus on changes that would make elections more convenient and easier to access.

"The reality is that many challenges faced by counties and experienced by voters could have been addressed earlier had lawmakers focused on modernizing our elections and improving voting conveniences," said Liz Alex, the group's chief of organizing and leadership. "Pennsylvania lags behind the vast majority of states when it comes to making sure voters can count on 21st century convenience at the ballot box, and we need to do much more to modernize our elections, especially to make voting equally accessible to voting communities that are always left behind, rather than erecting more barriers."

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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