HARRISBURG, Pa. — On March 15, a bipartisan state senate panel will meet for the first time to discuss the 2020 election.
The committee is made up of nine members, five republican senators and four democratic senators. All committee members roles were appointed by their respective senate leadership.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman introduced a resolution in December to form this committee after what he called an "exhaustive" 2020 general election.
In this past election cycle, there were many issues surrounding mail-in voting that made its way to the PA Supreme Court. Some of those issues included what makes a mail-in ballot valid or invalid. The Pa. Supreme Court ruled counties can not reject ballots solely because the voter's signature did not match what was on file in the registration database. Another issue was when counties could begin the process of pre-canvassing and counting those votes. Many election officials asked for more time to pre-canvass ballots ahead of the election, afraid the high volume of mail-in ballots would take them days to get through and therefore delay election results.
Some of the issues the committee will focus on include:
- The security of the vote before, during and after Election Day;
- The accuracy and security of the election process, particularly during the pre-canvassing and canvassing stages;
- The uniformity of the election processes across the Commonwealth;
- The role branches of government play in the election process;
- And other election related issues that may come before the Committee.
This committee meeting will begin at 10am Monday. You can watch the committee meeting here.