Politics PA
By: Steve Ulrich

A long-time request of county election officials moved one step closer to being answered on Tuesday as the State House advanced a bill allowing counties to pre-canvass mail-in ballots.

The legislation would permit counties to inspect and open all envelopes containing official absentee ballots or mail-in ballots, the removal of the ballots from the envelopes, and the counting, computing, and tallying of the votes reflected on the ballots. It does not include the recording or publishing of the votes reflected on the ballots.

Under current law, pre-canvassing of mail-in and absentee ballots cannot begin until 7 a.m. on Election Day.

Sponsored by Rep. Scott Conklin (R-Centre), House Bill 37 gives county election officials seven days prior to Election Day to pre-canvass all mail and absentee ballots received. The vote advanced by a 103-99 vote with Rep. Thomas Mehaffie (R-Dauphin) joining all 102 Democrats in the affirmative. The bill now heads to the Republican-controlled state Senate.

“The time allotted for pre-canvassing might have been feasible at one time, before the state adopted no-excuse mail-in voting, but with the more recent surge of voters choosing that option, the timeframe is no longer realistic,” Conklin said. “We’re hearing that repeatedly from county election officials and workers on both sides of the political aisle, who have asked us to change the law to give them more time to process these ballots.

“As mail-in balloting continues to grow in popularity, we need to do right by our voters and by our election workers,” Conklin said. “Allowing more time to count mail-in and absentee ballots will significantly reduce delays in election returns, delays that can lead to voter suspicion and unfounded conspiracies. This bill will go a long way toward upholding public trust in the Commonwealth’s elections.”

The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania also supported the bill.

“This change provides needed clarification to Act 77 and supports counties in fulfilling their election administration responsibilities. By allowing earlier pre-canvassing, counties would have more time to prepare mail-in and absentee ballots for counting, better manage workloads and resources, and help ensure the timely reporting of results.”

A similar bill was passed by the House two years ago by a 102-99 and the legislation stalled in the Senate State Government Committee.