After narrowly passing the Pennsylvania House along party lines, the election omnibus bill faces an uphill battle in the Pa. Senate while missing key voter ID requirements that could garner GOP support.
Pennsylvania House Democrats passed a sweeping overhaul of the state’s election laws in a razor-thin 102-101 vote Tuesday night, progressing major changes to voting access while sidelining GOP-championed voter ID requirements.
House Bill 1396, sponsored by Democratic House Speaker Joanna McClinton, would cement in-person early voting, mandate drop boxes for mail-in ballots, and expand the time range for processing mail-in ballots prior to Election Day. While McClinton characterized the bill as “modernizing” elections in the Commonwealth, her Republican colleagues argue the legislation ignores stakeholder feedback and would cost taxpayers more than advertised.
“This 98-page bill was rushed to prime time with only about a week elapsing from introduction to final passage by the House,” explained Rep. Brad Roae, minority chair of the House State Government Committee, in a press release.
Roae added that some provisions in the bill would facilitate ballot harvesting, such as allowing caregivers to “help” patients fill out their ballots and subsequently take them to a drop box and make it easier to commit mail-in election fraud.
“I am very concerned with the permanent mail-in ballot list provision in the bill,” Roae stated. “When people move out of Pennsylvania, their last known Pennsylvania address would indefinitely continue to get ballots every election, and the new occupants of the residences could fraudulently complete and mail back those ballots.”
Rep. Doyle Heffley echoed Roae’s concerns, calling HB 1396 “ripe for voter fraud” and asserting that the democratic caucus did not include a voter ID provision in the bill because “they don’t want election integrity.”
"It's ripe for voter fraud." –@RepHeffleyPA
HB1396 expands the opportunities for election cheating while providing no accountability.
Full episode: https://t.co/II1itpiq0b pic.twitter.com/USDdMkMrbe
— PA House Republicans 🇺🇸 (@PAHouseGOP) May 14, 2025
HB 1396 will now be sent to the Pa. Senate, where it faces an uncertain future while the two legislative chambers, controlled by opposing political parties, also attempt to negotiate a new state budget before the end of the fiscal year.
Though Sen. Cris Dush, who chairs the Senate State Government Committee, has previously called voter ID his top priority, Senate leadership maintains that such a measure must be implemented via a constitutional amendment rather than through the legislative process.
Election officials across the state are also watching closely, with some raising flags about issues in the House bill and imploring legislators to consult with election experts before the bill reaches its final form.
“We can tell them what is going to be a pitfall, what is going to be problematic, and what items are totally impossible, such as the idea that there is equipment that does not count or tabulate,” explained Jim Allen, elections director for Delaware County. “I’m not aware of any election officials being consulted on this, that’s the conversation that has occurred.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office has thus far offered only tentative public support for HB 1396, with a spokesperson insisting the governor cares about “enfranchising voters” and that his team “will continue working with both legislative chambers toward bipartisan reforms that protect our democratic process for all eligible Pennsylvanians.”
