An election worker hands a sticker to a voter after she dropped off a mail-in ballot outside the Chester County Government Center on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Capital-Star/Peter Hall)
After 22 years and one false start, Pennsylvania is taking the next step in modernizing the computer systems that officials across the commonwealth use to keep track of voters, their ballots and other election-related services.
When it’s in place sometime before the next presidential election in 2028, the average voter may not notice much difference. But, the county workers who administer elections should have a modern, user-friendly and more secure system, election watchdogs say.
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration announced a $10.6 million contract with government technology provider Civix to replace the state’s aging Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors system, which the Department of State has maintained since 2003.
Civix, which has provided election systems to more than 20 states with leaders from both parties, will also modernize Pennsylvania’s election night results reporting, campaign finance reporting and lobbyist registration systems.
Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said t it was clear when the Shapiro administration came into office the voter registration system needed to be replaced.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
But a replacement contract awarded under the Wolf administration was faltering. With the next presidential election less than two years away, the Department of State took steps to ensure the existing system would remain reliable for the 2024 election and beyond.
“We made the decision to replace all of the hardware and upgrade the connectivity at the county level,” Schmidt told the Capital-Star, noting the upgrades ensured counties would be able to process an avalanche of voter registration and mail-in ballot applications.
Jeff Greenburg, senior election administration advisor for the nonprofit good government group Committee of Seventy, said he’s encouraged the replacement project is moving forward again after a “hiccup” that set the process back by five years.
“I have the utmost confidence that officials at the Department of State did their due diligence in selecting a company that can do the work that needs to be done,” Greenburg, who was director of elections in Mercer County from 2007 until 2020. “My hope is that where we end up is with a system that is going to be light years beyond a system that was created two decades ago.”
In December 2023, the Department of State cancelled its contract with KNOWiNK after it became clear the election technology company could not deliver.
The department awarded the $10.7 million contract in 2020 to a company that was later acquired by KNOWiNK. It agreed to return about $720,000 the state had paid since the start of Shapiro’s term, but not $1.5 million paid under the previous administration.
To ensure the procurement is successful this time, the department hired a chief modernization officer to ensure the new systems meet the requirements of state and county election officials.
“It’s important for me as a former county elections director that the new system provides what our counties ask for,” Schmidt said. “They’re the ones who interact with the system every day.”
In May, the department issued its specifications and received seven bids. Four were considered by a team of Department of State elections staff, county elections officials, and information technology experts who spent months reviewing and testing the proposed systems.
Former Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said Civix has a strong reputation in the election technology industry.
“They’re very committed to the strongest technology, while having the strongest security in every system they have,” Boockvar said.
And, Boockvar said, the department’s timing in launching the new effort just after the 2024 presidential election is wise.
“Anything to do with elections, you don’t make any major changes … right before an election where you expect very high turnout,” Boockvar said. “It’s really important to get it done in a year that’s not right before a general or presidential election.”
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
The SURE system allows the state and counties to manage voter registration records across the commonwealth to ensure they are accurate and up-to-date. Aside from being able to confirm their registration and polling places, voters don’t interact much with SURE.
Two other systems included in the modernization project, campaign finance reporting and lobbying disclosure registration, are more public-facing.
“Those are really a matter of making it more user friendly, more searchable, both for the candidates who have to file and the public to make it more transparent,” Schmidt said.
The state’s election night reporting system is probably the most visible for Pennsylvania voters and election watchers around the country, since the commonwealthholds on to its presidential swing-state status, Boockvar said.
She noted the site does not provide the number of ballots that remain to be counted, leading to uncertainty over whether a candidate’s lead might be temporary or whether it’s safe to declare victory.
Greenburg said the new system will roll out in an environment where elections are intensely scrutinized and irregularities fuel conspiracy theories rather than being chalked up to human error.
“That’s a sad place and a difficult place to be,” he said, noting county election officials are on the front-line working kinks out of the system. “No one should expect perfection, even with the roll out of this new system. It’s just not realistic.”
And Boockvar noted one of the most needed improvements to Pennsylvania’s election system is in the hands of state lawmakers. Since Act 77 gave voters the option of voting by mail, counties have struggled to prepare mail ballots to be counted. The process can only begin when polls open on Election Day, but the General Assembly could easily pass a law to allow more time, she said.
“The earlier they start doing it the earlier people can get results,” Boockvar said, noting last year’s narrow U.S. Senate race, which wasn’t decided until late November, shows how slow the process can be. “The only reason that it seemed so fast was the presidential race was so far apart that the remaining ballots didn’t make a difference.”
