Chaos or Calm: Building Confidence in the 2024 Election

Over the past few years, Pennsylvania has been serving high drama on the national elections scene, due in large part to the time it takes county officials to process absentee ballots and announce results, as well as inconsistencies in counties’ election procedures.

Although the PA Election Code was updated significantly in 2019 with the bipartisan Act 77, there is still an urgent need for further reforms. These issues need to be resolved in advance of the 2024 election cycle. Doing so will help restore public confidence in how elections are conducted, which is essential for political stability and economic prosperity.

On January 9th, Business for America brought together Democrat and Republican county commissioners and election experts to discuss policies Harrisburg can enact this year with business support so elections in Pennsylvania can run more efficiently, avoid potential chaos, and restore voters’ trust.

Seth Bluestein, Republican city commissioner of Philadelphia, noted that “businesses and election local administrators have a very similar perspective about the need for clarity in advance so that everybody’s on the same page and knows what to expect. It is how you are able to invest and grow in your business in the same way.”

Three of the primary reforms that the panelists discussed were pre-canvassing, codifying Act 77, and modernizing the tools that election administrators desperately need.

Berks County Commissioner Christian Leinbach suggested, “We need some significant election reforms to Act 77. Drop boxes aren’t even mentioned in Act 77, so some people assume that they are illegal, which is not the case at all. We need clear rules that everybody is following. We absolutely need the legislature, new leadership, and the governor and his administration to look at Act 77 and clean it up so we all know the rules and so voters know and understand that what’s happening in Juniata county … is the same as Berks and the same as Philadelphia. That is not the case today, and it leads to a lack of voter trust and to claims of fraud even when really it is a case of lack of consistency in the law.”

Commissioner Sherene Hess, a Democrat representing Indiana County in West Central Pennsylvania, added “I think we all need to include the business community in encouraging the legislature to come up with commonsense solutions to clarify the law where the code is silent. Let’s get some clarification and consistency. We want the legislature to work with the counties to understand that we want to be their partner and we want to help engender the trust that is needed, because the business community needs to know that elections are working and fair.”

Regarding pre-canvassing, Commissioner Bluestein put it plainly: “The counties have said for years now that we need to improve upon access, and one of the main things that they counties have asked for — both Democratic and Republican counties, large and small, rural and urban — is having the ability to review and open the ballot envelopes in advance of Election Day. Essentially now with Act 77, we have to manage two separate elections on Election Day: an in-person election and a vote-by-mail election that becomes untenable when you don’t have sufficient resources to do so.”

Ethan Demme, founder and owner of Demme Learning (a BFA member) in Lancaster County, shared his perspective as a small business owner. “Allowing pre-canvassing would really go a long way in both streamlining and giving flexibility to local governments to count better, but also from a business standpoint, it allows my employees to know that, hey, my vote is going to get counted, I can go vote, and watch the election results come in and see that in real time. It just builds that trust, which is what we want at the end of the day.”

“We may disagree on our politicians,” Demme continued, “and that is what makes a democracy great. But people need to know that their voice is heard and the ballot box is the best way for that. So just making it easier to administer elections is good for democracy and business, but also improving perception is really key so that people can really know deep down that their vote is being counted.”

Commissioner Leinbach concluded, “We need a bipartisan effort and we need it as quickly as possible. We’re focused on 2023 but these are going to be big issues not just this year … if we haven’t addressed any reform between now and this time next year, 2024 is going to be a real serious problem.”

Watch the full discussion on YouTube.

To learn more about BFA’s work to update PA’s election system, please reach out to Pennsylvania Policy Director Aizaz Gill.