Gov. Tom Wolf, from Pennsylvania, has vetoed a GOP bill that proposed to make voters’ ID mandatory for any election and would also have made changes in election laws. The Governor said that the proposed bill would be a suppression of voter rights. He was speaking outside his Capitol offices on Wednesday.
He was categorical in his tweet where he declared that he had vetoed House Bill 1300 and would not sign any bill that would have created impediments to voting. He said that is just what the Bill proposes by limiting the mail ballots, putting a cap on early voting, and cutting the registration time for voters.
Gov. Tom Wolf also exerted his line-item veto power and eliminated the $3.1 funding in separate budget legislation. Republican lawmakers had claimed that the fund was to create a bureau for election auditing that would function under the independently chosen auditor general.
Republicans Respond To Tom Wolf
Philadelphia State senators Kim Ward from Westmoreland and Jake Corman from Bellefonte responded to Tom Wolf. They said that the people desire a believable election system. They said that election reforms are among the leading concerns of the state residents. They claimed that 74% of residents wanted the introduction of ID cards for voters. They said that this was the reason that the General Assembly had taken up the matter in June.
House Bill No.1300, or the Voting Rights Protection Act, comprises over 150 pages of new suggestions for voter restriction and changes in signature verification, mail-in-voting procedures, voter ID, and a proposal that permitted mail-in ballots to be counted and processed before the day of the election.
The Republican sponsors had argued that the Voting Rights Protection Bill would lead to an improvement in security, trust, and uniformity in the election process. They had earlier pushed through the bill in the Legislature and the bill was passed in the General Assembly Monday.
Tim Wolf had already said that he was against the bill. Republicans slammed Tim Wolf and vowed to continue with efforts to what they believe was strengthening and reforming the election system in Philadelphia.
Senator Seth Grove, the Republican sponsor of the bill, said that he was disappointed in Tim Wolf’s inaction. Grove had alleged electioneering fraud in the 2020 Presidential election, though ironically he believes that his own party was behind it.
