Rep. Eric Nelson: Pennsylvania is Exhibit A for why election integrity matters
The recent fiasco that was the Pennsylvania Republican primary for U.S. Senate is Exhibit A on why every state needs to make election integrity a priority. It took nearly three weeks to determine the winner of the election. Imagine attending the Super Bowl and having to wait three weeks, or more, before knowing the winner. It is not unreasonable for voters to expect to know the outcome of an election the same evening that the polls have closed. At the latest, there should be a result within 24 hours, barring any mandatory recount.
Polls show that the American people overwhelmingly believe we need to restore integrity to our elections. Unfortunately, voter trust in the integrity and reliability of the electoral system is at all-time lows. According to the most recent polling data, only 59% of voters are even “somewhat confident” that the votes will be accurately counted in the upcoming midterm elections. Only 27% are “very confident.”
Guided by the philosophy it should be “easy to vote and hard to cheat,” here is how we can restore integrity to our elections and restore voter faith in the outcomes.
Same day voting
Two out of every three voters believe that all state and local elections should be held on the same day, and nearly three in four believe that would significantly increase voter turnout. This would go a long way toward ending the endless vote counting that we saw in states such as Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia two years ago.
It would put an end to the practice of “ballot harvesting,” in which political operatives collect absentee ballots from voters’ homes and drop them off at a polling place or election office.
This would also help curtail ballot trafficking, in which individuals stuff ballot boxes under the cover of darkness and with no oversight or accountability. Remember in Pennsylvania, drop boxes were created by Gov. Tom Wolf’s executive order as part of the pandemic response. They should be eliminated.
Clean up voter rolls
Voters see it as a key job of state leaders to maintain up-to-date accurate voter registration rolls. In Pennsylvania, 84% of voters say that their state should be doing more in this regard. Recent polling from Rasmussen shows that 85% of national voters at least somewhat support requiring states to clean voter rolls by removing people who have died or moved from the voter registration lists. Sixty-eight percent strongly support this. That is the highest support for any of the election integrity proposals polled.
In Pennsylvania, voter registration information is made public on the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors. However, this information is not up to date and does not match voter turnout numbers for any specific election. This is one of several corrections that Pennsylvania can make to increase public confidence and part of House Bill 1300, a comprehensive election reform bill vetoed by Wolf earlier this session.
Voter ID
A 2021 Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey found that 75% of likely voters believe in showing a photo ID to obtain a ballot. Only 21% are opposed to such a requirement. Identically, in Pennsylvania, 75% think showing a photo ID is a reasonable requirement to protect election integrity.
Enhanced voter identification was also part of HB 1300 that was vetoed by Wolf, who cited the identification requirement as his first reason to veto the bill. Though he refused to sit down in bipartisan fashion to draft the legislation, a day after his veto he softened his position on the matter and told reporters “I’m sure out there is a reasonable voter ID solution to say … that you should be voting here. And I’m fine with that.”
However, voters may have an opportunity to consider the topic. A measure was considered earlier this month to amend the constitution to require voter identification as well as directing Pennsylvania’s auditor general to conduct election audits. If passed in identical form during two consecutive legislative sessions, these proposals will appear before voters and cannot be vetoed by the governor.
Eliminate private election funding
In the weeks leading up to the 2020 general election, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made millions of dollars available to counties as private election grants. However, for strategy purposes, some counties were encouraged to apply for and received awards before other counties were made aware of the grants, now commonly referred to as Zuckerbucks.
Act 88 of 2022 was recently signed into law and contained language that I introduced to prohibit the private funding of elections. The new law includes the Election Integrity Grant Program, which will distribute funds equally and requires counties who receive funds to canvass ballots without interruption, complete a voter list maintenance program and publicly post any election audit required in Pennsylvania’s election code.
While this measure is a good first step to securing elections and improving public confidence in the system, we have more work to do. The foundation of trust in our system of representative democracy is the ability to conduct free and fair elections. If voters do not trust the outcomes, or feel that their vote doesn’t count or matter, then our entire system of government is at risk. The time is now to restore citizens faith in elections. We believe the simple steps we outline above are an excellent start.
Rep. Eric Nelson, a Republican, represents the 57th District and serves on the House Consumer Affairs, Insurance and State Government committees as well as the Labor and Industry Committee, of which he chairs the subcommittee on Workers Compensation and Worker Protection.
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