How to fill out a mail-in ballot in PA
Tonia Fernandez, Erie County Elections Supervisor, demonstrates how to fill out and return a mail-in ballot.
(The Center Square) – An election transparency proposal is pitting a state lawmaker against the Secretary of State. At the center of the division: changes to Pennsylvania elections resulting from the passage of Act 77 in 2019.
Rep. Brad Roae of Crawford County, R-6th District, introduced House Bill 2542, which would require the agency to update precinct counts online again so voters can track the count’s progress.
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“The election results section of the Department of State’s website previously showed how many precincts there were and how many precincts had been counted,” Roae wrote in a memo to lawmakers. “It also showed what percentage of precincts had reported their results. The Department of State still receives this information, but it has been removed from their website so citizens can no longer see it.”
Restoring those numbers to the state’s website was a “common sense law,” he argued.
“They’ve done away with that, so the public has less access to the election results; there’s less transparency and I’m trying to change that,” Roae said.
In the memo, he argued that there was “no valid reason to remove this important information from the State Department website.”
State election officials disagree, arguing that recounting precincts would only create more problems.
“Given the increased number of absentee ballots cast in each election since Act 77 was passed, this information no longer accurately reflected the progress of vote counting and was therefore removed prior to the 2020 general election,” said Matt Heckel, press secretary for the Department of State. “This is because absentee ballots are counted by county election boards, not precincts. Showing only the number of precincts reporting results will not capture the true progress of vote counting and counting both in-person and absentee ballots.”
A constituency counter would only show votes cast in person, giving the public a false impression. According to the authority, postal ballots are not assigned to the constituency level.
“When we publish how many precincts have votes counted and how many are still in circulation, that just doesn’t accurately reflect how many mail-in ballots are still in circulation,” Heckel said. “Since 2020, that’s obviously a big portion of the remaining ballots. We thought that would be confusing for people and just not entirely accurate.”
Instead of a precinct count, the department publishes a supplementary report online, updated once a day, that includes absentee and mail-in votes as well as votes cast in person.
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Anthony Hennen is a reporter for The Center Square covering Pennsylvania and co-hosts “Pennsylvania in Focus,” a weekly podcast on America’s Talking Network.
