HARRISBURG — The state’s top elections official said Pennsylvania has seen a “pretty significant increase” of about 65% in voter registration applications since Gov. Josh Shapiro’s implementation of automatic voter registration at PennDOT centers in September.
Al Schmidt, who has been secretary of state since Shapiro took office in January, also told lawmakers at the Senate State Government Committee hearing Tuesday that both the 2023 primary and general elections went smoothly except for some isolated, county-specific problems. His comments came exactly 19 weeks before the scheduled date for Pennsylvania’s 2024 presidential primary.
Schmidt’s appearance before the Republican-led committee was largely free of the partisan friction that often was evident during similar legislative appearances by election administrators during Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s tenure. Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, ascertained through questions that Schmidt, a former Philadelphia elections official, remains a Republican — working within a Democratic-led administration — in keeping with Shapiro’s desire to have a bipartisan cabinet.
On Sept. 19, Shapiro announced that residents who were getting new or renewed driver licenses at PennDOT locations would automatically be taken through an on-screen voter registration process unless they opted out. Previously, eligible voters had to choose to opt into the process.
Schmidt’s testimony, coupled with information provided a short time later by a Department of State staffer, indicated an increase of more than 65% in registration applications during the period of Sept. 19 through Nov. 27 compared with the same period two years earlier. The numbers went from about 41,000 in 2021 — the previous municipal election year — to about 68,000 in 2023.
“They include new applications, change of party, change of address, any number of things,” Schmidt said. “At least in the first two months [of automatic voter registration], the number of Democrats and Republicans and others has been approximately equal to one another.”
Schmidt elaborated on a few, county-specific problems that cropped up during elections this year. The most significant occurred in Northampton County, where the top elections administrator resigned late last month following what the county described as 2019 and 2023 “failures under his leadership.”
On Tuesday, Schmidt said the problem in Northampton County started when a voting system vendor had to manually abbreviate the position title in a judicial race that would be listed on the ballot. In doing so, Schmidt said, a mistake was made.
Sen. Pat Stefano, R-Fayette, told Schmidt he had heard of “a lot of ballot errors” in the southwestern part of the state. He noted that they were “human errors” but nonetheless had ripple effects.
Schmidt indicated he was aware of those issues. He gave an example of a ballot telling a voter to vote for “up to 3” candidates for a position when only two choices were allowed, and he said the number of such problems would be reduced by more training.
Since 2020, he said, about 20 senior county election administrators have left their jobs. In some counties, a succession of top elections officials have come and gone, he said.
“You are more likely to encounter mistakes” in election conduct in those situations, Schmidt said.
To counter that, Schmidt said a “chief training officer” with a staff of three has been added to his department to work with the staff in individual counties, who run the elections in their jurisdictions with guidance from the state. He also said he favored the concept of checklists that would help administrators make sure they have double-checked important aspects of election administration.
Stefano said he liked the idea of checklists.
“It could help alleviate a lot of the anger that comes out,” he said.
