Pennsylvania No-Excuse Absentee Voting Amendment (2022)
| Pennsylvania No-Excuse Absentee Voting Amendment | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 8, 2022 | |
| Topic Voting policy measures | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin State legislature |
The Pennsylvania No-Excuse Absentee Voting Amendment was not on the ballot in Pennsylvania as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment in 2022.
The ballot measure would have amended constitutional language that addresses absentee voting, including:[1]
- stating that no election law can require voters to physically appear at a polling place on election day.
- removing the list of excuses related to receiving an absentee ballot.
Text of measure
Constitutional changes
- See also: Article VII, Pennsylvania Constitution
The measure would have amended Section 14 of Article VII of the Pennsylvania Constitution. The following underlined text would have been added and struck-through text would have been deleted:[2]
Note: Hover over the text and scroll to see the full text.
(a) The Legislature shall, by general law, provide a manner in which, and the time and place at which, qualified electors who may, on the occurrence of any election, be absent from the State or county of their residence, because their duties, occupation or business require them to be elsewhere or who, on the occurrence of any election, are unable to attend at their proper polling places because of illness or physical disability or who will not attend a polling place because of the observance of a religious holiday or who cannot vote because of Election Day duties, in the case of a county employee, may vote, and for the return and canvass of their votes in the election district in which they respectively reside. A law under this subsection may not require a qualified elector to physically appear at a designated polling place on the day of the election.
(b) For purposes of this section, "municipality" means a city, borough, incorporated town, township or any similar general purpose unit of government which may be created by the General Assembly.[3]
Path to the ballot
Amending the Pennsylvania Constitution
- See also: Amending the Pennsylvania Constitution
In Pennsylvania, a majority vote is required in two successive sessions of the Pennsylvania General Assembly to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot.
2019-2020 legislative session
The constitutional amendment was introduced into the Pennsylvania General Assembly as Senate Bill 413 (SB 413) during the 2019-2020 legislative session. SB 413 included two ballot measures to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution—the Eliminate Separate Ballot Requirement for Judicial Retention Elections Amendment and the No-Excuse Absentee Voting Amendment.[4]
On April 21, 2020, the state House of Representatives voted 202-0 to pass SB 413. On April 28, 2020, the state Senate voted 49-1 to pass SB 413.[4]
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2021-2022 legislative session
The Pennsylvania General Assembly needed to approve the constitutional amendment again during the 2021-2022 legislative session to place the ballot measure before voters. The constitutional amendment was not passed during the legislative session for the 2022 general election.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Pennsylvania General Assembly, "Senate Bill 413," accessed April 30, 2020
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedtext - ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Pennsylvania General Assembly, "SB 413 Overview," accessed April 30, 2020
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