{"id":222401,"date":"2026-06-18T16:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/222401\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T16:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:28:08","slug":"josh-shapiro-has-left-7-vacancies-on-pennsylvanias-election-law-advisory-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/222401\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Shapiro has left 7 vacancies on Pennsylvania\u2019s Election Law Advisory Board"},"content":{"rendered":"

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Pennsylvania\u2019s free newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2020, Pennsylvania\u2019s elections were facing a major crisis. The presidential primary was set for April 28, but the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing, restricting travel and complicating in-person activities \u2014 such as voting.<\/p>\n

So the state legislature came up with a solution. In a unanimous vote in both chambers, the primary was moved to June and, simultaneously, the state created a new bipartisan body meant to review and recommend changes to Pennsylvania\u2019s near-century-old election law.<\/p>\n

The Election Law Advisory Board, as it is called, was heralded at the time<\/a> as a way to thoughtfully reform the state\u2019s elections. But six years later, the board has fallen into a state of disuse, in part because Gov. Josh Shapiro has so far failed to fill seven seats he\u2019s responsible for. The board has not met in nearly three years, even as county election officials are still clamoring for changes to the state\u2019s outdated, contradictory election code.<\/p>\n

The Election Law Advisory Board initially seemed promising<\/p>\n

The idea of a board to advise the legislature on Pennsylvania election law was first born out of a 2017 report<\/a> on the state\u2019s aging voting equipment. When Republican state Sen. Elder Vogel introduced the bill that was signed in 2020, he told the Beaver County Times<\/a> that the board was designed to provide the legislature with a road map to enacting election reform.<\/p>\n

Vote smart(er) with Votebeat Pennsylvania’s newsletter.<\/p>\n

Get the latest news on voting and elections in the Keystone State delivered to your inbox for free every other Thursday.<\/p>\n

The board was designed to be bipartisan, bicameral, and representative of the entire state, and to include critical voices in the voting space, such as advocates and county officials. It is composed of majority and minority members from each legislative chamber, a representative from the Pennsylvania Department of State, and one member from each federal congressional district appointed by the governor. <\/p>\n

The board met a dozen times in its first two and a half years, discussing everything from processing mail ballots to standardizing training for election workers. <\/p>\n

\u201cBack three years ago, when we were getting together and working, we were coming up with bipartisan solutions,\u201d Joe Kantz, a Republican county commissioner and the current vice chair of the board, said.<\/p>\n

To be sure, Kantz said, there was disagreement between the members on the issues, \u201cbut we found ways to work together in a time when we often see Harrisburg not working together.\u201d <\/p>\n

The yearly reports produced by the board offered tangible solutions to election law issues. For example, after the 2020 election, the state took several days to report unofficial results due to counties\u2019 inability to pre-canvass, or prepare mail ballots for counting beforehand. The board\u2019s first report<\/a> recommended 14 days of pre-canvassing and provided language for the legislature to pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amendments would allow election results to be known within hours, rather than days, of the conclusion of in-person voting on election day,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

In 2022<\/a>, the board suggested amending state law so that sources other than the Pennsylvania Department of Health or obituaries could be used to remove dead voters from the rolls; the following year, it recommended prohibiting counties from rejecting mail ballots for lacking a date<\/a> on the exterior envelope, a requirement that has tripped up many voters and remains mired in litigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shapiro has left 7 Election Law Advisory Board seats vacant<\/p>\n

While statutorily mandated yearly reports are still being produced, the Election Law Advisory Board hasn\u2019t met since September 2023. Part of the reason is that seven congressional districts are lacking a gubernatorial appointee.<\/p>\n

According to emails obtained by Votebeat and Spotlight PA<\/a>, in October 2024, Kantz emailed an official from the Joint State Government Commission, which oversees the board, to inquire about the status of the appointments and express his dismay that the board wasn\u2019t meeting in a presidential election year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have done all we can on our end to remind the Governor\u2019s Office that we are awaiting the appointment of new members,\u201d Yvonne Hursh, the commission\u2019s counsel, wrote back. She added that the executive nominations calendar<\/a>, which tracks gubernatorial appointments awaiting Senate confirmation, had \u201cplaceholder names\u201d in the open positions.<\/p>\n

Many of those same placeholder nominees remain on the current calendar<\/a>, and others listed as Election Law Advisory Board nominees are also nominated to several other positions, suggesting they may also be placeholders. <\/p>\n

Kantz said that the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania also raised the issue directly with Shapiro in a meeting earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what it\u2019s like to make appointments,\u201d Kantz said. \u201cI know it\u2019s not easy to find people that want to be on a board, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s an issue here. I think there is some level of prestige, pride in being on a board that\u2019s been created by the [legislature] to do what we do. Everyone knows how important it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hursh said her understanding is that the governor is \u201cactively seeking new appointees.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the governor\u2019s office did not answer a question about the status of finding appointees, but said the Department of State works closely with stakeholders to provide guidance and make improvements to the voting process. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Shapiro Administration is constantly engaging with and listening to election stakeholders and has a team of experienced professionals who work full-time to ensure elections in Pennsylvania are free, fair, safe, and secure,\u201d Rosie Lapowsky, the governor\u2019s press secretary, said.<\/p>\n

According to Hursh, the vacancies have made it difficult for the board to convene. Board meetings require a quorum of at least 11 members, she said, and although 15 members are currently active, that doesn\u2019t leave much room for absences. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our members are busy people, and it is always difficult to find [a] date where we can be sure of enough attendance,\u201d she said via email. \u201cWe have been very uncomfortable with trying to schedule a meeting, rearranging people\u2019s schedules and prepping materials for a meeting that may fall apart due to a lack of a quorum at the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

The law that established the board<\/a> says that a quorum is a \u201cmajority of appointed members,\u201d raising the possibility that a majority of sitting board members would be sufficient. But Hursh said that the board follows a legislative rule which says the \u201cmajority of the membership\u201d constitutes a quorum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority definition that would not count vacancies would give 8 out of 22 positions the power to convene meetings and make decisions,\u201d she said in an email. \u201cWe do not believe that outcome was the intent of the legislature, given that the overall intent of requiring a quorum is to ensure that a body\u2019s decisions are not made by a small, potentially unrepresentative group.\u201d <\/p>\n

The board has also said in recent reports<\/a> that the missing members aren\u2019t just a concern for forming a quorum, but also because they feel it is \u201cunwise\u201d to convene and debate issues with so many parts of the state not represented.<\/p>\n

Christina Iacono, a Democrat appointed to the board from the 5th Congressional District and a former poll worker coordinator for Delaware County, agreed that the board was doing good work and was frustrated that the board hasn\u2019t met recently.<\/p>\n

Even though the legislature hasn\u2019t passed any of the board\u2019s recommendations, Iacono said it still has value in informing the proposals lawmakers do introduce and providing non-legislative readers, like judges, with detailed information on how elections work directly from officials involved in making them happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would hope the legislature will eventually look at what we have created,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone in government has a tough job, and I do think partisanship gets in the way of many things getting done, but I think overall having a group that gets together that puts together guidance is a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hursh said the Joint State Government Commission is \u201cuncomfortable with the amount of time that has elapsed since the group last met\u201d and is hoping to schedule a meeting for the fall, but so far it hasn\u2019t been able to find a date that works for the remaining members.<\/p>\n

Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@votebeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2954,5497,96740,28,30,29,1824],"class_list":["post-222401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-election-2024","tag-election-day","tag-election-sign","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222401","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=222401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}