{"id":219,"date":"2021-06-15T07:50:58","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T07:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/pennsylvania\/press-releases\/pennsylvania-house-and-senate-committees-consider-proposals-to-make-voting-more-difficult\/"},"modified":"2021-06-15T07:50:58","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T07:50:58","slug":"pennsylvania-house-and-senate-committees-consider-proposals-to-make-voting-more-difficult","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/pennsylvania\/press\/pennsylvania-house-and-senate-committees-consider-proposals-to-make-voting-more-difficult\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania House and Senate Committees Consider Proposals to Make Voting More Difficult"},"template":"","class_list":["post-219","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","press_type-press-release"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"Common Cause Pennsylvania adamantly opposes both proposals. HB 1300 in its current form will place multiple restrictions on the voting process that millions of Pennsylvanians have come to depend on. SB 735 is expected to lower turnout among Black, young and new voters.","featured_image":7704,"press_type":146,"authors":[null],"related_issues":[92,100,105,107,109,471,473],"related_work":false,"location":41},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This morning, both the House and Senate State Government committees will hold voting meetings on bills that would make voting more difficult, particularly for Black, Brown and low income voters.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b>At 8:00 am, the House State Government Committee<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> will hold <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legis.state.pa.us\/cfdocs\/cteeInfo\/Index.cfm?CteeBody=H&amp;Code=36\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">a meeting<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> where they will vote on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legis.state.pa.us\/cfdocs\/billInfo\/billInfo.cfm?sYear=2021&amp;sInd=0&amp;body=H&amp;type=B&amp;bn=1300\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">HB 1300<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which would<\/span>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">create <\/span><b>a new \u201cBureau of Election Audits\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> supervised by a partisan elected official, the state Auditor General<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">require new voters to <\/span><b>register to vote at least 30 days before Election Day<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, rather than 15<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>eliminate the permanent mail voting list<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and instead require voters to apply for a mail ballot for each election<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">force voters to <\/span><b>request mail ballots at least 15 days before Election Day<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, rather than seven<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>limit the use of ballot return drop boxes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to just seven days before Election Day, and require that drop boxes be staffed by two partisan \u201cinspectors\u201d to check the identification of everyone using the drop box to return a ballot<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">require <\/span><b>signature verification for mail ballots<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in addition to<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> requiring voters to provide <\/span><b>two separate forms of identification<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> with their requests for a mail ballot<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">require <\/span><b>every voter to present ID at the polls, every time they vote<\/b><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>ban counties from accepting private grants or donations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to cover election administration costs<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The meeting is scheduled to be streamed <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pahousegop.com\/livestreams\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Written <\/span><b>testimony submitted by Common Cause Executive Director Khalif Ali<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is available <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/pennsylvania\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/06\/2021-06-15-Testimony_Common-Cause-PA-HB1300.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b>At 10:00 am, the Senate State Government Committee<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> will hold <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legis.state.pa.us\/cfdocs\/cteeInfo\/Index.cfm?CteeBody=S&amp;Code=41\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">a meeting<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> where they will vote on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legis.state.pa.us\/cfdocs\/billInfo\/BillInfo.cfm?syear=2021&amp;sind=0&amp;body=S&amp;type=B&amp;bn=735\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">SB 735<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a proposed constitutional amendment to require voters to provide personal identification when casting ballots. The meeting is scheduled to be streamed <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pasen.gov\/Video\/SenateVideo.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/gao-14-634.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A 2014 study<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by the nonpartisan federal Government Accounting Office found that voter identification laws caused a <\/span><b>drop in voter turnout of about 2%<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the two states studied. The study found that three types of voters were particularly affected by turnout declines related to voter identification laws: voters aged 19-23; Black voters; and new voters, registered less than one year.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cEvery eligible Pennsylvanian wants to \u2013 and should \u2013 have a say in deciding which people and policies will determine the future for our families, community, and country,\u201d <\/span><b>Common Cause Pennsylvania Executive Director Khalif Ali<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> said. \u201cPennsylvanians should have the freedom to vote without the types of barriers these proposals would create. Our government \u2018by the people\u2019 is stronger when more people participate in it.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe saw <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.media.pa.gov\/pages\/state-details.aspx?newsid=434\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">record voter turnout in November<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> because of Act 77 and Act 12, which were both bipartisan bills. Our state legislature could use this session to extend its bipartisan legacy of expanding voting access. But instead, some legislators propose to follow the example set by Georgia and Florida of enacting laws that create new barriers to voting,\u201d Ali said. \u201cWe know that<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/03\/23\/us\/politics\/republican-voter-laws.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">a special interest group is coordinating<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> many of these efforts around the country. But Pennsylvania\u2019s legislators were elected to represent their constituents, not special interest groups.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cHB 1300 in its current form will place multiple restrictions on the voting process that millions of Pennsylvanians have come to depend on. SB 735 is expected to lower turnout among Black, young and new voters. Common Cause Pennsylvania adamantly opposes both proposals,\u201d Ali said.\u00a0<\/span>"}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pennsylvania House and Senate Committees Consider Proposals to Make Voting More Difficult - Common Cause Pennsylvania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/pennsylvania\/press-releases\/pennsylvania-house-and-senate-committees-consider-proposals-to-make-voting-more-difficult\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pennsylvania House and Senate Committees Consider Proposals to Make Voting More Difficult\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/pennsylvania\/press\/pennsylvania-house-and-senate-committees-consider-proposals-to-make-voting-more-difficult\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause Pennsylvania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/pennsylvania\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/I-voted.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/pennsylvania\/press-releases\/pennsylvania-house-and-senate-committees-consider-proposals-to-make-voting-more-difficult\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/pennsylvania\/press-releases\/pennsylvania-house-and-senate-committees-consider-proposals-to-make-voting-more-difficult\/\",\"name\":\"Pennsylvania House and Senate Committees Consider Proposals to Make Voting More Difficult - 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