From the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania (https://www.palwv.org/):
Take action NOW at https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-your-legislator-to-protect-mail-in-voting-access to protect elections in Pennsylvania. There are two pieces of legislation pending in Harrisburg that require immediate action.
Proposed Ban on Counties Accepting Third-Party Election Funding
Yesterday, the Senate State Government Committee moved a bill to ban PA counties from accepting outside grants for elections. Senate Bill 982 does not list any alternative funding stream for counties if they need more funds to conduct their election.
Presently, counties do not have enough resources to ensure that elections are run safely and securely. The League believes that outside grants, if they are fairly available to all counties or to counties with historically under-represented communities, and are for the normal operations and needs of elections, are reasonable for counties to accept.
Preventing counties from accepting outside funding will only serve to prevent citizens from accessing free and fair elections in their home counties. This is especially important since the state provides little funding for counties. The legislation would also ban grants to counties for voter registration. We must all work together to ensure people are able to vote! If there are funding opportunities for counties, they should be able to participate, so they can do all the things they need to do to help people vote.
Proposed Ban on Ballot Drop Boxes:
Yesterday, the Senate State Government Committee also moved SB 1200, which prohibits the use of ballot drop boxes when submitting absentee or mail-in ballots on election day.
Ballot drop boxes are a popular, secure and convenient way for voters to cast their ballot, providing both voters and county officials flexibility. Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians securely and legally utilized dropboxes in the last few years.
Many states have used ballot drop boxes for years. Nearly 40 states, including Pennsylvania, utilized drop boxes in the 2020 presidential election with no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
As democracy defenders, our goal should always be to identify more options for secure and convenient voting to ensure the greatest level of participation.
These bills are achieving just one thing – undermining secure and convenient voting in Pennsylvania.
Click here to tell the Senate you oppose efforts to restrict counties from receiving funding, and you oppose banning drop-boxes.
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