Pennsylvania counties are one step closer to having more time to process mail-in ballots for elections after a state House committee voted on Monday to pass a bill that would allow for pre-canvassing.
Under the bill, election officials would be allowed to open mail-in ballot envelopes and prepare them to be tallied prior to Election Day — something that administrators in Pennsylvania have long argued would allow counties to report elections quicker.
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The bill, introduced by Democratic state Rep. Scott Conklin, would give counties seven days to process mail-in and absentee ballots before Election Day. It would also move the deadline for voters to request mail-in or absentee ballots to 11 days prior to Election Day instead of the current seven days.
“This bill is something that is asked for by the people who [run elections] because they are tired of being blamed for something that they didn’t do,” Conklin told Votebeat Pennsylvania. “They’re tired of people waiting three days for the election results. This gives them a chance days early to get those [results] ready to go out.”
The bill would update state law to clarify that simple voter mistakes, such as not placing a ballot inside an inner secrecy envelope or not dating the return envelope, would not be grounds for disqualifying a ballot. It also would require counties to notify voters if there were deficiencies in their ballot.
The proposed election measure still needs to pass through the full state House, which is controlled by Democrats. It will then need to pass the Republican-controlled state Senate before it arrives on Gov. Josh Shapiro's (D-PA) desk.
It is unclear whether Shapiro will sign the bill, but he has expressed support for pre-canvassing and voter ID.
House Democrats told Votebeat Pennsylvania that a vote for the full chamber has not been scheduled but that the lawmakers “have long prioritized important reforms that will make it easier for voters to exercise their right to cast a ballot and improve the process for county election offices.”
Republicans on the House State Government Committee unanimously voted against the bill.
"I look at this legislation as a solution in search of a problem," Republican state Rep. Brad Roae said. He added that the counties were able to count ballots quickly for the 2022 midterm elections. "This legislation, I’m not sure what the goal is."
While state Democrats and Republicans have been open to pre-canvassing, the bill could stall due to party conflicts over other election measures. Pennsylvania Republicans are stressing voter ID as a top election law priority.
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"Voters deserve to have confidence in our electoral process,” state Senate Republican spokeswoman Kate Flessner said. “A holistic approach to addressing concerns is most appropriate, with voter identification being a key component.”
Pennsylvania lawmakers expanded the state's use of mail-in voting in 2019, which county administrators have blamed for the inability to announce unofficial results quickly.
In 2020, several Pennsylvania counties were among those that took multiple days to report unofficial results, prompting former President Donald Trump and his allies to claim falsely that Democrats were manipulating the election outcome in the state — which Biden won by more than 81,000 votes.