Should The Pennsylvania Voting System Change or Stay The Same? Local Voters Provide Their Thoughts

"It's [an] awful, terrible system."

Dr. Jeff Bloodworth, professor of American Political History at Gannon University, says it is time for change when it comes to Pennsylvania voting.

Less than a week before the 2024 general election, the Erie County Board of Elections was sued by The Pennsylvania Democratic Party. The lawsuit claimed that nearly 300 voters received duplicate mail-in ballots, also saying an additional 10,000 to 20,000 mail-in ballots had not been received or returned at the time.

On Thursday, Nov. 14, another hearing at the Erie County Courthouse occurred regarding nearly 800 challenged provisional ballots and whether those votes would count or not.

"It's so complicated that I was like, 'You know what? Never mind, just vote in person,'" Bloodworth said.

He explained how the Commonwealth should look to other states as an example for future elections, going on to say the current system didn't happen by accident.

"Why can't Pennsylvania have a normal early voting system?" Bloodworth said. "These mail-in ballots, it's byzantine. It's intentionally designed to be difficult."

Erie News Now spoke with political science students at Penn State Behrend for their thoughts on the current voting system.

"I think that it's a good system that we can keep going with," sophomore political science major Abby Napierski said. "I think the only issues that I think we really have is less structural [and] more social."

Abigail Weinstein had a friend out-of-state who received their mail-in ballot much later than expected. She doesn't believe the system to be completely flawed, but she does think change still has to happen.

"The bureaucracy, all of the hoops that you have to jump through. The system isn't as efficient as it needs to be in order for it to be effective," Weinstein said. "It needs to be improved."

The Erie County Board of Elections will reconvene on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 9 a.m. to conduct the mandatory recount of votes for the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race between Republican Dave McCormick and incumbent Democrat Bob Casey.