State Senator Joe Pittman has approved a senate bill that would ban the use of unsecured drop boxes to collect mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.
Senate Bill 1200 would require that mail-in ballots that are not returned by mail to be returned only to the County Board of Elections Office, eliminating the use of drop boxes. Pittman and other supporters say that there has been many examples of drop boxes being misused throughout the state, with the most notable examples taking place in Lehigh, Lackawana, Montgomery and Luzerne Counties. Supporters also say that this would not negatively impact voter access, as there are 10,000 secured and publicly available locations across the state where people can drop ballots off.
Pittman said that the chain of custody of ballots is very important to the integrity of the elections process, and that officials need to make sure that the ballots are secure and that there is a clear understanding of the chain of custody.
Another election-related senate bill that earned Pittman’s approval passed. That bill would ban any state employee or county from accepting money from outside groups to pay for election administration. This was in response to the use of grant money from the Center for Tech and Civic Life during the 2020 election. Correspondence between the CTCL, the Wolf Administration and county officials showed that the grant money was disproportionally distributed, with counties that favored Democrats receiving more than Republican-favoring counties.
Both bills head to the state house for its approval.
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