Concerns abound over Pennsylvania’s $4.5M election system upgrade
(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania senators expressed concern Thursday about the state’s planned $4.5 million upgrade to its election software after a tumultuous 2020 general election.
The Department of State told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday that a technical revamp of the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system would take two years.
But many worried the time frame proved too ambitious after a planned upgrade to the Pennsylvania Licensing System (PALS) stretched on for years.
“It was really quite challenging and really not done well, and so I would urge you to please with the SURE system IT upgrade to stick to that two-year timeline,” said Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York. “We can’t afford to have the same kind of challenges with the SURE System IT upgrade that we had with the PALS upgrades.”
Pennsylvania’s outdated SURE system came under legislative scrutiny after county election officials detailed the glitchy and unreliable nature of the program software.
The situation was complicated by a massive influx of absentee ballots. Some 2.6 million residents voted by mail for the first time in the state last November, overwhelming county election workers. Pennsylvania’s election results were delayed nearly a week before President Joe Biden was declared the official winner.
“I am absolutely committed to the success of the SURE modernization project,” acting Secretary Veronica Degraffenreid said. “I know how critical it is for the counties and the state.”
In 2019, the Auditor General’s office released a 192-page report detailing the system’s shortcomings that included tens of thousands of “duplicate and inaccurate” voter records. It also chastised the department for not cooperating with the audit or providing necessary records, further impeding its analysis.
At the time, the department, then led by Kathy Boocvkar, “strongly disagreed” with the audit’s findings. Former Auditor General Eugene DePasquale wrote that “management does not seem to grasp that we cannot properly conclude and satisfy the audit objectives … without obtaining sufficient appropriate evidence, which they refused to provide to us.”
Boockvar resigned last month after her department failed to advertise a proposed constitutional amendment that would have opened a two-year window for survivors of child sex abuse to sue their perpetrators – a recommendation that came from a scathing 2018 statewide grand jury report about widespread abuse in the Catholic Church.
The clerical error, for which no explanation has yet been given, will prevent the question from appearing before voters in the May primary.
Degraffenreid again apologized for the oversight and reaffirmed that she believed Gov. Tom Wolf would make public an investigation into the incident that’s currently underway.
“It was a mistake,” she said. “This department has apologized for that mistake and we are seeking to move forward and make sure the issue never happens again.”
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