Legislators plan bills to allow early voting
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HARRISBURG -- Many states allow people to buy beer at the same store where they buy wine and spirits, but Pennsylvania isn't one of them.
Some states have begun leasing toll roads to private operators, but Pennsylvania is keeping its turnpike firmly under government control.
And 31 states permit early voting, where voters can cast their ballots 10 or 15 days before the first Tuesday in November. Pennsylvania doesn't allow that either, but change could be in the air on that one.
Democratic state Reps. Scott Conklin of Centre and Eugene DePasquale of York plan to introduce legislation next year to allow voting in advance of election day.
Mr. Conklin would permit people to vote in person at their county Board of Elections, or at some other location the board would approve, beginning 10 days before Election Day. Early voting would apply to spring primaries as well as November general elections, and to municipal, county, state and national elections.
Some states, including Florida, currently permit early voting up to 15 days before an election.
Mr. DePasquale, grandson of former Pittsburgh City Councilman Jeep DePasquale, also would like to see early voting approved for all elections.
"We want to make it more flexible for working families, for senior citizens, and for avoiding long lines on Election Day," he said. "We need to make it easier for qualified voters to vote in Pennsylvania."
He said his bill and Mr. Conklin's probably will be combined into one piece of legislation at some point. They are both seeking co-sponsors now. If approved next year, the measure might not take effect until the May 2010 primaries, when Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidates will be chosen.
Mr. Conklin, a former commissioner and board of elections chairman in Centre County, said that many people in other states participated in early voting in the recent U.S. presidential election, which eased long lines on Election Day while keeping turnout high. He said he knows of Pennsylvania polling places where voters had to wait 1 1/2 hours.
"Advance voting has grown in nationwide popularity and value," he said. "Unfortunately, in Pennsylvania, while absentee ballots are permitted under a limited set of circumstances, advance voting is not an option. We should make voting more convenient for those whose schedule or circumstances present a challenge to getting to the polls on Election Day."
Rep. Mike McGeehan, D-Philadelphia, plans to sponsor a related bill aimed at making voting by absentee ballot easier. It's called "no excuse needed." People could vote by absentee ballot for any reason at all -- or for no reason at all, but simply because they wanted to.
Now absentee ballots are available only to voters who will be of town, incapacitated, or hospitalized on Election Day.
Charlie Gerow, a political consultant with Harrisburg-based Quantum Communications, said he thinks early voting "is the wave of the future. I think you will see more and more of it. With changes in lifestyle and people moving around so much, some folks have a hard time getting out to the polls on just that one day.''
But he added there could be a drawback if people are allowed to vote too far before the election.
For example, he said, "Suppose an important issue developed late in a campaign, one that would impact the voting, such as a financial meltdown occurring just before an election, and people had already voted?"
First Published December 13, 2008 12:00 am
