Prospects dim for critical election bill in Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG, Pa. — With 15 days until the presidential election, Republican lawmakers in the battleground state of Pennsylvania showed no sign Monday that they were ready to pass legislation authorizing counties to process mail-in ballots before Election Day, which is seen as crucial to producing a prompt election result. Talks had stalled last week as House Republicans insisted that they only would allow counties to process mail-in ballots before Election Day in a package with provisions that Wolf has threatened to veto. They include banning drop boxes that some counties are using to collect mail-in ballots and trying to lift a county residency requirement on certified poll watchers amid Trump’s calls for his supporters to “go into the polls and watch very carefully.” Monday’s House Republican statement said Wolf “has not put anything on the table that can get through our caucus.” To try to entice Republicans, Wolf offered provisions to add security requirements for the drop boxes that many counties — particularly heavily populated and Democratic-leaning counties — are using to help collect mail-in ballots from voters. Eugene DiGirolamo, a Republican county commissioner in Bucks County, the state’s fourth-most populous county, said processing the ballots early is a “critical issue, not only for Bucks, but I would imagine for a lot of the other counties around the state, especially the larger ones.” Processing the ballots involves extracting a ballot from the two envelopes it arrives in, flattening and scanning it, but not officially tabulating it until polls close. “I am just scared to death that Pennsylvania is going to look really bad, especially if the election for president is close and they’re waiting for results from the battleground states like Pennsylvania truly is.” Trump campaign officials say they don’t have enough poll watchers in some counties, including Philadelphia, a Democratic bastion that Trump has repeatedly suggested needs to be watched for election fraud.