Reading legal documents can often be difficult because it contains not only legal terms that can be unfamiliar but markings that do not make sense to the average person. The image below is the How to Read Legislative Bills which describes markings of Pennsylvania legislative drafts and proposals. There is also a downloadable PDF file to the document as well.
This page of the guide provides users with mostly primary sources of information to understand the political dynamics of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislative body of the commonwealth, and where users can locate those websites. This page pays close attention to the 2019-2020 Regular Session of the Pennslyvania General Assembly and legislation passed during that time.
Also included on this page are mostly primary sources of information related to the legislative changes to Pennsylvania's Voting and Election reforms that went into effect on October 31, 2019. It provides links to all legislation that came into question and controversy prior to, during, and after the 2020 General Election. This page also provides primary sources to election procedures that were changed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic such as handling of machines, paper ballots, disinfecting of machines, scheduling of primaries, etc.
Break down of the Pennsylvania General Assembly by the House of Representatives and Senate by political party during the 2019-2020 Legislative Session.
Data From the 2019-2020 Legislative Session
Act 77 and Act 12 are amendments to Pennsylvania's Election Code. The original law was enacted on June 3, 1937, titled, "Pennsylvania Election Code 1937 Act 320." Since 1937, the Pennsylvania election code has been amended many times and you can follow the history of the law to see how and when changes were made. You can also follow how the 1937 Act 320, affected law previous to its enactment.
Pennsylvania Act 77 is one of the laws that was viewed controversially during and after the 2020 General Election, which is the legislation that providing the option to mail-in ballots, starting in 2020 elections for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Act 77 was an omnibus amendment to the 1937 Election Code, which was part of SB (Senate Bill) 421.
The legislators of Pennsylvania had been working on passing election reforms for several years prior to the election. Another provision that the passage of Act 77 did was take away the option to "straight ballot" which was the ability to check a box that would allow voters to check one box to vote for all of the candidates of one party. The Chronological History of Act 77 provides a full record of all changes to the previous law.
Act 77 was introduced in the Pennsylvania State Senate on March 25, 2019. It is the state legislation that changed the Pennsylvania voter laws which were signed by Governor Tim Wolf in October of 2019 and went into effect in March of 2020.
The Pennsylvania Voting Guide Summarizes Act 77 shown below.
This image is taken (accessed on February 6, 2021), from one of the voting guides published on pa.gov, the official state website of Pennsylvania. To find it follow the page progression: pa.gov > Guides > Voting in Pennsylvania > Act 77 Reforms
Below is the voting record broke down by Yes and No votes and broken further down by votes by party. An official roll of votes can be found on the Bill Information for SB 421; Regular Session 2019-2020. On that page, you will find you can look at votes of legislators by the House of Representatives and by the Senate.
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, in March the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed, and Governor Wolf signed Act 12 of 2020, which rescheduled the primary election and made additional changes in the process for voters as well as county election officials.
Act 12 also allows counties to temporarily consolidate polling places more easily as they work to relocate voting sites, including those in locations such as senior centers. The Department of State is working with counties as they develop their consolidation plans to ensure that convenient, accessible locations will remain, and the public is informed where locations will change.*
Pennsylvania Act 12 was an omnibus amendment to SB (Senate Bill) 422 of the 2019-2020 Regular Session. The official voting record can be found on the Bill Information Page for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Pennsylvania State Senate. The bill passed with 200 votes to approve and 2 votes that were no votes.
*Taken verbatim from Governor Tim Wolf's Press Releases Website
This is the final version of a manual published by The Pennsylvania Department of State on how to conduct the elections during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic. There were several Election Operation Version Changes published as well. The image below is the table of contents of the manual. To access the entire manual, it can be found by going to the website that published it in a PDF format or using the PDF downloadable file link provided below the image.
