April 14, 2026 · STATE GOVERNMENT · 4,487 words · 13 speakers · 85 segments
to call the House State Government Committee to order. Maya, would you please call the roll?
Yes, Chairwoman Hill Evans.
Here.
Representatives Boyd. Designation. Brennan. Designation. Davidson. Designation. Green. Genscht. Here. Howard. Here. Inglis. Designation. Kenyatta. Designation. Probst. Designation. Sanchez. Here. Schusterman. Designation. Waxman. Webster. Here. Chairman Roy. Here. Representatives Banta. Here. Barger. Bonner. Brown. Here. Diamond. Here. Fink. Here. Kozak. By designation. Schaefer. Here. Wallen. Here. Walsh. Weakneck. Here. Chairwoman, a quorum is present.
Thank you. Having established the presence of a quorum, the committee is in order to proceed with business. House Bill 37, the chair calls up. House Bill 37, printers number 16. Hannah, could you please read a summary of the bill?
House Bill 37 by Chairman Conklin would allow a county board of elections to meet seven days prior to the election day to pre-canvas all ballots received. It would also remove a requirement that county begin pre-canvassing at 7 a.m. on election day to satisfy the grant agreement for the Election Integrity Grant Program.
Will a committee report the bill? The chair is going to offer an amendment, amendment number A-02867. Will the committee agree to the amendment? Hannah, please provide a summary of the amendment.
Amendment 02867 would reinsert the requirement that a county begin pre-canvassing no later than 7 a.m. on election day to satisfy the grant agreement.
All right. Those in favor of the amendment will vote. I'm sorry, is there a discussion on the amendment? All right. Those in favor of the amendment will vote aye. Those opposed will vote no. Maya, please call for the vote.
Chairwoman Hill-Evans.
Yes.
Representatives Boyd. Yes, designation. Brennan. Designation, yes. Davidson. Designation, yes. Green. Gensd. Yes. Howard. Yes. Inglis. Designation, yes. Kenyatta. Designation, yes. Probst. Designation, yes. Sanchez. Schusterman. Waxman. Webster. Chairman Roy. Yes. Representatives Banta. Barger. Bonner. Brown. Diamond. Think. Kozak. Yes, by designation. Schaefer. Wallen. Walsh. Weakneck. Yes. Chairwoman, the amendment passes a vote of 24 to 2.
Okay, and the amendment is agreed to. Will the committee report the bill as amended? Is there discussion on the bill as amended? The chair recognizes Representative Webster.
Thank you, Chairwoman. I want to make sure I make a couple of comments today about the process of pre-canvassing and how important it would be to Montgomery County in particular, and I think to many of our counties, to simply have a process in place that allows our election services workers to fulfill part of that administrative task ahead of time and then be prepared for Election Day. And it's always a stretch in our world. it's always a stretch to to deal with the amount of paperwork required at the same moment that you're that those election services communities that are our workers and are dedicated individuals at every county are trying to run the day in you know in person elections and so this is the opportunity for Pennsylvania to modernize a little bit, to practice some efficiencies, and then to protect and be prepared so that we can announce results on time because we've done the work to be ready. So I just want to endorse Rep Conklin's bill, Chairman Conklin, and the approach that's being taken here to make sure that we can be efficient and secure and get the job done for all of our voters. Thank you, Chairwoman.
Chair Roy?
Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. I'm going to urge a no vote on the bill. It really is a solution in search of a problem. Back when we started first doing the mail-in voting, a lot of counties were not prepared to quickly count so many ballots. It took counties, a lot of them, days to get them counted after the polls closed. But Allegheny County in the 2020 primary, they were proactive. They bought equipment ahead of time to open up the envelopes and sort them and scan them and stuff. They were done by 9 o'clock at night the very first time they had to deal with mail-in ballots. Other counties, it took two, three, four, five days. But since we did the election integrity grants, all the counties bought the equipment. Everybody is getting things counted. Last year in the 2025 election, the 2024 election, every county had all the mail-in ballots counted by 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock at night. So it's not really an issue that we have to try to solve. Another issue I have with the bill deals with observers. As everyone knows, candidates, political parties, they can have authorized people watching the process of opening up the mail-ins and doing everything with them. And it's hard to get somebody to sit there for 20 hours to sit there and watch that process. We've yet to find volunteer observers, especially a low-budget campaign, to be there for several days watching this process take place. It's just very unworkable. So I would urge people to vote no. Thank you.
