"The establishment of this board should be the first step in mapping out the priorities of needed election reform measures," Vogel, R-47, New Sewickley Township, said in an email. "The priorities would then give us a timeline to enact changes. The ultimate goal is to improve the PA Election Code through prioritized options with as little cost to our counties as possible."
Senate Bill 422 was introduced on March 12 and referred to the State Government Committee.
Vogel also said that the board would collaborate with "agencies and political subdivisions to study election-related issues," and identify "best practices to ensure voting integrity" and publicly release an annual report.
Under the bill, members on the board will include the Pennsylvania secretary of state, the Senate President Pro Tempore, the minority leader of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, the minority leader of the House and one person from each of Pennsylvania's 18 congressional districts, which will include disability-rights and voting-rights advocates, and a county commissioners or county election officials.
No more than half of those chosen from congressional districts would be registered with the same political party.
The idea for an advisory board stems from a December 2017 report by the Joint State Government Commission on voting technology in the state, a report done at the direction of a Senate resolution on which Vogel was the prime sponsor.
Last year, Gov. Tom Wolf's administration directed counties to offer voters verifiable paper records of ballots by the end of 2019 after questions were raised about voting security following the 2016 election.
©2019 the Beaver County Times (Beaver, Pa.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
