Why Pennsylvania Needs Election Reform

Pennsylvanians should be able to vote knowing the rules are clear, the system is secure, every lawful ballot is counted once, and every qualified candidate has a fair chance to earn a place on the ballot.

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Election reform cannot be about helping one party, protecting incumbents, or making it harder for ordinary people to participate. It has to protect both access and integrity at the same time.

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My plan establishes uniform statewide standards, voter identification with free access, paper ballots, strict chain of custody, stronger audits, accurate voter rolls, transparent counting, fairer candidate access, and real accountability when election laws are intentionally violated.

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It also changes the way Pennsylvania chooses candidates for most offices by creating a Top 4 Open Primary where every voter receives the same candidate ballot and the top four finishers advance to November.

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And it establishes one basic rule:

Election rules should be clear before voting begins, applied equally to everyone, and transparent enough for the public to verify what happened.

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THE PLAN AT A GLANCE

 

VOTER REGISTRATION & VOTER ID

Voter registration would be affirmative opt-in, including at PennDOT. Pennsylvania would end automatic or default opt-out voter-registration enrollment while continuing to provide every registration opportunity required by federal law.

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Photo identification would be required for in-person voting, with free voter ID, free supporting records, mobile and homebound access, reasonable treatment of expired ID, and a provisional-ballot cure process so an eligible voter is not denied because of a correctable identification problem.

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PAPER BALLOTS & ELECTION SECURITY

A voter-verifiable paper ballot or paper record would be the controlling election record.

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Hand-marked paper ballots would be the normal voting method, with accessible ballot-marking devices available where needed.

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Election equipment could not operate with enabled public internet, unauthorized Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular connections, or unsupervised remote access.

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Ballot inventory, tamper-evident containers, two-person custody, secure storage, documented transport, equipment testing, cybersecurity review, and permanent electronic logs would be required statewide.

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ELECTION DAY

Election Day would be a state holiday.

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Polls would be open from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., and anyone in line by 9:00 p.m. would be allowed to vote.

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Public schools would close for Election Day rather than converting the day into a remote-learning or substitute instructional day.

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Every polling place would have paper and manual backup procedures so an equipment or electronic poll-book failure does not stop voting.

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ABSENTEE VOTING

In-person voting would be the normal method.

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Absentee voting would remain available for legitimate needs such as military and overseas service, illness, disability, hospitalization, long-term care, unavoidable work duties, students away from home, religious observance, election workers, qualifying emergencies, and other legally protected circumstances.

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Unattended ballot drop boxes would not be used. Ballots could be returned by mail, approved carrier, or personally to an authorized staffed location, with limited documented agent return where necessary.

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Ordinary civilian absentee ballots would have to be received before Election Day under the deadlines established in the full plan, with narrow exceptions for military, overseas, government-error, emergency, or court-required situations.

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COUNTING, AUDITS & RECOUNTS

Pennsylvania would require full administrative reconciliation after every election.

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Every county would conduct a 5% hand audit, and risk-limiting audits would be required for statewide contests and randomly selected legislative and local contests.

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Very close elections would trigger automatic full hand recounts using the original paper ballots.

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Election-night reporting would clearly separate unofficial results from final certified results, and outstanding-ballot information would be publicly reported while counting remains active.

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TOP 4 OPEN PRIMARY

For covered offices, every qualified candidate would appear on the same primary ballot regardless of party.

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Every eligible voter would receive that same candidate ballot and vote for one candidate.

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The four candidates receiving the most votes would advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation.

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Political parties could still organize, endorse candidates, and conduct internal party business, but no party would be guaranteed a November ballot position for covered offices.

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Presidential primaries and internal party offices would remain separate.

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MAJORITY WINNERS FOR MAJOR OFFICES

For Governor/Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Auditor General, State Treasurer, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House, the November winner would be required to receive more than 50% of the vote.

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If no candidate receives a majority, the top two would advance to a runoff, subject to constitutional and federal requirements described in the full framework.

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FAIR BALLOT ACCESS

The current major-party-versus-independent divide in candidate access would be replaced for Top 4 offices with one qualification system.