Okay. Representative Walsh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just one of my concerns is, and I know that starting pre-canvassing seven days prior to the election, it might be more timely for them to do it. They might be able to hit their deadline on time. But there's a big unintended consequence here that I'd like everybody to think about. And that is what would happen three or four days into pre-canvassing if election results leaked out? because those election results, that could really disenfranchise voters on Election Day if results were to leak out. And the way it is right now, depending on what county you're in, some are getting a higher volume of mail-in ballots. And even in my county, we have a very high volume of mail-in ballots. And they don't seem, since the election integrity grant was given, they don't seem to have a problem getting things done on time. In fact, before 8 o'clock, as soon as 8 o'clock hits, it's updated on the screen all the mail-in ballots that are counted for that election. And they're all done. So that would be my only concern. Thank you.
Thank you. Representative Banta.
Okay. Pass.
Representative Diamond. Thank you Madam Chair. I concur with the minority chair that this is a solution searching for a problem The counties are able to do this beginning at 7 a on election day and get it done in a timely fashion As far as announcing results as soon as possible after the polls close at 8 p.m., as long as we're accepting military ballots days after the election, you can't really announce official results anyways. I do think that there is a lot. One of the problems we have with our election law is that we do not have unified practices across all 67 counties. And that means that one voter in one county is treated somewhat differently than a voter in a different county who may be pre-canvassing at a different time. Then maybe they're making calls to say, hey, you've got to come cure your ballot. We don't want to treat any voter in Pennsylvania any differently. So sticking with the 7 a.m., the current 7 a.m. beginning time and saying, hey, you just got to do it till you're finished. That makes everybody on an even keel. I also think, Madam Chair, that there is a notion that we ought to be as a society changing election day into election weeks or election months. We have an election day for a reason. It's because we're all doing something together, and we ought to be doing it in a unified fashion. This legislation will create 67 different timelines for pre-canvassing and probably 67 different interpretations of what you can do under the term pre-canvassing. For that reason, I will be a no vote. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Is there any further discussion on the bill as amended? Rep. Webster?
Thanks, Chairman. Just a quick comment to assure, I guess, my colleagues and those listening, pre-canvassing does not mean counting early. There should be no threat of early election results being released because envelopes have been opened. And in fact, this bill would allow 67 counties to support voters in very similar ways that doesn't currently occur, including whether it's having the time frame to actually cure a ballot. For me personally, that part that a fully qualified voter in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania would not be disqualified, would be able to correct a date or a mistake or an envelope or some administrative thing that has no standing in terms of are they a qualified voter and are their intentions clear. This administratively helps us do those things. I said more efficiently the first time, if the right term should be in common practice, then that's the efficiency that we gain. Thank you, Chairwoman.
Thank you. Representative Schusterman.
Thank you, Chairwoman. I just want to thank our poll workers. I want to thank the people that volunteer. The majority of them are volunteers. They take time out of their lives to be trained to continue to work. the polls and learn the most current laws and practices. And I have a lot of faith in those volunteers and workers. So I disagree with the dear gentleman, Representative Diamond, when there's fear or concern. I think our poll workers are up to the challenge. Any change or challenge that comes to them, believe me, they've done a lot of changes during the pandemic and post-pandemic. So just a shout out to all the people who work at our polls. I want to thank them for the work they do. Thank you.
And just prior to taking the vote, I would like to acknowledge that we've been joined in this meeting by both Representatives Davidson and Schusterman. And also we've been joined on the committee by one of our newest representatives in the House, Representative Wallin. So welcome to state government. And now with that, those in favor of reporting the bill will vote yes. Those opposed, vote no. Maya, please call for the vote.
Chairwoman Hill-Evans.
Yes.
Representatives Boyd. designation yes brennan designation yes davidson yes green against howard english designation yes kenyatta designation yes probst designation yes sanchez schusterman waxman webster yes chairman roy no representatives banta No. Barger. Bonner. Brown. Diamond. No. Fink. No. Kozak. No by designation. Schaefer. No. Wallen. Walsh. Weakneck. No. Chairwoman, this bill passes a vote of 15 to 11.
And the bill will be reported. Thank you. Next up is House Bill 1262 by Representative Briggs. and this bill does have an amendment. Hannah, would you please read a summary of the bill?
