DV Journal

(This article first appeared in Broad & Liberty.)

For at least a year or more, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has been changing people’s voter registration information whenever someone registers a vehicle, according to a recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling on election issues. In most cases, the address for voter registration information is the same as the vehicle registration, so no changes are necessary. But in that small percentage of cases in which a person might have multiple domiciles or might be moving, the change could cause havoc for some voters.

Last week the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a ruling on election law that made headlines because it dealt with the much debated signature requirement for mail-in ballots, a decision that could impact some races this November.

But an underreported element of the Supreme Court’s ruling also detailed how PennDOT automatically changed a Butler Township citizen’s voter registration when he registered a vehicle using an address that was his second residence in a different county, but still not his primary residence.

The court’s majority opinion authored by Justice Sallie Updyke Mundy gives a concise explanation of the circumstances:

“[Shane] O’Donnell testified that he appeared at his polling place in Butler Township, Luzerne County on election day but the poll workers could not find his name on the voter list. They let him vote by provisional ballot because he had previously voted in the district. O’Donnell had purchased a home in McAdoo in June 2023, but he resided with his mother and brother in Butler Township from that point until March 29, 2024, while his new home underwent renovations. O’Donnell noted he had changed the address for his vehicle registration in December 2023, and he expressed that PennDOT must have made the change to his voter registration at that time.”

In a concurring opinion by Justice David N. Wecht, that change to PennDOT’s registration system happened sometime in the summer of 2023.

“That change requires persons registering vehicles to opt out of concurrent updates of their voter registration. Absent affirmative opt-out selections, the voter’s address is now updated to that at which the vehicle is being registered,” Wecht noted.

In their separate opinions, both Mundy and Wecht expressed serious concerns about the new practices.

Although it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when PennDOT began these changes, they seem to have been joined to Governor Shapiro’s decision one year ago to implement “automatic voter registration (AVR)” for “residents obtaining driver licenses and ID cards at Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) driver and photo license centers.”

Previously, persons applying for a Pennsylvania driver’s license or ID card could “opt in” for voter registration by checking a box on the application form. But with Shapiro’s executive order, the voter now had to check an “opt out” box if they did not want to register to vote at the same time as getting a license or ID.

The same methodology appears to now apply to vehicle registration.

Sen. Cris Dush (R – Jefferson), who chairs the senate state government committee, has been opposed to Shapiro’s AVR change last year, saying it was an illegal overreach by the executive branch. He seems to be even more opposed now that he has learned the changes extend to vehicle registrations.

“This is a very unusual situation for me when I’m agreeing with Justice Wecht on election issues where he says that ‘We are called upon to decide whether the election code really means what it says.’ Duh! It does mean what it says, and we’ve never given the executive branch the authority to do this, whether it’s the Department of State or the Department of Transportation or the two of them working in conjunction with one another,” Dush said.

“We have definitions under the law. The election code is probably one of the most precise bodies of legislation and it’s specifically designed to protect the election process from being manipulated because it is the ultimate choice of the electors as to who they want to select to hold positions of authority. And when you have individuals in the executive branch — which are literally and figuratively under the law in our constitution — changing the law, that’s an issue,” Dush added.

The senator’s frustrations seem to be shared by many members of the court.

“Although PennDOT’s rogue transfer of voter registration in this case ultimately did not deprive O’Donnell of the right to vote, it would be troubling if PennDOT has a practice of making such a transfer without statutory authorization, or even the voter’s consent,” Justice Wecht wrote.

“Any administrative decision by PennDOT or the Pennsylvania Department of State to transfer an elector’s voter registration without that person’s affirmative consent in conjunction with a PennDOT application to change a vehicle registration, as opposed to a driver’s license, is therefore of questionable validity, particularly where, as here, no party has identified a valid administrative regulation authorizing such action,” Justice Mundy said.

Since Shapiro’s AVR decision which will turn one year old on Thursday, about 55,000 more voters have been registered compared to a September-to-September comparison from the year before when voters still had to opt in.

The current paper/printable vehicle registration form does not indicate anything about voter registration. Meanwhile, a PennDOT “change of address” vehicle registration form has opt-in and opt-out boxes available. Yet other documents, such as this “statement of non-ownership of vehicle(s)” and this “out of state address/photo exemption” form clearly show that the forms will automatically trigger updates to voter registration unless the user checks the “opt out” box.

Although Republicans have expressed some heartburn about the AVR decision and Democrats have generally cheered it, the change seems to have benefited Republicans more. Statistics from the Pennsylvania Department of State show about 4,900 more Republicans have registered via AVR than Democrats. New registrations for independent voters still outpaced both parties through the same time period.

