As the bipartisan members of the Pennsylvania board of the Democracy Defense Project, our goal is to build confidence in the transparency, uniformity, safety, security and validity of our nation’s electoral system.
Technology used in our commonwealth’s election process is an important component toward reaching this goal. We can no longer use antiquated technology, which is why Pennsylvania’s election offices have been yearning for improvements to the State Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE), the database that manages Pennsylvania’s election systems. We are thrilled to learn that the Pennsylvania Department of State has reached an agreement on a new electronic voter registration database.
Ed Rendell
More than 1.7 million Pennsylvanians used early voting mechanisms to participate in the 2024 presidential election, and this shift exposed significant weaknesses in the SURE system. Election workers struggled to use SURE because they believed it was burdensome and not user-friendly, and it complicated routine activities such as registering voters and compiling information. The database was also far too slow, as one election official in Snyder County estimated that it took 10-15 minutes to process each mail-in ballot application.
The new Civix system is a welcome change and will greatly ease the administering of elections. This system should be in place by the 2028 presidential election, but we are urging the Department of State to expedite the implementation of this system.
Ensuring confidence and efficiency in Pennsylvania’s election systems will require more than technological improvements. Last year, our board commissioned a poll to assess voters’ opinions on voter identification and pre-canvassing mail-in ballots. The results showed that 75% of voters believe that requiring voter identification would increase confidence in elections, while 70% believe that allowing earlier pre-canvassing of mail-in ballots would add confidence to our election system. Pre-canvassing ballots would allow election workers to prepare and inspect mail-in ballots before counting them on Election Day. Despite these overwhelming majorities, Pennsylvania law still lacks earlier pre-canvassing and voter ID.
The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania also is seeking uniformity in our commonwealth’s elections. Act 77 of 2019, which allowed no-excuse mail-in voting, had several unclear guidelines and failed to set uniform rules across all 67 counties. Because of this, some counties faced lawsuits due to inconsistent enforcement. To protect our counties in future elections and to ensure consistency, uniformity in our elections must be a top priority for the state legislature.
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The improvements and increased confidence in the 2024 presidential election were a victory for our commonwealth’s election process. We must use this momentum to continue improving and building voters’ confidence. We encourage the Pennsylvania state legislature and the Department of State to take appropriate action to achieve this. We must support our election workers by expediting improvements to the SURE system, listening to the voters by requiring voter ID and permitting mail-in ballot pre-canvassing, and establishing uniform election procedures.
Democracy Defense Project Pennsylvania works to defend the transparency, safety, security and validity of Pennsylvania’s elections system. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, former U.S. Reps. Melissa Hart and Jim Gerlach, and former Pennsylvania House Speaker Keith McCall serve as board members for Democracy Defense Project Pennsylvania.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Here are commonsense ways Pa. could improve its elections | Opinion