House Bill 1262 by Chairman Briggs would require all campaign finance reports and statements filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth to be submitted electronically. It would also expand residual fund options and add waiver, outage, training, and enforcement rules for the state filing system.
Okay, and the Chair is going to offer Amendment A-02827. Will the committee agree to the amendment? Hannah, would you please provide a summary of the amendment?
Amendment 02827 would reformat the definition of nonprofit organization. Okay.
Is there any discussion on the amendment? Okay. Are there any negative votes on the amendment? Okay. I see no negative votes. and so we don't have to call for the vote the amendment is agreed to and with that I would like to recognize chair Briggs
sorry thank you very much chair Hill Evans for bringing this up and chair Roy for considering the bill. You've got to pull it up because I don't... House Bill 1262. This is the second session the committee's considered this bill. I'll give a little bit of history and then talk about the bill. 2011, I worked with Governor Corbett's Department of State on this first draft. Governor Corbett was very interested in requiring electronic campaign finance reporting because of his experiences in the 2010 election. And I worked with a number of Republican members. We couldn't get it through that state government committee for a couple terms. I pivoted. I started working with Representative Keller in a bipartisan way, gave the bill to Representative Keller. Still couldn't get it through the chairman at the time. because I was involved with it. So, you know, change history happens, and now we're in the majority, and we're starting to consider new bills. But the bill simply is requiring electronic campaign finance reporting. We can opt in already. I do it electronic. It's very simple. But we require it. It would also eliminate the, I think, unnecessary need, once it's online, To send a copy to the counties which is I think actually a pain but Also with any leftover funding this this last session we started working with a senator a Republican senator who had run statewide and he was interested in including the opportunity for any surplus funds of a campaign to be able to give it to a nonprofit which was kind of tweaked in the amendment he did So I was open to including that in this version as well. I don't know if he introduced it this session, but he had the same bill in the Senate last session. So it would kind of allow an expanded use of surplus funds. I think a pretty user-friendly kind of modern campaign. If there is an issue, somebody just has a deficiency and they cannot file electronically, maybe in their community they don't have the broadband service, they could petition to the Department of State and request kind of a waiver on that. So it's not really a jam on anyone, but I think it's a good bill. Definitely efficient. The amount of money that was spent by the Department of State staff to key punch people who file campaign finance reports, the delay. If you're running against somebody who does it by paper, there is definitely a lag in getting that information. I think it should be much more accessible to the public to know who's giving to us and our opponents. So I think it's a good bill. I encourage all the members to support it. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, sir. Chair Roy?
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to urge a no vote on it. I don't like mandates. Some people are a lot more computer savvy than others. When you look at things that people have to do by the computer, things like, you know, unemployment, you know, barbershop licenses, you know, Just different things. There's really a big push to make everybody do their taxes online. It's hard to find paper tax forms. We have them at our office, but hardly anybody has paper tax forms available for the public to get anymore. Some people are just more comfortable doing things on paper rather than electronically. And I don't know how it would be determined who gets a waiver if you have problems with your computer or Internet service. What if they say no? We think your Internet service is good enough. Do it electronically. What if your treasurer does not know how to use a computer? What if your low-budget campaign, you can't even afford a computer? I just don't think it's a necessary thing. I think eventually over time, most people will probably end up doing it electronically even though it's not mandated. So I just don't see the need to do the legislation. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Representative Diamond.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank Chairman Briggs for bringing this bill forward. I think it is a step in the right direction. I actually don't think this bill goes far enough. I think that we ought to require every candidate for public office to file electronically. And I also believe that we ought to eliminate the reporting dates and we ought to just have the Department of State have a rolling, a rolling kind of like a checking account that anybody can look at and inspect at any time. And, you know, you've got to report everything you do within seven days of receiving it or spending it. And I think that's really the direction we ought to go. As far as people being more comfortable working on paper and not comfortable with the process, look, if you're raising money for your campaign, you're spending that money somehow. If you're raising – you're accounting for that somehow. It's so much easier to do it electronically. and there are too many ways to play games with a paper reporting system to hide finances from your opponents or from the public and I think we just ought to plow forward on this. As far as mandates, we have all sorts of mandates we put on candidates right now. This would just be another one and quite frankly, if you're going to be transcribing data from paper to an electronic form, that burden should not fall on the Commonwealth taxpayer. That burden should fall on the candidate who wants to become a public officer who indeed is going to be using electronic systems in the administration of their duties. So I think this bill doesn't go far enough, but I commend the chairman for bringing it forward. I will be a yes vote.
