What we’re doing...
Common Cause Pennsylvania defends the tenets of democracy and fights for the right of every Pennsylvanian to be heard. We engage at the state and local level to empower citizens and ensure that our government serves the people in the place where American democracy was created.
Through our nonpartisan, process-oriented, results-driven, and inclusive approach we have worked to make Pennsylvania’s government more honest, open, and accountable.
In 2023, our priorities include:
Stopping the passage of backdoor constitutional amendments. Lawmakers in Harrisburg are trying to use sneaky constitutional amendments to put up more barriers to voting, restrict the governor’s regulatory powers, and transfer post-election audit duties to a newly created bureaucracy. We’re working with coalition partners to oppose this attempt to circumvent the regular legislative process.
Making improvements to our vote-by-mail system. Millions of Pennsylvanians have voted-by-mail in recent years. In 2023, we can improve our system further by ensuring equitable and convenient access to ballot dropboxes, allowing counties to process mail and absentee ballots before Election Day , and requiring counties to notify voters of defective ballots and allow them to fix any defects that would disqualify their vote.
Modernizing our voter registration system. Before a voter can choose whether to vote early in person, by mail, or on Election Day, they need to register. We can improve that system by implementing automatic voter registration at state agencies designated by the Secretary of State, investigating ways to streamline voter registration updates between agencies, and allowing voters to register to vote or update their voter registration at their polling place on Election Day.
Supporting election administrators. We have the utmost respect for the professionals that administer our elections. To help ensure that they can continue to run our elections safely and accurately, we urge our government to provide sufficient state-level election funding and uniform, comprehensive training to all poll workers. We also support the increase of penalties for those who harass or threaten election workers.
Implementing standards for post-election audits. We support bipartisan legislation to institute risk-limiting post-election audits, as mandated by the courts.
