{"id":146516,"date":"2026-03-24T01:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T01:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146516\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T01:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T01:37:08","slug":"pennsylvania-republicans-want-save-act-of-their-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146516\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Republicans want SAVE Act of their own"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) \u2014 U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) has already called for national voter identification<\/a> ahead of the midterms.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll get a chance to make that happen when he votes yes on the SAVE Act, which would tighten requirements to vote, though the Constitution grants states authority over elections. The federal bill has already passed the House.<\/p>\n

Close<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n

Watch for us in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Subscribe Now<\/p>\n

Republicans in Harrisburg have their own version of voter ID. It\u2019s not as strict, and it\u2019s not getting as much attention, either. But State Rep. Chris Gebhard (R-Lebanon\/Lancaster) said voters want to see some sort of change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been on record to say, I think we need to tear the whole system down and rebuild it,\u201d Gebhard said. \u201cI think it is flawed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flaws like people dropping off multiple mail-in ballots at once. That\u2019s illegal in the state. Gebhard said he saw videos as part of an investigative committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe fans the ballots out like a deck of cards, almost like he knew there was a camera there watching him, and then he closes and pushes them in,\u201d Gebhard said.<\/p>\n

Gebhard said he prefers the old system of absentee ballots with excuses, not universal mail-in ballots. He also wants in-person voters to show an ID.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to create a streamlined, efficient, effective program where we\u2019re issuing IDs to citizens of the state and that those IDs are what they\u2019re showing when they\u2019re going to vote,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Steven Santarsiero (D-Bucks) said bipartisan voter ID \u201cis a conversation to be had.\u201d Upwards of 80% of Pennsylvanians support some form of voter ID.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Most people, Santarsiero said, don\u2019t have passports.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for many people trying to get their birth certificate, especially women whose names may have changed since they were born, that becomes a hurdle that makes it very difficult to be able to vote,\u201d Santarsiero said.<\/p>\n

But Republicans argue it\u2019s too easy. The National Conference of State Legislatures ranked Pennsylvania among the states with the fewest voting requirements.<\/p>\n

Republicans in the Pennsylvania General Assembly and former Gov. Tom Corbett (R) passed a strict voter ID law in 2012. PennDOT even started issuing free voting-only cards. However, the Commonwealth Court ruled the law unconstitutional in 2014.<\/p>\n

The state requires a voter who is voting for the first time in an election district to show proof of identification, which can be either a photo or a non-photo ID. Returning voters generally do not need to provide any identification.<\/p>\n

\u201cShowing someone that I have a Met-Ed electric bill is not really a qualifying factor to me to be like, \u2018You should be able to qualify to vote for that,’\u201d Gebhard said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t work. I think the bar should be higher than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats say it was Trump who screamed stolen election, so, of course, GOP voters are mistrustful of the process.<\/p>\n

The Fetterman and Shapiro paradox makes media rounds | This Week in Pennsylvania <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this is predicated on this notion that somehow there\u2019s widespread voter fraud, and we know that\u2019s not the case,\u201d Santarsiero said.<\/p>\n

Gebhard said, \u201cI would tell them that I\u2019m happy to take them around my district. I can introduce them to plenty of people that think there is a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) \u2014 U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) has already called for national voter identification ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[52946,28,30,29,5019,57275,66811,57276],"class_list":["post-146516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-chris-gebhard","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-republicans","tag-save-act","tag-steven-santarsiero","tag-voter-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}