Elections

We are all aware of the reelection of President Bush in November, though Pennsylvania cast its 21 electoral votes for John Kerry, who carried the state. Arlen Specter (R) defeated Joe Hoeffel (D) in his bid for reelection to the U.S. Senate, and has assumed the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Our new statewide row officers are: Tom Corbett (R), Attorney General; Jack Wagner (D), Auditor General; and Bob Casey, Jr. (D), Treasurer.

There were a number of retirements in the House and Senate, but most of the incumbents who ran for reelection were successful. Among the incumbents who were defeated in their bids for reelection were: Senator Allen Kukovich (D-Westmoreland), who has been named head of Governor Rendell’s southwestern regional office; Representative Mike Horsey (D-Philadelphia), who lost in the primary; Representative Tom Scrimenti (D-Erie), who will work for the House Democratic Caucus; and Representative Melissa Weber (R-Montgomery). Senator Kukovich has been a strong supporter of disability issues, including sponsorship of the Attendant Care Act, guardianship reform legislation, and many other key bills and issues.

In December, Governor Rendell issued Executive Order #2004-11 creating a new task force to examine the way we run our elections and to consider a number of issues, including the possibility of an earlier presidential primary election in Pennsylvania. The Task Force on Elections will be comprised of 13 members, including a member from each of the four legislative caucuses, four gubernatorial appointees, three representatives from the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, one member of the statewide League of Women Voters and the Chair, the Secretary of State, Pedro A. Cortés . The Task Force is to report to the Governor by May 1. The Task Force will make recommendations regarding:

• The timing of Pennsylvania’s presidential primary;
• Any necessary adjustments for Uniformed Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting;
• Options for early voting;
• Improving absentee ballot processes;
• Review of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) implementation and recommendations for improvement, including improved provisional ballot processes; and
• Review of options for apportioning electoral votes.

For Copies of the Executive Order go to: www.oa.state.pa.us/oac/cwp/view.asp?a=351&q=196115.

The Voter Protection Coalition has a database available to review Election Day incidents reported to their Election Incident Reporting System (EIRS). Calls made to the 1.866.OUR-VOTE line were recorded by type of incident, such as problems with a polling place, a voting machine, a ballot, registration, or identification. Eleven states had over 1,000 reported incidents. There were 3,147 Election Day incidents reported in Pennsylvania. To see Pennsylvania information, go to https://voteprotect.org, click on Research/Maps, and select Pennsylvania. Each county’s information is displayed in detail.

A preliminary review of the November, 2004 elections by the nonpartisan Election Protection Coalition also showed a number of systemic voting problems. Shattering the Myth: An Initial Snapshot of Voter Disenfranchisement in the 2004 Elections points out persistent problems that the group says continue to deny millions of Americans, including people with disabilities, their fundamental voting rights. Volunteers monitored polls at more than 3,500 precincts nationwide and answered the nationwide Election Protection Hotline.  Among other things, the report says that in addition to the long lines and unreasonable waiting times that kept many from being able to vote, the top five problems overall were registration processing, absentee ballots, machine errors, voter intimidation and suppression and problems with the use and counting of the new provisional ballots. The coalition is urging the Government Accountability Office study and report on voting irregularities.