As Pennsylvania election officials enter their fourth year of dealing with avalanches of mail ballots, one of their big wishes remains unfulfilled: more time to “precanvass” those ballots.
Tim Benyo, election board chief clerk in Lehigh County, is on the front lines of those seeking more time. Benyo said election directors statewide have sought more time since the 2019 passage of Act 77, the law that introduced widespread mail balloting.
“We need more time to precanvass,” Benyo said.
About 34,000 of the 73,631 votes cast in Lehigh County in the November election were mail ballots, Benyo said. Under current law, precanvassing — inventorying the ballots, opening the envelopes that contain them and putting them through a scanner — cannot start until 7 a.m. on Election Day.
Other counties also chafe under the restriction.
“Northampton County has conveyed its desire to have at least three days of precanvass to anyone who would listen since the passage of Act 77,” said county Executive Lamont McClure.
Several years of political debate in Harrisburg have failed to produce the desired change. But with a new governor and Legislature, there is hope in 2023.
On Thursday, Democratic House members heard testimony from Allegheny County officials, who offered a rundown on the massive scope of election staffers’ work. The county, they said, had 161,497 mail-in or absentee ballots returned and counted in the November election, and about 115 people were ready to start precanvassing when 7 a.m. arrived.
Democratic Rep. Sara Innamorato of Allegheny County said the testimony portrayed staff on Election Day as conducting two elections, one in-person and the other involving precanvassing and then actually tallying mail ballots.
Having extra time to precanvass, Innamorato said, would let workers “start to take care of some of those mail-in ballots.”
Democratic Rep. Ryan Bizzaro of Erie County said it was likely that precanvassing would be rolled into a broad debate over a variety of election reforms.
Republican Rep. Doyle Heffley of Carbon County sounded a similar sentiment. A number of “election integrity” issues have to be confronted, he said, and “it is going to have to be a negotiation. We can work together.”
Heffley and House Republicans spokesman Jason Gottesman noted that former Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed an election reform package last session that included more precanvassing time. Wolf said at the time that he vetoed the bill because it would create new barriers for voters, including stricter voter ID requirements.
Gottesman said, “We believe a topic like precanvassing should be dealt with in comprehensive election reform legislation that holds true to our priority of updating our election law through accessibility, security, and modernization.”
Election integrity
In 2021, at the start of the last two-year legislative session, the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania identified more precanvassing time as an election reform priority.
Executive Director Lisa Schaefer said it remains near the top of the list. More time, she said, would create a “significant improvement” in election integrity and let counties handle resources more efficiently.
Various proposals have sought three, seven and even 21 days of precanvassing time ahead of Election Day.
“As much time as we can reasonably give counties to manage their workload would be helpful,” Schaefer said.
Her hope — and that of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle — is that Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, will add to a new dynamic to the discussion.
Shapiro has not made any declarative statements on election reform since taking office. In his campaign, though, he made it clear precanvassing was on his radar.
Specifically, then-candidate Shapiro said he would “sign legislation, enabling and funding the pre-processing and precanvassing of mail-in ballots, following the example of 17 states – including Ohio, North Carolina, and Arizona – and recommendations of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania and legislative leaders from both parties.”
Benyo is a member of a committee of election officials advising the commissioners association.
“A large portion” of election directors want more precanvassing time, he said. Many discussions cite the desired period as being three days.
But, he said, “Any additional time would be greatly helpful.”
Morning Call Capitol correspondent Ford Turner can be reached at fturner@mcall.com
