A close primary race could kill automatic voter registration
(The Center Square) — With less than a month to go before the voter registration deadline, House Republicans want Gov. Josh Shapiro to kill the state’s automatic voter registration program.
The letter, signed by 63 Republicans, comes on the heels of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that found state law allows PennDOT to register voters when they renew their driver’s licenses, but not when they change their vehicle’s registration.
“The responsibility to ensure Pennsylvania’s elections are conducted without controversy is of the utmost importance,” the letter reads, released under Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Seth Grove’s letterhead and signed by five of the seven House Republican leaders. “The Supreme Court’s Majority Opinion clarified that PennDOT’s new automatic voter registration is legally questionable.”
The case stems from a provisional ballot cast in the extremely close primary race between Rep. Mike Cabell, R-Dallas, and challenger Jamie Walsh. Shane O’Donnell, who is also Cabell’s cousin, updated his vehicle registration in Schuylkill County where he was renovating a home but still lived in Luzerne County.
PennDOT automatically updated his registration to Schuylkill County, though O’Donnell was eligible to vote in Luzerne. He then cast a provisional ballot in Luzerne because he was not on the voter list.
The Court ruled that the Pennsylvania Voter Registration Act allows PennDOT to automatically transfer voter registration concerning driver’s license changes, but not vehicle registration.
Writing for the majority, Justice Sallie Updyke Mundy declared that decisions by PennDOT or the Department of State “to transfer an elector’s voter registration without that person’s affirmative consent in conjunction with a PennDOT application to change a vehicle registration, as opposed to a driver’s license, is therefore of questionable validity, particularly where, as here, no party has identified a valid administrative regulation authorizing such action.”
Republicans declared that, following the ruling, the Shapiro administration needs to do two things: end PennDOT’s voter registration changes that aren’t tied to driver’s license updates, and reach out to every voter who changed their voter registration to verify all changes were correct.
“Failure to address this will likely lead to misinformation and disinformation surrounding our elections; we’re calling on the Governor to step up and do the right thing,” Grove said in a press release.
The Shapiro administration, however, doesn’t agree.
Shapiro Spokesman Manuel Bonder called the facts of the O’Donnell case “severely underdeveloped,” referencing an amicus brief filed by the Department of State.
“A change in the address of a vehicle registration does not automatically change the address associated with the customer’s voter registration,” Bonder said. “Rather, if a customer changes the address associated with their driver’s license or ID card, the address of their voter registration will also be updated unless the customer chooses to opt out.”
He noted that PennDOT started the practice in 2021 before automatic voter registration, but said if someone changes their vehicle registration address, their voter registration address won’t change.
PennDOT and the Department of State did not respond to a request for comment.
Gov. Shapiro declared automatic voter registration “a commonsense step” for election security and government efficiency when he announced it in September 2023, following the lead of 23 other states.
Some early data showed that Republicans had an advantage over Democrats in registration totals from the program.
