{"id":2235323,"date":"2024-05-02T09:09:10","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T13:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pre-canvassing-changes-squeak-through-divided-house\/"},"modified":"2024-05-02T09:16:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T13:16:07","slug":"pre-canvassing-changes-squeak-through-divided-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pre-canvassing-changes-squeak-through-divided-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Pre-canvassing adjustments approved in split House"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpre-canvassing-changes-squeak-through-divided-house%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2235323&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The recent bill in Pennsylvania aims to extend the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-happening-pennsylvania-state-legislature-files-resolution-disputes-statewide-2020-election-results\/\" title=\"It's Happening: Pennsylvania State Legislature Files Resolution -- DISPUTES STATEWIDE 2020 ELECTION RESULTS\">pre-canvassing<\/a> period to seven days before Election Day to allow\u200d for the earlier processing of mail-in ballots. The proposal met resistance from 99 Republican legislators who fear <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/eric-adams-wins-democrat-primary-for-nyc-mayor\/\" title=\"Eric Adams wins Democrat primary for NYC mayor\">delayed results<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-rncs-election-integrity-efforts-have-left-much-to-be-desired-i-have-a-plan-to-succeed\/\" title=\"The RNC\u2019s Election Integrity Efforts Have Left Much To Be Desired.\u00a0I Have A Plan To Succeed.\">decreased voter confidence<\/a>. The bill is \u2062seen as a\u200c move towards expediting result reporting by enabling counties to \u200bhandle ballots in advance. The Pennsylvania bill seeks to extend the pre-canvassing period to seven days before Election Day, enabling early processing of mail-in ballots. However, 99 Republican legislators oppose the proposal, citing concerns about delayed results \u200cand reduced voter confidence. Despite the opposition, the bill is viewed as \u2063a step\u2062 towards faster result reporting by allowing counties to manage\u2063 ballots in advance.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>(The Center Square) \u2013 Pennsylvania remains one of a few states where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-lawyers-pa-lawsuit-dismissal-moves-us-closer-to-supreme-court\/\" title=\"Trump Lawyers: PA Lawsuit Dismissal Moves Us Closer to Supreme Court\">poll workers<\/a> don\u2019t process ballots before Election Day.<\/p>\n<p>Supporters of pre-canvassing, as it\u2019s called, believe giving counties more time to open envelopes and prepare ballots for counting will deliver faster results.<\/p>\n<p>As it stands, poll workers can\u2019t begin the pre-canvassing process until 7 a.m. on Election Day. Counting doesn\u2019t start until the polls close at 8 p.m. and must continue until all ballots are tabulated.<\/p>\n<p>A bill to expand the pre-canvassing window up to seven days before the polls open \u2013 and no longer put time constraints on counting \u2013 narrowly passed the state House window amid uproar from 99 Republican legislators who said it will delay results for days and undermine voters\u2019 trust.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCounties could start dealing with the mail-in ballots a week before the election, but they don\u2019t have to,\u201d said Rep. Brad Roae, R-Meadville. \u201cThey don\u2019t even have to deal with them on Election Day. They could wait until Friday when the official counting is starting, so you could really see not knowing until Friday who wins and who loses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other critics say letting poll workers stop counting before getting through all the ballots will leave voters doubtful of the results \u2013 just as they were after the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n<p>The outrage, however, fell flat for supporters of the legislation, including Rep. Steve Samuelson, D-Bethlehem, who said more time is what county officials said they need to speed the process up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet the counties count the ballots early,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s go with the commonsense approach in this bill.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During a March budget hearing, State Secretary Al Schmidt said although counting the ballots goes \u201cpretty quickly,\u201d processing them takes much longer. Poll workers would need at least three days, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Counties, meanwhile, struggle with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/pennsylvania\/article_557f7972-c070-11ee-bdc5-9310d6f2091a.html\">recruiting poll workers<\/a><\/strong>, Schmidt said. About 45,000 residents staff 9,000 voting locations across the state.<\/p>\n<p>High turnover rates among county election administrators pave the way for more errors. In December, Schmidt said the department redesigned ballot envelopes to make them easier for voters to fill out correctly, as well as put together a training team for new administrators.<\/p>\n<p>Giving counties checklists and instructions so each one knows what needs to be done, Schmidt said, matters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose sorts of mistakes, human errors easily made by non-experienced election administrators, is one of the biggest challenges we\u2019re facing commonwealthwide,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Christen is a regional editor for The Center Square and co-host of Pennsylvania in Focus, a weekly podcast on America\u2019s Talking Network. Find her work in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Broad + Liberty, RealClear, and the Washington Examiner. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pennsylvania is among the states where ballots are not processed before Election Day. Advocates of pre-canvassing argue that enabling counties to open and organize ballots in advance will expedite result reporting. Currently, pre-canvassing can&#8217;t commence until 7 AM on Election Day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2235324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AP24037853666052.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2235323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AP24037853666052.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2235323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2235324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2235323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2235323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2235323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}