Officials in Pennsylvania—a perennial swing state—along with officials in about a dozen other states, recently received a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) inquiring about how each state ensures that only eligible voters are allowed to vote.
The DOJ letter, addressed to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, asked him to outline how the commonwealth complies with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), specifically its “list maintenance obligations as part of the uniform statewide database requirements.” The letter included 14 questions, including how new voter registrations are processed, how the voter list is coordinated with other state databases, and what procedures are used to remove duplicate registrations.
In response, Schmidt submitted an 11-page letter, noting that it is Pennsylvania’s 67 counties—not the state—that are responsible for maintaining voter rolls. However, he wrote, “The Pennsylvania Department of State works diligently with these 67 counties to help ensure that all electoral processes are fully compliant with federal and Pennsylvania laws, including HAVA.”
Voter lists are maintained on a computerized platform known as the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system, which assigns unique numbers to each new voter.
“County registration commissions have the sole authority to cancel registrations of deceased electors,” Schmidt wrote. Counties use information from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, obituaries, and “other sources as permitted by the Pennsylvania voter registration law.”
Counties also send notices to voters who have not voted or had any contact with election officials in five years. These voters are marked as inactive and are then removed from the rolls if there is no further contact before the second subsequent federal election. The commonwealth is also a member of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a multi-state partnership that helps identify voters who have moved out of state.
Pennsylvania is planning to spend $10.6 million to modernize its voter registration system. Schmidt told DVJournal in March that the current SURE system is more than 20 years old.
“It’s somewhat antiquated—like having an iPhone from 2003,” he said at the time. “You don’t want to change, but at some point, you’ve got to.”
Philadelphia election attorney Linda Kerns said the state could do a better job maintaining accurate voter rolls.
“In Pennsylvania, voter registrations and voter list maintenance are handled locally in each of the 67 counties—not by the secretary of state. Even if you register to vote on the secretary of state’s website portal, that information is processed at the county level,” Kerns explained.
“That said, any attention brought to this issue is a good thing because we need to do a much better job in Pennsylvania on our voter rolls. If the Shapiro administration spent less time on its silly social media videos and more time on policies that encouraged and supported the counties to maintain clean voter rolls, we would be in a better position.”
Republican voter registration advocate Scott Presler also took note of the DOJ letter, referencing it in a social media post.
“Dear @PAStateDept, Have you complied with the Department of Justice yet? Are you following all federal laws concerning cleaning the Pennsylvania voter rolls in accordance with HAVA? Every week, we are diligently watching the data.”
Asked for comment, Presler told DVJournal, “I just want to make sure the Pennsylvania Department of State is following all federal laws concerning HAVA and the NVRA (National Voter Registration Act of 1993) to ensure voter rolls are cleared in a timely manner.”
Kerns added, “The Trump administration’s focus on this issue is a refreshing change of pace from the Biden administration’s refusal to address any voter roll problems.”