PRINTER'S NO. 1760

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE BILL

No.

1300

Session of

2021

INTRODUCED BY GROVE, RYAN, E. NELSON, ORTITAY, SCHEMEL, LEWIS,

WHEELAND, OWLETT AND R. MACKENZIE, JUNE 10, 2021

REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, JUNE 10, 2021

imposing duties upon the Secretary of the Commonwealth,

courts, county boards of elections, county commissioners;

imposing penalties for violation of the act, and codifying,

revising and consolidating the laws relating thereto; and

repealing certain acts and parts of acts relating to

elections," as follows:

in preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions,

providing for legislative authority over elections,

establishing the Bureau of Election Audits and providing for

special standing in challenges to the Election Code;

in district election officers, further providing for

compensation of district election officers;

providing for registration of electors;

in ballots, further providing for form of official election

ballot and for number of ballots to be printed and specimen

ballots;

in voting machines, further providing for examination and

approval of voting machines by the Secretary of the

Commonwealth, for requirements of voting machines, for

preparation of voting machines by county election boards and

disclosure, investigations and penalties;

in preparation for and conduct of primaries and elections,

providing for voter's bill of rights, for senior voter's bill

of rights, for disabled voter's bill of rights and further

providing for time for opening and closing polls, for manner

of applying to vote, persons entitled to vote, voter's

certificates, entries to be made in district register,

numbered lists of voters and challenges and for deadline for

receipt of valid voter registration application;

in voting by qualified absentee electors, further providing for

in voting by qualified mail-in electors, further providing for

applications for official mail-in ballots, for date of

application for mail-in ballot, for delivering or mailing

ballots and for voting by mail-in electors;

in Pennsylvania Election Law Advisory Board, further providing

for Pennsylvania Election Law Advisory Board;

providing for early voting by qualified electors;

in returns of primaries and elections, further providing for

returns to be open to public inspection and exceptions and

for computation of returns by county board, certification and

destruction or removal and Secretary of the Commonwealth, for

refusal to permit inspection of papers, destruction or

removal and county boards of elections, for insertion and

alteration of entries in documents, removal and refusal to

deliver, for refusal to permit overseers, watchers, attorneys

or candidates to act, for driving away watchers, attorneys,

candidates or overseers, for refusal to permit election

officers, clerks and machine inspectors to act and driving

away said persons, for refusal to administer oath and acting

without being sworn, for violation of oath of office by

for offenses by printers of ballots, for unlawful possession

of ballots and counterfeiting ballots, for forging and

destroying ballots, for tampering with voting machines, for

destroying, defacing or removing notices, et cetera, for

police officers at polling places and for peace officer,

failure to quell disturbances at polls, hindering or delaying

election officers and others, for election officers

permitting unregistered electors to vote, challenges and

refusing to permit qualified electors to vote, for election

frauds and conspiracy, for persons interfering in other

districts, for assault and battery at polls, for unlawful

assistance in voting, for election officers permitting

unlawful assistance, for failure to keep and return record of

assisted voters, for unlawful voting, for elector voting

ballot of wrong party at primary, for repeat voting at

elections, for removing ballots, for commissioners to take

soldiers' votes, for fraudulent voting by soldiers, for

bribery at elections, for receipts and disbursements of

primary and election expenses by persons other than

duty, for hindering or delaying performance of duty, for

violation of any provision of act, for violations of

provisions relating to absentee and mail-in ballots and

providing for unlawful collection of ballots;

providing for reimbursements and withholding; and

making a related repeal.

Section 102. Definitions.--The following words, when used in

this act, shall have the following meanings, unless otherwise

clearly apparent from the context:

* * *

(e) [The] Except as provided in section 700-A, the words

"district register" shall mean the [cards] electronic poll book

containing all or any part of the registry list of qualified

electors of the same election district, as prepared by the

registration commissions.

* * *

defined in section 801 of this act.

