ELECTION REFORM

I am pleased to have been asked by Liz Milner to be the LWVPA representative on the Governor’s Pennsylvania Election Reform Task Force. The League should be honored that we were the only public interest organization specifically designated to send a representative to the Task Force and is a credit to our reputation as a knowledgeable and effective voter’s right organization. I hope I can adequately represent the League. Barry Kauffman, Executive Director of Common Cause, has also been appointed to the Task Force, so there will be at least one other public interest voice. The Governor will ask the Task Force to make recommendations on the following issues:

1. Changing the date of the Primary Election.
2. Improving access to absentee ballots.
3. Improving absentee participation by citizens living or working oversees, including the military.
4. Examine options for increasing voter participation, including early voting and voting by mail.
5. Examine deficiencies at the state or county level with respect to compliance with HAVA.
6. Options for apportioning Electoral Votes.
7. Other reforms.

The Task Force is to make a report to the Governor by May 1, 2005. The first meeting is scheduled for February 1, 2005.

Some issues the League could bring up under “other reforms” are:

1. Election Day registration.
2. Access for people with disabilities (about a third of PA polling places are still inaccessible).
3. A “Voter’s Guide” to be mailed to every registered voter as is done in California and some other states.
4. Rules for purging voter rolls.
5. Get all polling places on line.
6. Remove the threat of loss of student aid if college students register to vote at school.
7. Examine equalizing access to the ballot for minor party candidates (see below).
8. Examine rules for challenging signatures on nomination petitions (see below).
9. Make the election code available on line (see below).

I would welcome any suggestions from the LWVPA Board and other members. The PA Voters Coalition is continuing to meet and is crafting an agenda for election reform to include administrative and legislative improvements which I will bring to the Task Force.

In 2001 a Voting Modernization Task Force on which LWVPA was represented made a number of recommendations many of which were later carried out or will be carried out as part of HAVA implementation. The State Plan Advisory Board charged with overseeing implementation of HAVA is still in existence.

The PA Department of State Advisory Group on Election Day Activities and Voting Rights is scheduled to meet on January 25 and will be reviewing issues surrounding the state’s experience with provisional ballots including possible legislative changes. Some problems that arose were the requirement that the voter sign the outer envelope in two places; the three day deadline for counting provisional ballots, which some counties could not meet because of the problems with counting; not enough provisional ballots at some polling places, and inconsistencies in giving voters access to the provisional ballot when their name was not on the precinct rolls. I will push again for changing legislation to allow provisional ballots to be used as a voter registration forms. As you know, HAVA left it up to the states to decide whether provisional ballots could be counted if cast in the wrong precinct. Pennsylvania’s law was liberal in comparison with some states in the provisional ballots could be counted if cast in the right county but the wrong precinct. A more liberal law would allow counting even if cast in the wrong county. Possible fraud (double voting) is an issue here but once the SURE system is up and running this should be minimal.

BALLOT ACCESS

The Centre County LWV is wrapping up its Ballot Access study and has scheduled a member consensus meeting on January 22 (postponed to January 29). The proposed position deals with the three items I have noted above:

A. Pennsylvania Election Code to be made available for downloading from the Pennsylvania Website.
B. Minor parties, who meet the requirements constituting a Political body as defined in P.S. 2831 of the Pennsylvania Election Code, are to submit the same amount of signatures as required for a major political party candidate.
C. When an objection is filed for the nomination of a candidate in regard to signature irregularities, all candidates for that office will have their petitions reviewed by the County or State Election Board. If irregularities found are sufficient to call into question the nomination of the candidate, the petitions will be forwarded to Commonwealth Court for a decision.

I have suggested that they seek approval by the delegates to State Convention to submit whatever position they finally adopt to the local leagues for concurrence.

REDUCING THE SIZE OF THE LEGISLATURE

The group in Allegheny County that is working on this issue may organize a caucus for State Convention.

LOBBYIST DISCLOSURE

Despite hopes for an eleventh hour reprieve, bills in the House and Senate to restore the requirement that lobbyists register and disclose their expenditures died with the end of the last session. This is unfortunate because hours of negotiation went into drafting legislation that all the players could live with. The Senate could readopt their rule requiring disclosure by those who lobby the Senate and the House could adopt such a rule as well. Maybe the Governor could issue an Executive Order to cover disclosure by those who lobby the Executive Branch. However, this falls far short of the comprehensive disclosure that it is needed.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

As we all know, the sky is the limit in Pennsylvania as far as contributions to political candidates in concerned, except for the limited reforms adopted in Philadelphia. I drafted a legislative interview question on this which has been circulated via email to local leagues for inclusion in their legislative interviews at their discretion. The question seeks to determine what level of reform legislators will consider supporting. Representative Gregg Vitali has hosted several meetings of legislators, public interest groups, and religious organizations interested in pushing for some kind of reform legislation in this session

REFORMING THE LEGISLATURE

At its last meeting the Board approved joining a coalition called Democracy Rising, which plans to work on reforming the way the legislature works. This coalition grew out of a concern for the way the legislative process was manipulated to pass gambling expansion legislation. The coalition will concentrate on the legislature’s Rules of Procedure. LWVPA has a detailed list of what should be included in the Rules of Procedure. Representative Greg Vitali has introduced a package of proposed rules changes which include some procedural changes which the League can support. Adoption of permanent rules will take place January 31.