From Common Cause (http://www.commoncause.org):
After the November election, a number of state lawmakers instantly began looking for ways to roll back Pennsylvanians’ right to vote and make it even harder to cast a ballot.
Their first target? Our voter registration system. They’re trying to limit the amount of time Pennsylvanians have to register to vote, attempting to ensure that we never again see the record levels of voter enthusiasm and turnout we saw in November.
Make your voice heard at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/lawmakers-stop-your-efforts-to-undercut-voter-turnout-in-pennsylvania: the Pennsylvania Legislature needs to know that Pennsylvanians oppose these shameless, undemocratic efforts to weaken our voter registration system.
Before the bipartisan election reform bill Act 77 was passed in 2019, Pennsylvania used to have one of the harshest voter registration deadlines in the country — voters had to register at least 30 days before an election.
But Act 77 cut the old deadline by half — with the new flexible, voter-friendly deadlines providing more time to register to vote than 24 other states, and enabling more Pennsylvanians to register to vote than ever before.
But now Pennsylvania lawmakers are trying to cut down on the amount of time voters have to register before an election — from 15 days before an election, back to 30 days — walking back their own reform because they’re unhappy with the results of November’s election.
That just doesn’t make sense: there’s no real reason to give voters LESS time to register, which would make it harder and less convenient to vote. This cutback on voting access is both a solution in search of a problem and an indefensible voter suppression tactic, and we can’t let it go into effect.
Pennsylvania voters came out in record numbers last November, in part because they had more time to register to vote. Expanding our voter registration deadline also expanded our freedom. We can’t turn back now.
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