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A candidate for Governor/Lieutenant Governor would need 2,000 valid signatures, including at least 100 from each of at least 10 counties.

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Any eligible registered voter could sign for more than one candidate for the same office. A petition signature would mean only that the candidate should be allowed to compete, not that the voter endorses or supports that candidate.

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Pennsylvania would create a secure candidate portal allowing state-verified digital petition signatures while permanently retaining the paper petition option.

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CAMPAIGN FINANCE & POLITICAL ADVERTISING

The plan establishes contribution limits, stronger disclosure, original-source reporting for major political money, anti-straw-donor rules, foreign-money protections, pay-to-play safeguards, personal-use restrictions, and public campaign-finance dashboards.

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Political advertising would face stronger digital disclosure requirements, and materially deceptive synthetic political media involving real people would require clear disclosure while protecting ordinary editing, satire, parody, and lawful speech.

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ELECTION CRIMES & ACCOUNTABILITY

Good-faith mistakes would be treated differently from intentional fraud.

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Intentional ballot destruction, forgery, substitution, equipment tampering, serious cyberattacks, organized absentee fraud, vote buying, election conspiracy, and intentional election-record destruction would face serious criminal penalties.

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Election officials, vendors, campaigns, political organizations, voters, and government agencies would be held to the same evidence-based standards.

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Political allegations, social-media claims, statistical oddities, or disagreement with an election result would not by themselves establish fraud.

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OBSERVERS & PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY

Candidates, major parties, minor parties, political bodies, and Independents would receive meaningful and equal observer rights.

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Central counting, canvassing, audits, recounts, ballot duplication, chain-of-custody activity, and certification would be observable under rules that protect ballot secrecy and security.

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Where technically practical, central counting and canvassing would be publicly livestreamed, and Pennsylvania would maintain searchable public election records and transparency dashboards.

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COUNTY ACCOUNTABILITY & STATE OVERSIGHT

Counties would continue to administer elections locally, but all 67 counties would operate under mandatory statewide standards.

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County election directors would be professionally certified, poll workers would receive standardized training, counties would file readiness plans, and election administration would be subject to risk-based and random compliance audits.

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Serious county failures could trigger temporary state assistance or intervention, but any intervention would have to be narrowly limited and end as soon as the problem is corrected.

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State government would be held accountable for state-level failures too. Counties would not be blamed for problems caused by state systems or unlawful state directives.

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IMPLEMENTATION & CONSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS

Parts of the reform that can lawfully be enacted by statute would move forward without waiting for unrelated constitutional changes.

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Where constitutional amendments are required, those questions would go through Pennsylvania's constitutional process and be submitted separately where necessary.

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Top 4 would not be imposed in the middle of an election cycle already underway.

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New election technology would be tested before becoming legally controlling, paper alternatives would remain available, implementation would be publicly tracked, and strong severability rules would protect lawful portions of the reform if another provision is delayed or struck down.

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BOTTOM LINE

 

Pennsylvania should not have one set of rules in one county and a materially different set somewhere else.

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My plan keeps elections locally administered while establishing statewide standards for voter eligibility, ID, paper ballots, security, chain of custody, audits, recounts, transparency, candidate access, campaign finance, enforcement, and county accountability.

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It protects lawful voters without treating security as optional. It protects election integrity without treating every mistake as fraud. It opens the ballot to qualified candidates without guaranteeing political parties a place in November. And it gives the public far more ability to see how elections are being administered, counted, audited, and certified.

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One voter. One lawful ballot. One set of statewide rules. A paper record that can be checked. A process the public can see.

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WANT THE FULL DETAILS?

 

This page gives the voter-facing summary of my Pennsylvania Election Integrity, Ballot Access and Fairness Reform.

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The complete policy package includes the detailed voter-registration system, voter-ID safeguards, Election Day procedures, absentee rules, paper-ballot and chain-of-custody standards, cybersecurity requirements, audits, recounts, certification, Top 4 Open Primary, candidate-access rules, digital petitioning, campaign-finance restrictions, election crimes, observer protections, emergency procedures, county accountability, state oversight, implementation requirements, constitutional safeguards, and transition rules behind the plan.