Kathy Boockvar was recently interviewed by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star about the recent announcement that Pennsylvania has awarded a contract with government technology provider Civix to replace and upgrade PA’s voter registration, election night reporting, campaign finance, and lobbyist registration systems.
Boockvar noted that Civix has a strong reputation in the industry and understands the need for robust layers of security in conjunction with effective and user-friendly technology.
Civix has provided election technology to more than 20 states, creating and implementing modern, user-friendly and secure election and voter systems.
In addition to updating the voter registration system, Boockvar praised the replacement of the also-outdated election night reporting website, noting that more information would be helpful for the public to understand not only what votes have been counted, but also what ballots have not yet been counted. But she also noted that one of the biggest problems with ballot counting and reporting is in the hands of state legislators. About 45 states allow ballots to begin to be processed by election officials before election day. Not PA. State law currently prohibits mail-in ballots from being processed until the polls open on Election Day. She called for the state legislature to pass legislation to change this.
“The earlier [election officials can start canvassing mail ballots], the earlier people can get results,” Boockvar said. She pointed to last year’s narrow U.S. Senate race, which took until late November to be certified for Dave McCormick, because of how close the race was. The PA General Assembly could easily pass a law to remedy this issue, but has chosen not to.
Read the full article here: https://penncapital-star.com/campaigns-elections/pennsylvania-awards-10-6-million-contract-to-modernize-its-22-year-old-election-system/