Despite the partisan advantage in his favor, Dush says the Republican tilt hasn’t changed his mind.

“From my understanding, the Republicans have benefited from this, but that’s not my point. The rule of law has to stand,” Dush said.

Requests for comment sent to the Governor’s Office, the Department of State, and PennDot, were not returned by the publishing deadline. If comment is provided later, it will be added.

(Editor’s note: The original version of this article said “PennDOT automatically changed a Butler County citizen’s voter registration…” when it should have said Butler Township. The article has been changed to reflect that information.)

Delaware Valley U.S. Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Chester) and Madeleine Dean (D-Montgomery) are celebrating the billions of federal dollars the new bipartisan infrastructure bill will bring to Pennsylvania. And they reject the argument that trillions in new federal spending will add to the nation’s rising inflation problems.

“This [spending] is the answer to that problem,” Houlahan said.

The two Democrats held a press conference with local officials at the Paoli Train station on Saturday to tout the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, now signed into law.

“As a former teacher and engineer, I’m a particularly grade and data-driven person,” said Houlahan. “Pennsylvania now has a grade of C minus for roads and bridges and a grade of D for inlands waterways, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers report card, she said. “And those grades are simply unacceptable. And the data show that must change and we must make changes for safety and for a better way of life.”

The IIJ Act, sometimes referred to as the “bipartisan infrastructure bill,” will provide $11 billion for highways in Pennsylvania; $1.6 billion for bridge replacement and repairs over the next five years; $2.8 for the Amtrak corridor that serves the Delaware Valley region; and $5 billion in grants for rail safety.

“These historic investments will transform our nation and this region so we can better meet the demands of the 21st century with upgraded roads, bridges, modernized transportation, clean drinking water and reliable internet access,” said Dean.  The act includes $18 billion for the commonwealth, she said. There is also $244 million to help low income families with weatherizing their homes and $355 million for airport improvements.

And, Houlahan added, the funding will help area communities “ravaged” by flooding from Hurricane Ida last summer. The act provides money to rebuild, along with mitigation to prevent future flooding.

Polling shows Americans in general and Pennsylvanians in particular are more worried about rising inflation than they are the state of roads and rail. The Consumer Price Index reached a 6.8 percent annual rate in November, the highest since June 1982. Just days before Saturday’s presser, the Producer Price Index numbers were released “showing the biggest annual gain since the series was revamped 11 years ago,” according to Reuters.

Asked about the impact of this spending on inflation, Houlahan denied there was a problem.

“Well, I think this is actually the exact opposite of that concern,” she said. “We have an issue with inflation right now and we need to be attentive to it. But we also have an issue where we need to be creating jobs and opportunity for people. Where we need to be able to provide pathways literal and figuratively to be able to create those jobs and opportunities to be able to expand…This is the answer to that problem.”

Polls show most Americans don’t agree. A new Fox Business poll released last week found 47 percent of Americans believe the Biden administration’s policies are  “hurting” the country’s ability to fight inflation. And 46 percent say the Build Back Better social spending bill Dean and Houlahan helped pass last month will just drive inflation even higher.

DVJournal also asked about the infrastructure bill’s spending on electric vehicles (EVs), whose production is reliant on rare earth metals like lithium and cobalt. China is the dominant processer of these elements and, critics say, would overwhelmingly benefit from spending on green tech like EVs.

Houlahan said that as a former chemistry teacher, “I geek out on the periodic table and I serve on the armed services committee and actually passed a lot of legislation on rare earth elements.”

She called the term “rare earth” a “misnomer,” saying those minerals are everywhere but “China, amongst others, has a pretty big corner on the market on those processes and that mining, because it is also a very dirty process. And this is something understandably that here in the United States, we are more reticent to do. We do have a lot of work that needs to be done on rare earth elements. We need to become less reliant on China.”

Houlahan said she plans a trip to Australia, Japan, and South Korea to investigate how those countries deal with China and are able to “to diversify their reliance on rare earth elements and their reliance on China. That being said, we can’t walk away from the importance of electric vehicles.”

State Secretary of Transportation Yassmin Gramian, who attended the press conference, discussed how the increase in electric vehicles has decreased the state’s revenue from the gasoline taxes that funds road and bridge repairs.

Gramian said the new act provides the largest amount of funds earmarked for transportation since the Eisenhower administration.

“We have unmet needs of $8.1 billion annually in our highway and bridge program,” said Gramian. “And $9.3 billion altogether for all modes of transportation,” Gramian said. “We are so excited to see more electric vehicles on the road, we are so excited to see that the cars are becoming efficient…But that has really, truly impacted the revenue that’s been generated for our transportation system.