Representative Waxman. Good morning. Thank you, Chair, and thank you to Chairman Briggs for your work on this bill. I just strongly want to urge a yes vote. I think that this, in my opinion, is a measure of transparency. It's going to allow people to have access, not just candidates, but people who are trying to understand politics and government and why things work the way that they do. It really will give people an opportunity to much faster and during an election have the ability to have that information in front of them. I don't think that it is a tremendous burden on candidates who have voluntarily decided to enter into the political realm. This is not something that is required or that someone has to run for office. That's a choice that people make. And I think if we're going to have people do that, they should be held to a higher standard. and part of that standard can be filing online so that people can see the numbers, the campaign finance information, just as soon as it is available. So I urge a yes vote. I'm looking forward to supporting it.
Thank you, sir.
Representative Walsh. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to ask Representative Briggs, what percentage of people now, if you know, are doing it electronically versus paper? Do you know the...
Yeah, we can ask the Department of State. My recollection 10 years ago when we asked, it was more than half to it electronically now. But we can definitely get updated numbers for you.
Okay, thank you.
Is there any further discussion on the bill as amended? Okay. I'm hearing no. No further discussion. Those in favor of reporting the bill will vote yes. Those opposed, no. Maya, please call the vote.
Chairwoman Hill-Evans.
Yes.
Representatives Boyd. Designation, yes. Brennan. Designation, yes. Davidson. Designation, yes. Green. Genst. Howard. Inglis. Designation, yes. Kenyatta. Designation, yes. Probst. Designation, yes. Sanchez. Yes. Schusterman. Waxman? Yes. Webster? Yes. Chairman Roy? No. Representatives Banta? No. Barger? Bonner? Brown? Designation, no. Diamond? No. Fink? No. Kozak? Designation, no. Schaefer? Wallen? Walsh? Weakneck? Chairwoman, this bill passes a vote of 16 to 10.
And the bill will be reported. Thank you, Chairman Briggs. Next up, we have a call-up House Resolution 452, printer's number 3138. Hannah, please read a summary of the resolution.
House Resolution 452 by Representative Curry would recognize the month of April 2026 as Seek Awareness and Appreciation Month in Pennsylvania. Okay.
I don't see Representative Curry. Representative Curry is there anyone here to speak on behalf of resolution 452? Okay I'm hearing none are there any negative votes on the resolution? Okay Maya would you please call for the vote? Chairwoman Hill Evans. Yes.
Representatives Boyd. Designation yes. Brennan. Designation yes. Davidson. Designation Yes, green against Howard English designation. Yes Kenyatta designation. Yes, Probst designation. Yes, Sanchez Schusterman Waxman Webster Chairman Roy Yes Representatives Banta No Barger Yes by designation Bonner Brown Yes, by designation. Diamond? No. Fink? No. Kozak? Yes, by designation. Schaefer? No. Wallen? Yes. Walsh? No, by designation. Weakneck? Yes. Chairwoman, this bill passes a vote of 23 to 3.
Thank you and the resolution will be reported. The chair now calls up House Resolution 469, Prunters number 3150. Hannah, please read a summary of the resolution.
House Resolution 469 by Representative Cephas would designate April 28, 2026 as Delta Day in Pennsylvania in honor of the members of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority for more than a century of commitment to social activism, academic excellence, and civic engagement. And again, I don't see Representative Cephas.
Is there anyone here on behalf of House Resolution 469? Okay, are there any negative votes on Resolution 469? Okay. Maya, please call for the vote.
Chairwoman Hill Evans.
Yes.
Representatives Boyd. Designation, yes. Brennan. Designation, yes. Davidson. Designation, yes. Green. Yes. Genst. Howard. Inglis. Designation, yes. Kenyatta. Designation, yes. Probst. Designation, yes. Sanchez. Yes. Schusterman. Waxman. Yes. Webster. Yes. Chairman Roy. Yes. Representatives Banta. Barger. Yes, by designation. Bonner. Brown. Yes, by designation. Diamond. Yes. Fink. No. Kozak. Yes, by designation. Schaefer. Wallen. Walsh. No, by designation. Weakneck. Chairwoman, this bill passes a vote of 23 to 3.