* * *

(r) [The] Except as provided in section 700-A, the words

"primary" or "primary election" shall mean any election held for

the purpose of electing party officers and nominating candidates

for public offices to be voted for at an election.

* * *

(s) [The] Except as provided in section 700-A, the words

"public office" shall include every public office to which

persons can be elected by a vote of the electors under the laws

of this State.

* * *

(z-1) [The] Except as provided in section 700-A, the words

"in military service" shall mean the uniformed services as

defined in section 102 of the Career Compensation Act of 1949

(63 Stat. 804 U.S. Code, Title 37, Par. 231).

* * *

(z.4) [The] Except as provided in section 700-A, the word

"municipality" shall mean a city, borough, incorporated town,

a valid-without-photo identification card issued by the

Department of Transportation.

(2) For an elector who appears to vote under section 1210, a

document that:

(i) shows the name of the individual to whom the document

was issued and the name substantially conforms to the name of

the individual as it appears in the district register;

(ii) shows a photograph of the individual to whom the

document was issued;

(iii) includes an expiration date and is not expired,

except:

elector is a current member of or a veteran of the United States

Armed Forces or National Guard which does not designate a

specific date on which the document expires, but includes a

designation that the expiration date is indefinite; and

(iv) was issued by one of the following:

(A) The United States Government.

(B) The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

(C) A municipality of this Commonwealth to an employee of

qualified mail-in elector under section 1301-D:

(i) in the case of an elector who has been issued a current

and valid driver's license, the elector's driver's license

number;

(ii) in the case of an elector who has not been issued a

current and valid driver's license, the last four digits of the

elector's Social Security number;

(iii) in the case of an elector who has a religious

objection to being photographed, a copy of a document that

satisfies paragraph (1); or

(iv) in the case of an elector who has not been issued a

to being photographed, a copy of a valid-without-photo driver's

license or a valid-without-photo identification card issued by

the Department of Transportation;

(iii) the elector's voter registration card with scannable

identification number and a copy of the elector's signature, as

issued by a county under section 302;

(iv) a document from an agency of the armed forces of the

United States or their reserve components, including the

(v) a document issued by the secretary under section 201(n);

(vi) an affidavit provided to an elector by elections

officers, on which the elector shall affirm his or her identity,

including his or her signature and the last four digits of his

or her Social Security number. The affidavit shall include

disclosure of the penalties under section 1802; or

(vii) a document that shows the name and photograph of the

individual to whom the document was issued, includes an

expiration date and is not expired and is issued by one of the

following:

(A) The United States Government.

(2) (Reserved).

* * *

(z.7) The words "ballot comparison risk-limiting audit"

shall mean a statistical audit that compares the interpretation

of individual ballots according to the voting system to a human

interpretation of the same individual ballots.

(z.8) The words "risk limit" shall mean the maximum chance

that an audit will not progress to a full hand recount if the

all the votes have been counted by hand.

Section 2. The act is amended by adding sections to read:

Section 107. Legislative Authority Over Elections.--Article

I, section 5 of the Constitution of the United States and

Article VII of the Constitution of Pennsylvania vest authority

for prescribing election law in the General Assembly.

Section 108. Bureau of Election Audits.--(a) The Bureau of

Election Audits is established in the Department of the Auditor

General. The Bureau of Election Audits shall have subpoena power

to request from the department or a county any documents,

records, papers, data, ballots, election materials or testimony

verify the accuracy of the election and the accuracy of

election equipment used.

(c) If the Auditor General is on the ballot, the Auditor

General shall appoint an independent special auditor who shall

be a licensed certified public accountant and shall have

experience in completing election audits to oversee the

operation of the Bureau of Election Audits.

(d) The Bureau of Election Audits shall ensure continuous

(1) To conduct result-confirming audits of each election in

this Commonwealth, completed by the third Friday following the

election. The audits shall include:

(i) A statistically sound, ballot-comparison risk-limiting

audit of ballots for each election, except for an election which

is uncontested, and except as provided in section 1117-A where a

ballot-polling audit shall be conducted.

