Pa. House Democrats may be on board with voter ID expansion if part of larger election reforms, House speaker says
The top Pennsylvania House Democrat said she was open to including stricter voter identification requirements as part of a broader effort to modernize the state’s election law in the divided legislature, signaling a renewed willingness from Democrats to work on the issue.
House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia) said Wednesday that she was open to voter ID policy so long as it does not disenfranchise voters.
Since the state’s rocky implementation of mail-in voting in 2020, election officials have begged lawmakers in the Pennsylvania legislature to update the state’s election law to allow local officials more time to process mail ballots and clean up an often antiquated election code. But GOP insistence that any major reforms to the election code include voter ID — and Democratic resistance to it — has been a persistent roadblock.
What’s more: Public support has been building over the last several years, with a Franklin and Marshall College poll finding last year that 73% of registered Pennsylvania voters support expanding voter ID measures. House Democrats in November won a one-seat majority in the state House for a second legislative session and any bill must go through a GOP-controlled state Senate, meaning compromise is necessary if Democrats want their own priorities to reach the governor’s desk.
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-voter-reforms-identification-democrats-republicans-20250306.html