Reforming elections without the partisan fight

Since the beginning of 2024, Pennsylvania has held three statewide elections — the 2024 primary and general elections, and the recent 2025 primary election — and each election has seen minimal problems with the process. Even when issues arose, they were addressed and dealt with consistently in accordance with the law.

A recent poll commissioned by the board of the Democracy Defense Project Pennsylvania shows that the recent successful administration of elections has resonated with voters, too. The survey found that 68% of the commonwealth’s voters are confident that state election votes and results are counted fairly, an increase of 4% from 2024.

This number shows that educational initiatives and election process guidelines spearheaded by the Pennsylvania Department of State are working, but there is still room for improvement to ensure that all Pennsylvanians have confidence in our elections.

To take the next step, we need our state legislature to act.

The state House has begun this discussion by passing a Democratic-sponsored election reform bill on party lines. While this bill has received pushback from state Senate Republican leaders as a partisan bill, we believe there are three key measures that should garner bipartisan support in both chambers of the state legislature.

For years, Republicans have sought voter identification requirements for voters, but this was met with Democratic opposition. Recently, however, some Democrats have changed their tune — this is the key to starting meaningful, bipartisan reform discussions. Roughly 74% of voters in our survey stated that they support requiring voters to show identification when voting to ensure only Americans can cast a ballot and only cast one vote.

Under current state law, pre-canvassing — beginning the process of preparing and counting early ballots — cannot commence until the morning of Election Day. With more and more people voting early and by mail, tabulating ballots and releasing election results is taking county boards of elections much longer. This extends the ballot count well beyond election night in some counties, which can further erode confidence in the system and, sometimes, result in voter mistrust.

Pennsylvania is currently one of only seven states nationwide that do not allow for pre-canvassing. Allowing counties to pre-canvass mail ballots would significantly expedite the availability of election results and would ease pressure on county election officials, who have specifically requested the ability to pre-canvass ballots earlier than the morning of the election. After consulting with county commissioners and election officials from both parties, we know there is strong bipartisan support for pre-canvassing.

During the 2024 general election, we saw voters across Pennsylvania going to their county’s board of elections office to request a mail-in ballot to fill out on the spot and cast their vote. This method acted as an in-person early voting option. This process, while legal, overwhelmed elections offices, causing long lines with hours-long wait times. It even resulted in the extension of the mail-in ballot request period in Bucks County.

Enacting early in-person voting allows interested voters to cast their ballots early, without using the mail, while also alleviating the long wait for voters who showed up at election offices last fall. Numerous states, including Florida and Ohio, allow for early in-person voting. Pennsylvania legislators should look to these states for guidance.

While the initial election reform discussion is encouraging, we believe the most effective way to pass meaningful legislation is to rally around these common ground issues to bring leaders from both parties and chambers to the table.

We urge Pennsylvania lawmakers of both parties to consider enacting these sensible election reform measures to continue building confidence in our election system.

Keith McCall, former speaker of the Pennsylvania House, and Jim Gerlach, former U.S. representative, serve as board members of the Democracy Defense Project Pennsylvania, which works to defend the transparency, safety, security, and validity of Pennsylvania’s elections system.