(ii) An audit of election machine logs.

(iii) An audit of the returned absentee and mail-in ballots

in each county, including a comparison of retained envelopes on

which the executed declarations appear, for mail-in and absentee

(vi) Any other audit deemed necessary by the Bureau of

Election Audits to ensure public trust in the outcome of each

election.

(2) To conduct performance audits of the operations of

elections systems and processes at least once every five years.

The audits shall include:

(i) An audit of each county election office in the

Commonwealth.

adhere to generally accepted accessibility standards, including

compatibility with screen reading software.

(r) To retain and make publicly available any communications

relating to election administration and sent between the

department and at least three county election directors.

(s) To develop a uniform application for registered electors

to update their signature of record or to provide a medical

doctor's assessment of signature inconsistency due to a medical

condition.

(t) To cooperate with an independent prosecutor appointed by

the Attorney General for each election cycle to review election

required under section 1302-E.

(w) To create and publish, prior to the proclamation of

results in a primary or election, a combined record of the

registered electors in this Commonwealth as of the date of the

primary or election, together with the record of participation

in the primary or election by each registered elector, submitted

by counties under section 1404(c). The record shall be published

on the department's publicly accessible Internet website, made

(relating to changes in record), to seek a record of all deaths

among residents of this Commonwealth, and each month to compare

the records with the list of electors in the Statewide Uniform

Registry of Electors, and for any elector found to be deceased,

to notify the elector's county of residence.

(y) In addition to the requirements of 25 Pa.C.S. Ch. 15, to

fully participate in the Electronic Registration Information

Center (ERIC) and to utilize all available information received

through that system and through the National Change of Address

system to ensure the accuracy of the Statewide Uniform Registry

of Electors and the continued eligibility of all registered

qualified mail-in or absentee elector to track the status of an

application for a mail-in or absentee ballot, the date on which

an elector's ballot is prepared, the date on which an elector's

ballot is mailed, the date on which an elector's ballot is

received and the date on which an elector's ballot is pre-

canvassed or canvassed.

Section 4. The act is amended by adding a section to read:

Section 209. Reports on Implementation of Elections.--(a)

Representatives. A copy of the report shall also be made

available on the Department of State's publicly accessible

Internet website.

(b) The report under subsection (a) shall include only the

following information relating to the administration of the

election by the Department of State, a county board of elections

or a registration commission established under 25 Pa.C.S. §

1203(a) (relating to commissions):

(1) For each county and the sum for this Commonwealth, the

number of applications for an absentee ballot which were

received by the county board of elections.

(4) For each county and the sum for this Commonwealth, the

number of applications for a mail-in ballot which were approved

by the county board of elections.

(5) For each county and the sum for this Commonwealth, the

number of absentee ballots which were voted by qualified

electors.

(6) For each county and the sum for this Commonwealth, the

number of mail-in ballots which were voted by qualified

under section 1306(b)(2).

(9) For each county and the sum for this Commonwealth, the

number of qualified electors voting by provisional ballot under

section 1306-D(b)(2).

(10) For each county and the sum for this Commonwealth, the

number of provisional ballots under paragraph (7) which were

canvassed.

(11) For each county and the sum for this Commonwealth, the

number of provisional ballots under paragraph (8) which were

canvassed.

(12) For each county and the sum for this Commonwealth, the

time that the county board of elections met to pre-canvass

absentee ballots and mail-in ballots under section 1308(g)(1.1).

(16) For each county, the date, starting time and ending

time that the county board of elections met to canvass absentee

ballots and mail-in ballots under section 1308(g)(2).

(17) For each county and the sum for this Commonwealth, the

number of absentee ballots which were challenged under section

1302.2(c).

(17) which were not canvassed.

(20) For each county and the sum for this Commonwealth, the

number of mail-in ballots subject to challenges under paragraph

(18) which were not canvassed.

