Statewide election administration scrutinized during Pa. budget hearing

Feb. 27—HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's top election official testified Tuesday before state House lawmakers about the use of proposed funding for voter education, areas of flexibility within the election code and that widespread voter fraud is a myth.

"I'm confined by the facts and the facts are that there is no widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania," Secretary Al Schmidt of the Department of State told members of the House Appropriations Committee during an annual budget hearing.

Schmidt told Rep. Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, Appropriations chair, that a responsibility exists to investigate fraud complaints and when necessary, make referrals to law enforcement. He said he did just that when serving as an elected Republican commissioner in Philadelphia.

"I think it's every bit as responsible that people not also throw around allegations of voter fraud that have no basis in fact, that have been disproved and has caused great harm to confidence in our electoral system and discourage voters from casting their vote," Schmidt said.

The department is well-known for overseeing the commonwealth's elections and campaign finance. It's also responsible for professional licensure of the commonwealth's 29 licensing boards and commissions along with lobbying disclosure and registration and transactions of corporations and nonprofit agencies.

Gov. Josh Shapiro's budget request for fiscal 2025 seeks $158.3 million for the Department of State, up from $145.8 million in the current budget. Proposed increases include an additional $5 million for voter outreach and education, $4.9 million for its Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations and $2.4 million for general operations.

Schmidt took questions at Tuesday's hearing about professional licensing and corporate services, for example, explaining that wait times for corporation filings dropped from an eight-week turnaround when he was first appointed as secretary in January 2023 to two to three days, on average, with applications having nearly doubled. He said processing times for licenses fell by more than half for most licensing boards.

However, election administration was the primary focus of lawmakers including the proposed additional funding for voter education and outreach.

Schmidt said that while almost all registered voters know when Election Day is — primary, April 23; general, Nov. 5 — many voters only cast ballots during a presidential cycle. Since the presidential election will be held this year, he said the educational effort will be to remind all eligible voters of additional important dates, such as deadlines for registration, along with information on requesting mail-in ballots.

"The idea is to provide as much information as possible directly to voters," Schmidt told Rep. Justin Fleming, D-Dauphin, stressing that information shared would be uniform across all counties.

Rep. Ryan Warner, R-Fayette, asked questions as to whether the $5 million expense might help eligible voters obtain photo identification if they don't have it already, a reference to Republicans' desire to enact universal photo ID at all elections.

Rep. Clint Owlett, R-Tioga/Bradford, and Rep. John Lawrence, R-Chester, challenged Schmidt about the uniform application of election laws across Pennsylvania's 67 counties. Lawrence said the Pennsylvania Constitution demands uniformity.

Schmidt repeatedly said that ultimately, the law allows for flexibility in certain respects and that in such instances, individual counties know best how to serve their respective voters. When there are challenges, counties must abide by court rulings. He cited the state Supreme Court ruling that upheld the use of drop boxes but how counties are permitted to determine when they're accessible or whether to use them at all.

"I don't know your mind but I'm confident that you would not want the Department of State telling every county exactly what it should do when it comes to administering elections," Schmidt told Lawrence.

"That's exactly what you should be doing," Lawrence said, raising his voice and pointing at Schmidt. "We should have uniformity in elections across all 67 counties."

Schmidt addressed turnover experienced in election offices across Pennsylvania. He estimated that 70 election directors or deputies left their jobs since 2020, attributing much of the turnover to fallout from false allegations of widespread election fraud. The loss of poll workers, too, continues — something he characterized as a crisis having begun long before heightened tensions around election administration.

Rep. Louis Schmitt Jr., R-Blair, challenged Schmidt about the decision not to move forward with a proposal to replace Pennsylvania's Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system for maintaining voter rolls.

The department canceled plans made before the Shapiro administration took office that would have seen a new system come online in January. Schmidt said he'd be out of his "right mind" to kickstart a new system in a presidential election year. Instead, he said counties received updates for hardware and software to support SURE and connectivity upgrades are ongoing to ensure speed and reliability of results submitted to the department.

"I believe that your failure to do that, the cancelation of that contract, you've abjectly failed to prepare Pennsylvania for what is coming this year," Schmitt said.

"I would never move forward with a system that we didn't have confidence in, that wouldn't be reliable," Schmidt replied.