Posted: | March 16, 2017 04:21 PM |
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From: | Representative Neal P. Goodman |
To: | All House members |
Subject: | No-Excuse Absentee Balloting |
In the near future I will be re-introducing legislation from last session (former HB 388) to eliminate the restrictions on voting by absentee ballot contained in Title 25 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes. Under current Pennsylvania law, individuals may only vote by absentee ballot if they are unable to go to the polling place on the day of the election because of an illness or disability, because they will not be in their municipality of residence, because they are a county official whose duties relate to conducting the election, or because of an observance of a religious holiday. My legislation would simply remove these restrictions and permit any qualified elector to vote by absentee ballot for any reason. The procedure for obtaining an absentee ballot would remain the same. Currently, 27 states and the District of Columbia permit no-excuse absentee voting. It is time Pennsylvania joined these other states in making voting easier for our citizens. Previous co-sponsors: V. BROWN, BROWNLEE, CARROLL, COHEN, D. COSTA, M. DALEY, DEASY, FRANKEL, GIBBONS, GRELL, KINSEY, KNOWLES, KOTIK, LONGIETTI, MATZIE, McCARTER, McNEILL, O'BRIEN, C. PARKER, SAMUELSON, SCHLOSSBERG, SCHWEYER, SNYDER, THOMAS, WHEATLEY, FREEMAN and SANTARSIERO |
Introduced as HB1138