(21) The number of incidents known to the Department of

State, county boards of elections or registration commissions

relating to each of the following categories:

(i) An absentee ballot or mail-in ballot which was sent to

the wrong individual or wrong address.

(ii) An absentee ballot or mail-in ballot which was voted by

an individual other than the individual who applied for the

board of elections or registration commissions in response to an

incident under paragraph (21), including determinations made on

the incident, legal actions filed and referrals to law

enforcement.

(23) A review of issues or incidents encountered with an

electronic voting system that received the approval of the

Secretary of the Commonwealth under section 1105-A, including

technical issues encountered at polling places.

which conducts an election, as applicable. A county board of

elections or registration commission under this subsection shall

comply with the process for submission of data under this

subsection no later than 45 days after an election.

Section 5. Section 302(f), (k) and (m) of the act are

amended and the section is amended by adding subsections to

read:

Section 302. Powers and Duties of County Boards.--The county

boards of elections, within their respective counties, shall

exercise, in the manner provided by this act, all powers granted

to them by this act, and shall perform all the duties imposed

regulations and instructions as are included for each election

in the manual of operations published under section 201.

* * *

(k) To receive from district election officers the returns

of all primaries and elections, to canvass and compute the same,

and to certify, no later than the [third Monday] fourth Friday

following the primary or election, the results thereof to the

Secretary of the Commonwealth, as may be provided by law, and to

are recorded as participating in that election and the article

of this act under which each elector voted.

* * *

(m) To prepare and submit, within twenty days after the last

day to register to vote in each primary, municipal and general

election, a report to the Secretary of the Commonwealth in the

form prescribed by him, which shall contain a statement of the

total number of electors registered in each election district,

together with a breakdown of registration by each political

party or other designation. Copies of said statement shall be

furnished, upon request, to the county chairman of each

than five days prior to the primary, municipal or general

election.

* * *

(q) To maintain a publicly accessible Internet website using

a .gov domain name. The website shall additionally adhere to

generally accepted accessibility standards, including

compatibility with screen reading software.

(r) To decline to accept any private donation or

within one year of the effective date of this subsection and

upon new or updated registration after the effective date of

this subsection, or at the request of an elector, a durable

voter registration card, including a scannable identification

code and a likeness of a registered elector's signature. A

county board of elections shall investigate the circumstances of

any registration card returned as undeliverable by the United

States Postal Service. The investigation shall include

contacting the applicant, further attempts to have his or her

registration card delivered and the correction or

reconsideration of his or her registration status and registered

nonpartisan education efforts as necessary to ensure that

electors have a working knowledge of the voting process.

(v) To report to the election law advisory board, by

December 31 of each general election year, a detailed

description of the voter education programs implemented and any

other information that may be useful in evaluating the

effectiveness of voter education.

(w) To purchase electronic poll books for use as the

have a means for an elector to electronically record his or her

signature.

(x) To provide each election district with at least one

accessible voting machine approved by the secretary under this

act.

(y) To publish at each polling place the voter bill of

rights, senior voter bill of rights and disabled voter bill of

rights established by this act.

(z) To provide copies of the voter bill of rights, senior

voter bill of rights and disabled voter bill of rights during

the process of supervised voting established by this act.

required for the administration of voting by absentee and mail-

in electors. The collaboration is not required and participation

in any resource sharing shall be at the discretion of each

county board.

(z.3) In addition to the requirements of 25 Pa.C.S. Ch. 15,

to seek a record of all deaths among residents of the county and

each month to compare the records with the list of registered

electors in the county. A registered elector whose first and

System of Pennsylvania to receive a record of any county

resident who claims ineligibility for service as a juror under

42 Pa.C.S. § 4502 (relating to qualifications of jurors) and to

investigate the registration status of any registered elector

who claimed ineligibility to serve as a juror on the basis of a

lack of citizenship.

