Election Protection

Khalif Ali, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, a good-government advocacy group that works on issues related to voter access, called the subpoenas approved Wednesday a “frightening violation of voters’ privacy and an egregious abuse of power.” “There’s no explanation about what they intend to do with the information, or why they think they need it,” he said in a statement. “They also have not announced any plans for security measures to protect the information from disclosure. … Pennsylvanians deserve to have their private information protected by the people they elected to office, not used as political fodder to appease lies told by a former president.”

'We – and the taxpayers of Pennsylvania – thank Gov. Wolf for his vetoes today. Today’s vetoes help quantify the financial cost of the anti-voter legislation being passed around the country. In actual dollars-and-cents, making it harder to vote would have cost $99 million in upfront costs and another $19 million in annual recurring costs.'

Members of the nonpartisan Keystone Votes coalition today urged the governor to veto House Bill 1300, a sweeping but controversial set of GOP-backed legislative election reforms.

The state Senate has just passed HB 1300, a package of voting law changes that includes provisions to make voting more difficult, particularly for Black, Brown and low income voters. We thank Governor Wolf for his promise to quickly veto it

The bill will cost almost $92 million, which “could be spent improving the lives of Pennsylvanians – rather than funding legislation that will make it harder for us to vote.”

In a separate statement, Common Cause PA executive director Khalif Ali said a fiscal statement revealed a one-time implementation cost for the bill’s requirements at $99 million with annual costs approaching $19 million. “That’s an awful lot of taxpayer money for the Legislature to spend, to implement a bill that will make it harder for us to cast ballots and have our voices heard,” Ali said.