HARRISBURG (TNS) — A new survey of Pennsylvania voters shows widespread support for some of the most central — and controversial — planks of an election reform bill drafted by House State Government Committee Chairman Seth Grove, R- Spring Grove.
The latest Franklin & Marshall College Poll showed big majorities of respondents leaning in favor of signature matching for mail-in ballots (81 percent) and ongoing photo identification requirements (74 percent).
The data represent the responses of 444 registered Pennsylvania voters, who were interviewed by telephone or online between June 7-13
Under current state law, only voters who are making their first trip to a specific precinct are required to show identification. Grove’s bill would apply that requirement to everybody who votes in person, each time they turn out.
Under Grove’s bill, all voters choosing to vote in person would be required to produce a driver’s license, or a PennDOT-issued non-license photo ID, or a free Department of State voter identification card, or a free county-issued scannable, durable voter registration card. Or a voter could sign an affidavit affirming their identity under penalty of perjury.
Grove’s bill contains a robust signature verification system for mail-in ballots, too. It would require counties to subject all received ballots to an automated verification program set to accept every ballot with a signature confidence score of 50 percent or more. Ballots that are kicked out would then by reviewed manually by elections judges who have been trained in handwriting analysis.
Voters were much more divided on a question about the outright elimination of no-excuse voting by mail, a feature that was first introduced in Pennsylvania in 2020. There, the overall results showed 46 percent of respondents want the general mail-in balloting to continue, while 45 percent said they’d like to see it eliminated.
Grove’s bill keeps no-excuse voting by mail in Pennsylvania, while setting new rules for the use of ballot-only drop boxes, making direct outreach to voters whose mail-in ballots have issues that would prevent them from being counted, and ending the application period for mail-in ballots at 15 days before Election Day, as opposed to the current seven days.
Tuesday’s vote to advance Grove’s bill to the House floor was split on party lines. That could ultimately spell trouble in the face of promises by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf of a veto of any voter ID-style provisions, which Wolf and most of his Democratic allies in the Legislature argue smack of voter suppression.
House Republicans expect to put Grove’s bill on the House floor next week.
It would then go the state Senate, where its immediate future is less certain in a week that will also likely feature a major push to finalize the state’s general fund budget for 2021-22.
Senate sources said Wednesday that the majority Republicans, who control the calendar, are committed to discussing the issue, but it’s hard to tell, in advance of that discussion, whether the caucus will try to push something as sweeping as Grove’s bill, or scale it back to less-controversial issues like expanded pre-canvassing and continue negotiations on the more controversial stuff.
CORONAVIRUS LESS WORRISOME
Among other findings, the poll showed that declining case counts here and around the country and widespread availability of effective vaccines have drastically reduced respondents’ level of concern about the coronavirus pandemic.
Where it had consistently been rated as “the most important problem facing Pennsylvania” since earning a spot in the question last summer, in last week’s polling only 7 percent of respondents labelled it such, down from 31 percent in March. The pandemic now ranks below the quality of government performance and politicians, unemployment and personal finances, and tax rates as an issue of concern.
But while pandemic fears are fading, poll director Berwood Yost noted that there has not been a corresponding bump in Pennsylvanians’ feeling about where their state is headed, or in their job approval ratings for Wolf.
Fifty-five percent of poll respondents said they feel “things are off on the wrong track” in Pennsylvania, a level not seen since the winter of 2016, when Wolf was locked in an epic budget deadlock with legislative Republicans that had stopped the flow of state funding to many human service non-profits across the state.
Only 35 percent of respondents felt things are generally headed in the right direction.
Wolf’s job approval has also taken a clear hit from the pandemic, with only 39 percent rating his work as excellent (10 percent) or good (29 percent), down from a strong 52 percent last July. A full 60 percent of respondents said they rate the governor’s work as fair (23 percent), or poor (37 percent).
Wolf, who is now in the final two years of his second term, is barred by the state Constitution from seeking a third.
The poll continues to show the sharp polarization between Democrats and Republicans, no matter the issue.
On voter ID requirements, 95% of respondents who identified as Republican were in favor of tougher requirements, as opposed to just 47 percent of Democrats. Seventy-seven percent of self-described independents also weighed in support of voter ID.
Wolf scored a 70 percent job approval rating among Democrats, but only 10 percent among Republicans.
OTHER ISSUES
Fifty-six percent of poll respondents said they strongly (42%) or somewhat (14%) favored the idea of creating more laws that regulate gun ownership in Pennsylvania, while a combined 42% strongly (29%) or somewhat (13%) opposed that notion.
On the climate, 62% of respondents said Pennsylvania should definitely (42%) or probably (20%) do more to address climate change, though the majorities got a little smaller when pollsters asked about specifically policy objectives.
Asked if they favored President Joe Biden’s stated requirement that every state generate all of its electric power through fuels that produce zero carbon emissions by 2035, 53% of respondents said they could get behind that goal, while 45% said they strongly (35%) or somewhat (10%) opposed the president’s target.
— Partriot-News (TNS)