“Seventy-eight percent of our revenue for highways and bridges comes from gas taxes and it’s been going down month after month to the tune of $15 to $10 million. Last year around this time, we came very close to shutting down our transportation projects. We were down in our revenue by $600 million. We did not have enough cash to pay for our construction projects and pay our bills. That’s how bad the situation was at PennDOT because we are so much relying on gas taxes.”

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They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but at least it’s paved. Pennsylvania can’t say the same as drivers try to navigate some of its most dangerous, pothole-ridden thoroughfares.

With more than 120,000 miles of roadways, roughly one-third maintained by the state’s transportation agency, PennDOT, the Keystone State is home to the “most dangerous intersection in America” — a dubious distinction handed out years ago to the corner of Street and Knights roads in Bensalem by Time Magazine.

Adding to those troubles, a recent survey rated Pennsylvania’s highway system among the nation’s worst

Pennsylvania was bottom 20 in nearly all 13 categories of the survey, including 45th and 46th in urbanized area congestion and structurally deficient bridges. Fifteen percent of the state’s bridges need major repairs —a figure that’s worse than New York, which has 6 million more residents.

Drivers hope the $13 billion Pennsylvania is getting as part of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill recently signed by President Joe Biden helps shore up the problems, but it may take some time before backhoes hit the ground.

Crash Data

The state last year had its fewest number of auto crashes since 1950, according to PennDOT, but public safety experts pointed out that figure was likely skewed because of a steep reduction in driving during the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, there were more than 20,000 fewer crashes than in 2019, but more people died on the roads (1,129) than in the preceding year (1,059), which was when the state recorded its lowest-ever fatality rate.

Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties combined for 140, or 12 percent, of those deaths in 2020.

Some of the most notorious roadways in the Delaware Valley region include U.S. Route 1, Interstate-95, Route 3, Street Road and an otherwise nondescript intersection in Delaware County that was the site of a fatal crash earlier this year that claimed two lives.

Over a five-year period, beginning in 2016, 55 people died in more than 8.200 crashes on I-95, a 44-mile stretch winding from Marcus Hook Borough in Delaware County to Bristol in Bucks County.

Route 3, running from West Chester to Philadelphia, had 1,665 crashes, including 14 that were fatal. On the 81-mile U.S. Route 1, drivers suffered 1,065 crashes, including nine that were fatal, over the same period.

In Bensalem, Street Road  — which is traversed by at least 36,000 vehicles daily — had 818 crashes and nine fatalities during the same timeframe. The infamous intersection of Street and Knights roads, dotted by big-box chains and a Subway sandwich shop, accounted for 52 of those crashes, with at least three resulting in serious injuries during that five-year period.  It was the site of seven fatalities over a 10-year time period from 2003-2012, according to Time Magazine.

Despite the numbers, Bensalem’s top public safety official, Bucks County Sheriff-elect Fred Harran, says he believes the “most dangerous intersection in America” moniker is misleading.

He cited problems with jaywalkers and speeders, adding enforcement has been stepped up over the years to reduce problems at the intersection, which is maintained by the state. Harran said “95 percent” of all accidents there could be avoided if people “followed all the rules of the road.”

“People need to cross at the green not in between,” Harran said, as data show six of the crashes involved pedestrians. “There’s issues trying to beat the light, turning on the red.”

In Chester, a father of three and a passenger were killed on the way back from a comedy show in August, when their vehicle slammed into a home at the intersection of Penn and 2nd streets. The crash left a gaping hole in the building, and the woman who lives there told reporters her house had been hit six times over the years.

PennDOT data shows at least three crashes at the intersection in 2018 and 2020, including two resulting in serious injuries.  Chester’s public safety director did not respond to multiple phone calls seeking comment about that troubled intersection.

Pothole Patrol

Potholes pose another big risk as they make road conditions dangerous and are costly to fix with the state shelling out more than $63 million on them in 2018.  PennDOT targeted potholes on 65 state routes this year, and nearly three-quarters of them were in Bucks, Montgomery. Chester and Delaware counties.

Potholes form when water seeps into the soil beneath a roadway’s surface and freezes as temperatures drop. The ground expands and pushes up the pavement and a cavity forms between the pavement and the ground once the frozen water melts.

Last winter, maintenance crews used more than 30,000 tons of asphalt to patch potholes and seal cracks in the pavement along 335 miles of highway in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties, a PennDOT spokeswoman said.

The agency received more than 6,000 complaints about potholes in those counties in 2021, up 120 percent from last year. To report a pothole call 1-800-FIX-ROAD or visit www.penndot.gov and click on “Submit Roadway Feedback.”

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