Thank you, and the resolution will be reported. That concludes our regular agenda. However, under new business, I'm sorry, under any other business, the chair calls up House Bill 1929, printers number 2428, for the purpose of a motion to re-refer the bill to the Intergovernmental Affairs and Operations Committee. Hannah, would you please read a summary of the bill?
House Bill 1929 by Chairman Diamond would provide for the annual recognition and observance of Charlie Kirkday in Pennsylvania. Will the committee report the bill with the recommendation to re-refer to the Intergovernmental Affairs and Operations Committee?
Is there a discussion on the motion to re-refer? Chair Roy.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is the bill to name Charlie Kirkday. He was killed. He was murdered because of his political beliefs. I think that's just like really, really wrong for somebody to kill somebody because of their political beliefs. and honoring a person who, you know, was just exercising the freedom of speech isn't a bad thing. I think—
Chair Roy?
Yes?
Forgive me.
Yes.
Is there discussion on the motion to re-refer?
This is about the motion to re-refer.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
If we re-refer the bill, that means we can't vote on it in this committee. We could discharge the bill if it won't be called up for a vote, but if we re-refer it to another committee, we're not able to discharge it. And that seems to be a pattern this session. The Democratic majority move in bills to avoid voting on bills. I believe the Intergovernmental Affairs and Operations Committee is best positioned to consider this legislation. And while the Speaker sent it to this committee, I urge a no vote on the re-referral. Thank you.
Is there any other discussion? Representative Diamond.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is actually my bill. And I introduced it and hoped it would be sent to this committee so that we could discuss it in this committee. Not re-refer it to some other committee to kick the can down the road. And I urge a no vote on re-referral.
Representative Schaefer.
I think if you look at my record, I've voted yes on just about every one of the resolutions and bills that have come. I understand it's at the discretion of the majority oftentimes to pick what those bills and resolutions are. But we do seem to cast a wide net in honoring different people. oftentimes people who typically resonate with the left side of the spectrum. And I think this committee, as historically has been done, is the appropriate place for a resolution like this, given the types of resolutions that I voted on in the past on my time in this committee. That's why I'm against a re-referral. Thank you.
Representative Fink.
resolutions is what we do here in state government we we are constantly naming days and claiming days for for whatever reason that seems to be the goal of of state committee this is right where this resolution belongs um it fits in with even just the other two that we just voted on today so re-referring it is just an out for not voting on it and and that in my opinion is just cowardice. We need to take a vote, see where people stand, and carry on. Stop re-referring it and playing political games. This is not a resolution. This is a bill. And this is, we are re-referring the bill, which was not sent to us originally. That was referred to us, and now we are re-referring it back to where it came from.
So, Representative Chair Roy,
you said you wanted to be heard again? Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I misspoke earlier. I had stated the speaker sent the bill to the state government committee. That was incorrect. The speaker actually sent the bill to the tourism committee. and then the tourism committee before the bill could be discharged re-referred it to state government and now before state government can, before we can discharge the bill here and force a vote this motion would send it to the intergovernmental affairs not the committee it came from, it came to tourism, then state government then intergovernmental so I just wanted to make sure the record was correct because I had misspoken that the speaker assigned it here, thank you
That's fine. I still believe that intergovernmental affairs would be more appropriate than state government. And so, is there any further discussion on the motion to re-refer? Okay, those in favor of reporting House Bill 1929 with a recommendation to re-refer will vote yes. Those opposed will vote no. Maya, please call for the vote.
Chairwoman Hill Evans.
Yes.
Representatives Boyd. designation yes Brennan designation yes Davidson designation yes green designation yes against Howard Inglis designation yes Kenyatta designation yes Probst designation yes Sanchez Schusterman designation yes Waxman Webster. Chairman Roy.
No.
Representatives Banta. No by designation. Barger. No by designation. Bonner. No by designation. Brown. No by designation. Diamond. No. Fink. No. Kozak. No by designation. Schaefer. No. Wallen. No. Walsh. No by designation. Weakneck. No. Chairwoman, this bill passes a vote of 14 to 12 and is re-referred to the Intergovernmental Committee.
Thank you so much. Seeing no further business, I move that the State Government Committee be adjourned.