Pennsylvania State Department officials assured lawmakers that errors and delays will not plague the upcoming April 28 primary, despite the ongoing implementation of sweeping voting reforms enacted last year.
“We will be ready,” Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar told the Senate Appropriations Committee. “We are working around the clock and we will be ready.”
Lawmakers approved mail-in voting via Act 77 in October. The State Department is requesting an additional $795,000 in this year’s budget to implement the “many facets” of the bill and continue its election modernization and voter education efforts.
"The more we can do, since it's the most significant voting reform in generations, to take advantage of letting people know what it is – it's important," Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, said.
"Anything we can do to help the 67 counties execute, implement, educate [is appreciated]," said Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Lehigh, who sponsored Act 77 last year. "Anything we can do."
Boockvar said delayed results will depend upon the amount of mail-in ballots each county receives, as well as existing laws that prevent officials from counting votes before 8 p.m. on Election Day. Lawmakers could give counties more flexibility to inspect and prepare paper ballots ahead of time to help streamline the counting process, she said. The state also has encouraged counties to buy as many high speed, high capacity scanners – some with the ability to process between 5,000 and 10,000 ballots an hour – as possible.
"What we want to do is be over-prepared,” Boockvar said. “We said to the counties, be ready for a 20 percent increase in mail-in voting. Do I think that’s going to be the case in the primary election? No. if I had to guess, 15-20 percent will vote by mail-in in the general election. So, we are preparing counties for 20 percent just in case.”
Boockvar told the committee 12,000 residents signed up for mail-in voting privileges within the first week of its availability – double the amount of people who registered as absentee voters online last fall.
The department also began preparing “right away” for this year’s elections, from weekly meetings with county officials to security training exercises to prevent fraud and tampering to consistently updating voter rolls. All 67 counties agreed to update their voting machines after the 2016 general election, so far, 45 counties have followed through, with another 22 prepared to roll out new systems before the primary.
“We are a leader in election security, and I have immense confidence in the security of our elections,” Boockvar said.
Pennsylvania's primary election is scheduled for April 28. The deadline for registering to vote is April 13.
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