Pa. Senate votes to end drop boxes, outside money for elections

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Drop boxes for depositing mail-in and absentee ballots would be banned and donations to run elections would no longer be permitted from groups outside government under bills approved Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Senate.Senators voted 37-12, a potentially veto-proof margin, to prohibit the types of grants issued during the 2020 election.

The vote against drop boxes was on party lines, 29-20. The bills were sent to the House, and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's spokeswoman said he opposes both measures.Republican opponents of drop boxes said they were not expressly authorized under the 2019 law that expanded mail-in voting for use by anyone, replacing a law that had limited them to people who could claim one of a limited number of excuses."Drop boxes are breeding grounds for suspicious activity," said Sen.

Ryan Aument, R-Lancaster. "They were never authorized by this legislative body but were instead created by the courts."But Democrats argued the state Supreme Court was properly interpreting the law when justices gave their blessing to drop boxes in September 2020, two months before the presidential election in which Pennsylvania voters narrowly tipped the result in favor of Joe Biden over Donald Trump.The Legislature's own review found that drop boxes functioned properly and were secure, said Sen.

Steve Santarsiero, D-Bucks."It worked in 2020 in one of the most heavy turnout elections in the history of the United States and in the history of Pennsylvania," Santarsiero said. "So this is a bill, as we’ve seen from time to time in this General Assembly, that seeks to solve a problem that doesn’t exist."Republican opposition to drop boxes has been fueled by Trump's continued claims he lost unfairly, and by.