This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. Sign up for Votebeat's free newsletters here.
In 2020, Pennsylvania’s elections were facing a major crisis. The presidential primary was set for April 28, but the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing, restricting travel and complicating in-person activities — such as voting.
So the state legislature came up with a solution. In a unanimous vote in both chambers, the primary was moved to June and, simultaneously, the state created a new bipartisan body meant to review and recommend changes to Pennsylvania’s near-century-old election law.
The Election Law Advisory Board, as it is called, was heralded at the time as a way to thoughtfully reform the state’s elections. But six years later, the board has fallen into a state of disuse, in part because Gov. Josh Shapiro has so far failed to fill seven seats he's responsible for. The board has not met in nearly three years, even as county election officials are still clamoring for changes to the state’s outdated, contradictory election code.
The Election Law Advisory Board initially seemed promising
The idea of a board to advise the legislature on Pennsylvania election law was first born out of a 2017 report on the state’s aging voting equipment. When Republican state Sen. Elder Vogel introduced the bill that was signed in 2020, he told the Beaver County Times that the board was designed to provide the legislature with a road map to enacting election reform.
The board was designed to be bipartisan, bicameral, and representative of the entire state, and to include critical voices in the voting space, such as advocates and county officials. It is composed of majority and minority members from each legislative chamber, a representative from the Pennsylvania Department of State, and one member from each federal congressional district appointed by the governor.
The board met a dozen times in its first two and a half years, discussing everything from processing mail ballots to standardizing training for election workers.
“Back three years ago, when we were getting together and working, we were coming up with bipartisan solutions,” Joe Kantz, a Republican county commissioner and the current vice chair of the board, said.
To be sure, Kantz said, there was disagreement between the members on the issues, “but we found ways to work together in a time when we often see Harrisburg not working together."
The yearly reports produced by the board offered tangible solutions to election law issues. For example, after the 2020 election, the state took several days to report unofficial results due to counties’ inability to pre-canvass, or prepare mail ballots for counting beforehand. The board’s first report recommended 14 days of pre-canvassing and provided language for the legislature to pass.
“The amendments would allow election results to be known within hours, rather than days, of the conclusion of in-person voting on election day,” the report said.
In 2022, the board suggested amending state law so that sources other than the Pennsylvania Department of Health or obituaries could be used to remove dead voters from the rolls; the following year, it recommended prohibiting counties from rejecting mail ballots for lacking a date on the exterior envelope, a requirement that has tripped up many voters and remains mired in litigation.
Shapiro has left 7 Election Law Advisory Board seats vacant
While statutorily mandated yearly reports are still being produced, the Election Law Advisory Board hasn’t met since September 2023. Part of the reason is that seven congressional districts are lacking a gubernatorial appointee.
According to emails obtained by Votebeat and Spotlight PA, in October 2024, Kantz emailed an official from the Joint State Government Commission, which oversees the board, to inquire about the status of the appointments and express his dismay that the board wasn’t meeting in a presidential election year.
“We have done all we can on our end to remind the Governor’s Office that we are awaiting the appointment of new members,” Yvonne Hursh, the commission’s counsel, wrote back. She added that the executive nominations calendar, which tracks gubernatorial appointments awaiting Senate confirmation, had “placeholder names” in the open positions.
Many of those same placeholder nominees remain on the current calendar, and others listed as Election Law Advisory Board nominees are also nominated to several other positions, suggesting they may also be placeholders.
Kantz said that the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania also raised the issue directly with Shapiro in a meeting earlier this year.
“I know what it’s like to make appointments,” Kantz said. “I know it's not easy to find people that want to be on a board, but I don't think that's an issue here. I think there is some level of prestige, pride in being on a board that's been created by the [legislature] to do what we do. Everyone knows how important it is.”
Hursh said her understanding is that the governor is “actively seeking new appointees.”
A spokesperson for the governor’s office did not answer a question about the status of finding appointees, but said the Department of State works closely with stakeholders to provide guidance and make improvements to the voting process.
“The Shapiro Administration is constantly engaging with and listening to election stakeholders and has a team of experienced professionals who work full-time to ensure elections in Pennsylvania are free, fair, safe, and secure,” Rosie Lapowsky, the governor’s press secretary, said.
According to Hursh, the vacancies have made it difficult for the board to convene. Board meetings require a quorum of at least 11 members, she said, and although 15 members are currently active, that doesn’t leave much room for absences.
“All of our members are busy people, and it is always difficult to find [a] date where we can be sure of enough attendance,” she said via email. “We have been very uncomfortable with trying to schedule a meeting, rearranging people's schedules and prepping materials for a meeting that may fall apart due to a lack of a quorum at the last minute.”
The law that established the board says that a quorum is a “majority of appointed members,” raising the possibility that a majority of sitting board members would be sufficient. But Hursh said that the board follows a legislative rule which says the “majority of the membership” constitutes a quorum.
“The majority definition that would not count vacancies would give 8 out of 22 positions the power to convene meetings and make decisions,” she said in an email. “We do not believe that outcome was the intent of the legislature, given that the overall intent of requiring a quorum is to ensure that a body’s decisions are not made by a small, potentially unrepresentative group.”
The board has also said in recent reports that the missing members aren’t just a concern for forming a quorum, but also because they feel it is “unwise” to convene and debate issues with so many parts of the state not represented.
Christina Iacono, a Democrat appointed to the board from the 5th Congressional District and a former poll worker coordinator for Delaware County, agreed that the board was doing good work and was frustrated that the board hasn’t met recently.
Even though the legislature hasn’t passed any of the board’s recommendations, Iacono said it still has value in informing the proposals lawmakers do introduce and providing non-legislative readers, like judges, with detailed information on how elections work directly from officials involved in making them happen.
“I would hope the legislature will eventually look at what we have created,” she said. “Everyone in government has a tough job, and I do think partisanship gets in the way of many things getting done, but I think overall having a group that gets together that puts together guidance is a good thing.”
Hursh said the Joint State Government Commission is “uncomfortable with the amount of time that has elapsed since the group last met” and is hoping to schedule a meeting for the fall, but so far it hasn’t been able to find a date that works for the remaining members.
Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@votebeat.org.