Voting in PA

[OnionPatch]

During the last election I heard in several different places that Pennsylvanians vote on electronic voting machines with no paper trail. Is that true?

I also know they voted in a Democrat for governor in 2014.

My question is, are there efforts to reform the voting in Pennsylvania? Specifically to have paper trails? Couldn't some progress be made with a Democratic governor? I'm not hearing anything about this but am curious, partly for obvious reasons and partly because I may be moving to PA within the next few years.

[femmocrat]

1. Yes, it is true.

There could be progress, but we have a republican-controlled legislature, so they are more interested in passing restrictions on abortions than anything meaningful.

https://legiscan.com/PA/bill/SB3/2017

[OnionPatch]

2. I know PA is gerrymandered.

And you can't count on the legislature to do anything but aren't there some reforms that could be made by the Democratic Secretary of State?

[BeekeeperInVermont]

3. Yup.

I used to live in PA and worked at the polls for about a decade. After the old lever voting machines were retired, the state - or at least our county - bought electronic machines with no paper trail. During the time I worked at the polls I did not observe an obvious problem with vote flipping, etc., but I can't speak to what might be possible to do to the machines to affect the final tally unbeknownst to us poll workers.

[ebbie15644]

4. Yes I'm in westmoreland county

And we have no paper receipt of who we voted for

[OnionPatch]

5. Doesn't the Secretary of State have any power

to make any reforms or changes?

[DeminPennswoods]

6. It is true

I think the electronic voting machines are in use almost everywhere. But, tbh, I was a judge of elections and I never worried about votes not being counted correctly. The voting precincts are small, around 1000 people, and the election board tends to know the voters. At the end of the night, the board's hand count of voters has to match the vote tally on the machines.

The biggest problem in the state are the severely gerry-mandered districts that give Rs a much bigger advantage than they actually have. Fortunately, Ds hold the governship, all the row offices (Atty Gen, Aud Gen, Treasurer) and have a majority on the state supreme court.