The voting rights group Fair Election Fund awarded Pennsylvania a grade of C- for how it conducts elections.
The group found that the current decentralized system is not uniform across all 67 counties. For example, in some counties, voters can fix or “cure” defective ballots so they count. In others, they cannot.
“The Pennsylvania Department of State has suggested that counties can reject mail-in ballots based on signature analysis, but they can also alert voters to ballot defects and allow provisional ballots to be cast at polling places,” the Fair Election report said. “In other words, whether curing is permitted is at the discretion of the county. This lack of uniformity across counties has led to confusion and inconsistent treatment of voters, undermining the credibility of the system.”
How election workers transport ballots also varies from county to county, and procedures for drop boxes differ.
After the 2024 election, when Democratic Sen. Bob Casey refused to concede to his Republican opponent Dave McCormick, the Republican Party filed a lawsuit against the Bucks County Board of Elections because that entity had counted 405 undated or misdated ballots. The result was a consent decree not to count those ballots based on an earlier state Supreme Court ruling on “this very issue,” the report noted.
In addition, there has been documented voter fraud.
This year, three Delaware County politicians pleaded guilty in federal court to election fraud in 2021. In 2024, a man who had registered to vote and voted in both Philadelphia and Montgomery County in the 2020 election pleaded guilty.
A Philadelphia man impersonated a letter carrier, had mailbox keys, and a postal inspector found 15 undelivered mail-in ballots in his apartment.
Finally, the report cites former U.S. Congressman Michael “Ozzie” Myers, who was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $100,000 for a conspiracy to falsify voting records and stuff ballot boxes in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018.
The report criticized the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system, calling it “slow, outdated, and expensive.” However, it noted that the state plans to replace it by 2028.
The Fair Election report slams the lack of voter ID requirements and the potential for non-citizen voting.
A “glitch” by the state Department of Transportation allowed people who are not eligible, such as green card holders, to register to vote when they obtained a driver’s license.
Fair Election suggests that voters should show a driver’s license, other government-issued ID, or passport to vote.
“Stricter standards would not only improve the quality of the voter registration list but also help secure the election process by reducing the risk of voter fraud,” the report said. Fair also noted that the system is slow to remove deceased voters from voter rolls.
Mail-in ballots have become popular, but that has strained the system, the Fair Election report said. With so many mail-in ballots to count, election workers cannot open them until 7 a.m. on Election Day. Additionally, there have been disputes over counting mail-in ballots that arrive after the allowed date, leading to court battles.
These weaknesses await legislative fixes. The Fair report also faults Secretary of State Al Schmidt, giving him a C- for leadership.
“Although Fair Election Fund has not located any evidence that Secretary Schmidt has directly or blatantly disregarded Pennsylvania’s election laws, he has been accused of manipulating the enforcement of certain election regulations. Leadership in Pennsylvania has been lacking in addressing the inconsistencies and challenges in the election process,” the report said.
“The lack of uniformity in election procedures, combined with the challenges posed by mail-in voting and inconsistent ballot curing processes, has cast doubt on Pennsylvania’s election integrity,” the report said.
However, one critic lambasted the Fair Election report.
“While I applaud interest in election integrity, which is my passion, voters should disregard the Fair Election Fund Report,” Philadelphia election lawyer Linda Kerns told DVJournal. “Many of these misleading ‘reports’ have been cropping up from groups long on enthusiasm but lacking in even a basic understanding of the law. The report conflates mail-ballot and in-person voting processes, resulting in a confusing and inaccurate analysis. It is replete with incorrect statute citations and erroneous interpretations of case law. It even cites and quotes a Pennsylvania statute found unconstitutional in 2014. I doubt the author has any formal legal training, and if they do, they should approach their law school for a refund. Publishing and promoting this type of misleading diatribe, with an arbitrary letter grading system, only discourages and confuses voters and ultimately suppresses voter participation.
“Pennsylvania’s Election Code is in dire need of reform, and the Shapiro administration’s policies make things even worse—on these two subjects, I agree with the author,” Kerns added. “I ask voters to be critical thinkers and beware of groups disseminating what I refer to as ‘election junk science.'”
The Department of State declined to comment.