Martin Luther King Jr. Day - Monday January 16, 2023 

Following record voter turnout in the 2020 election, many Republican leaders in Harrisburg want to roll back the important bipartisan updates that made voting safer and easier. In fact, there have been a series of actions aimed at disenfranchising voters and overhauling our election system to make voting more difficult.  While some in Harrisburg want to chip away at who can vote and how, the House Democratic Caucus wants to ensure every voice is heard.

The House Democrat’s plan would invest in our democracy, not undermine it.

Our plan would:

• Establish early voting locations for 15 days leading up to election day to allow voters to cast their ballot on their own schedule 
• Allow for same-day voter registration on election day - a best practice for increasing participation in elections in at least 18 states
• Implement statewide electronic poll books for secure real-time monitoring of election rolls - used in at least 35 other states;
• Allow voters to “cure” defects in submitted ballots so that voters are not disenfranchised by small errors in filling out their ballot, in addition, the legislation will allow counties to place ballots received without a secrecy envelope into a new envelope to preserve the secrecy of the ballot
• Require each county to have at least two ballot drop boxes, plus at least one for every 50,000 residents. Counties are also required to provide a drop box on the campus of each public university and community college with 10,000 students, and within one mile of campus if the public university or community college has at least 5,000 students 
• Set uniform requirements for signage, security and chain of custody practices for drop boxes
• Increase poll worker pay to improve participation and retention of our poll workers 
• Make numerous changes requested by our county election officials, including 21 days of pre-canvassing and adjustments to mail-in application deadlines (while allowing additional time for in-person applications) 
• Provide for prepaid ballot return postage 
• Allow 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote
• Require colleges and universities to serve as NVRA voter registration agencies 

It is not the time to roll back the improvements made to Pennsylvania’s election laws during the pandemic.  Instead, we should be restoring faith in our election system and our local election officials. We should be promoting options for safe and secure voting and celebrating the franchise, not sowing doubt in its results.