(z.5) To cooperate with the department to any degree

necessary in the creation of the system required under section

201(z.1).

Section 6. The act is amended by adding a section to read:

Section 313. County Boards of Elections and Satellite

for and be subject to the same restrictions as a polling place

under this act.

(b) A satellite election office must offer the same services

and capabilities as the permanent offices maintained by the

county board of elections.

(c) A satellite election office must be operated by paid

staff of the county board of elections.

(d) A board establishing satellite election offices must

Section 702-A. Residence of electors.

(a) General rule.--

(1) For the purpose of registration and voting, no

individual shall be deemed to have gained a residence by

reason of presence or lost a residence by reason of absence

in any of the following circumstances:

(i) Being employed in the service, either civil or

military, of this Commonwealth or of the United States.

(ii) Being engaged in the navigation of the waters

of this Commonwealth or of the United States or on the

high seas.

absentee ballot.

(2) Nothing in paragraph (1) shall preclude any elector

eligible under section 701-A from establishing the district

of residence as the election district of residence under

subsection (b).

(3) Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, no

individual who is confined in a penal institution shall be

deemed a resident of the election district where the

confinement.

(4) An individual who resides at a mental health

facility, if otherwise qualified under section 701-A, shall

be deemed at the individual's option a resident in one of the

following:

(i) The district where the institution is located.

(ii) The district where the individual was last

registered to vote before entering the institution. For

purposes of this subparagraph, if the individual was not

registered before entering the institution, the

individual shall be deemed to reside at the last known

(2) An individual shall not be considered to have lost

residence if the individual leaves home and goes into another

state or another election district for temporary purposes

only, with the intention of returning.

(3) An individual shall not be considered to have gained

a residence in an election district if the individual comes

into that district for temporary purposes only, without the

intention of making that election district a permanent place

(5) If an individual removes to another state with the

intention of remaining there an indefinite time and making

that state the place of residence, the individual shall be

considered to have lost residence in this Commonwealth,

notwithstanding an intention to return at some indefinite

future period.

(6) If an individual goes into another state and, while

there, votes in an election held by that state, the

individual shall be considered to have lost residence in this

Commonwealth.

(7) An individual employed in the service of the Federal

enrolled in the political party designated by the individual

or spouse without declaring a residence by street and number

as follows:

(i) An individual who registers under this paragraph

for Commonwealth employment must produce a certificate

from the head of the State agency, under the seal of

office, providing that the individual or the individual's

spouse is actually employed in the service of the

record of each individual registered under this paragraph

the fact of Federal or State employment.

(iii) At least once every two years the commission

shall verify the employment of the individuals registered

under this paragraph at the proper Federal or State

office. If an individual is found to be no longer a

Federal or State employee, the individual's registration

shall be canceled under 25 Pa.C.S. Ch. 15 (relating to

changes in records).

SUBARTICLE C

PROCEDURE

(4) Under section 724-A.

(5) Under section 725-A.

Section 722-A. In-person voter registration.

(a) General rule.--Applications may be submitted to register

to vote or change party enrollment or name or address on a

current registration record in person before the commission or a

commissioner, a registrar or a clerk at the office of the

commission or at a place designated by the commission. The

registration applications for the purpose of registering

qualified electors in accordance with this section.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this article and 25

Pa.C.S. Pt. IV (relating to voter registration), the commission

may use a mail registration application for in-person

registration. The commission shall mail the qualified elector an

identification card in accordance with section 728-A.

(b) Notice.--The commission shall, within a reasonable time,

publicly announce the address of each place of registration, the

address of each office of the commission established for the

registration of qualified electors other than its main office

any polling place to be open, in proper order for use, as a

place of registration on each day when the polling place is

desired by the commission or required by the provisions of this

article and 25 Pa.C.S. Pt. IV for use as a place of

registration. The appropriating authority of the county shall

provide for the payment of rentals for such polling places and

other places of registration.

(d) Schools.--The board of public education or the board of