Session: 2021-2022
ACLU-PA Position: Opposes
HB 1800 is an omnibus bill that would introduce significant changes to the Pennsylvania Election Code. While there are certainly some provisions in HB 1800 that the ACLU-PA would support, the bill contains numerous problematic changes, including ones that:
- Change, grant, and/or expand election-related authority vested in: the Auditor General; county boards of elections; local election officials and poll workers; the Election Law Advisory Board; the Attorney General; and county district attorneys.
- Require voter ID, but with fewer ID options currently available to PA voters.
- Shorten the deadline or time to: register to vote; apply for a mail-in or absentee ballot; vote a mail-in or absentee ballot; and canvass ballots and tabulate election results.
- Require signature matching—an historically unreliable and unworkable requirement for elections.
- Impose unnecessary restrictions or limitations on ballot return locations; polling locations; and vote centers.
- Grant the General Assembly special standing in challenges to the Election Code.
- Create new election-related offenses while doubling criminal penalties for existing Election Code offenses.
Check the bill's status here.
