Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility Rabb urges special elections process overhaul as critical races loom

Rabb urges special elections process overhaul as critical races loom

Rep. Christopher M. Rabb    January 31, 2023 | 3:29 PM

HARRISBURG, Jan. 31 – A week before consequential special election races in Allegheny County that may sway the balance of power in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, state Rep. Chris Rabb, D-Phila., urged support for his soon-to-be reintroduced legislation to modernize the special election process — an all too opaque, exclusionary and expensive endeavor in which too few voters participate.

“It’s time to rethink the system that got us here. We must invest in a process that is more transparent, accountable, inclusive, efficient and less costly to taxpayers,” Rabb said.

The bill’s key provisions include:

  • Making special elections for state and municipal offices nonpartisan and more accessible to both candidates and voters.
  • Requiring that special elections happen sooner when a seat becomes vacant more than 90 days before the next election.
  • Requiring automatic mail-in voting for all elections while providing county boards of election with the option to establish satellite voting sites.
  • Subsidizing special elections from restitution paid by elected officials who have vacated their seats because of a felony conviction.
  • Allowing candidates to electronically obtain nomination petition signatures.

Rabb said he believes as more people choose to register as independent instead of with the two major parties in a state that prohibits independent voters from participating in primary elections, his legislation would help open the first of several vital avenues of political expression for the more than 1 million Pennsylvania voters who are otherwise rendered second-class members of the electorate. 

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