The new state budget resolves one problem that arose during the volatile 2020 election season. But because Republican lawmakers know a politically useful bogeyman when they see one, the budget preserves and even worsens another election problem.

After lawmakers in 2020 declined to give county election offices the money they needed to prepare for an anticipated record turnout and to prepare for a tsunami of mailed ballots due to a new law, some of those offices obtained grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Many of the very same lawmakers who declined to provide the needed funding erupted in outrage over what they characterized as undue outside influence over state elections.

The recently based $45 billion state budget includes a $45 million increase for county election administration. That would be all to the good except that it requires county election offices who want the money to agree to provisions that directly contradict what county election officials of both parties say they need to ensure an efficient and timely process.

It took five days to declare Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania because the Legislature had refused to allow county election offices to “precanvass” mailed ballots — that is, open and verify them prior to Election Day so that they could be quickly counted on Election Day.

}President Donald Trump and his acolytes in the state Legislature used the five-day delay as part of the “big lie,” to claim that slow count proved fraud leading to Trump’s loss.

To preserve the ability to cry “foul” when there is none, Republican lawmakers who hold majorities in both houses have preserved the prohibition against precanvassing, ensuring needlessly slow counts.

Worse, they have passed a provision requiring local offices to tabulate around the clock until the counts are complete, which will require many offices to consume their additional state funding by hiring and training more staff.

County election offices actually conduct elections, with guidance from the state Department of State. Legislators should provide those offices with what they need to conduct efficient, fair and accurate elections, rather than manipulating the system for their own political advantage.

— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre, via TNS