Voting machines bill vetoed over changes

HARRISBURG (AP) — Pennsylvania’s governor vetoed legislation Friday that carried $90 million to help counties in the state buy new voting machines before the 2020 presidential election, but the bill also ordered changes to election laws that he said wouldn’t help improve voting security or access.

In a statement, Gov. Tom Wolf said he remained committed to helping counties pay for voting machines.

Wolf began pressing counties last year to replace their voting machines after federal authorities warned Pennsylvania and at least 20 other states that Russian hackers targeted them during 2016’s presidential election.

More than half of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties have moved to replace their voting systems to the kind that Wolf wanted: systems that include voter-verifiable paper backups that are widely embraced by election integrity advocates and computer scientists.

Wolf’s administration has warned lawmakers that failing to replace its roughly 25,000 voting machines by next year’s election could leave Pennsylvania as the only state without voter-verifiable paper systems, and certainly the only presidential swing state in that position.

“National security and cybersecurity experts, including the Trump administration, are urging Pennsylvania and other states to have new voting systems with advanced security and a paper trail,” Wolf said in the statement.

The bill authorized Wolf’s administration to borrow up to $90 million to help counties underwrite a tab expected to exceed $100 million. It passed the Legislature last week, barely hours after Republicans unveiled the borrowing provision and combined it into one bill carrying several changes to election laws.

One of the bill’s provisions eliminates the straight-party ticket voting option on ballots. Wolf said eliminating it could lead to voter confusion and longer lines at polls, while Democrats say it is designed to benefit down-ballot Republican candidates.

The provision emerged as Republicans worry that moderate suburban voters inflamed by President Donald Trump could punish down-ballot Republican candidates in the 2020 election.

Wolf also criticized a provision in the bill as weakening the ability of the state and counties to quickly mount a large-scale replacement of machines by requiring it to be studied by a commission for 180 days.