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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 17, 2012 03:39 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Anthony M. DeLuca |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Early Voting |
| In the near future, I will be introducing legislation providing for early voting in Pennsylvania. This legislation is nearly identical to House Bill 1001 (DePasquale) from last session. Over the last several years, early voting has become more common nation-wide. According to the United States Election Project, more than 30 percent of the votes in the last two Presidential Elections have been cast by early voting. As of the 2012 General Election, 35 states and the District of Columbia allow early voting. It is time for Pennsylvania to follow the majority of states and increase voting access for our constituents by allowing early voting. The legislation establishes an early voting process modeled after Florida’s early voting system. This new voting system permits early votes to be cast starting fifteen days before the election and ending the day before the election. Early voting would be permitted at early voting sites to be established by county boards of election. All county early voting sites would be required to have uniform hours and days of operation, and must be open at least eight hours on each weekday and a total of eight hours on weekends. To protect the integrity of the voting process and alleviate concerns regarding voter fraud, registered voters casting ballots at early voting sites will be required to provide proper identification and sign an affidavit attesting that they are not committing voter fraud. Finally, the county boards of election will be required to keep track of early voters to ensure they do not vote again at another early voting site or on election day. Please join me in expanding voting access to all Pennsylvania citizens by co-sponsoring this important legislation. |
Introduced as HB361