House Rep. Brad Roae wants Pennsylvania to finally get it right when it comes to mail-in voting.

Roae is circulating a co-sponsorship memorandum for legislation that will suspend mail-in voting for three years. The Meadville Republican doesn’t want to get rid of mail-in voting, though. He wants commonwealth officials to spend the next three years coming up with a system that works.

“Some people want to keep mail in voting and others want to get rid of it,” Roae wrote in his memorandum. “The compromise position is to keep it but suspend it until Jan. 1, 2028. That would give about three years to fix all of the flaws and have a uniform, safe and secure process across all 67 counties.”

There were a litany of problems with mail-in ballots this year. In Erie County more than 10,000 people who requested mail in ballots did not receive them in time to mail back by the deadline. Many people received them the day before the election. In Luzerne County the name of a candidate for State Representative was spelled wrong on mail in ballots while Bucks County voters trying to vote at the election office with a mail in ballot were disenfranchised by being thrown out of line and not allowed to vote. Roae also referenced Diane Ellis-Marseglia, Bucks County commissioner who said she wanted to count ballots in violation of a state Supreme Court order – though Bucks County ended up abiding by the court’s ruling. A co-sponsorship memorandum for legislation allowing public recall of elected officials referencing Ellis-Marseglia has already been introduced.

Roae said the words “drop box” do not appear in the state Election Code, but some counties use them for mail in ballots and some counties don’t use them so election procedures are not uniform as required by the PA Constitution. Some counties have several drop boxes and even drop boxes in vans that drive around in selected areas. Ballot curing of mail in ballots is not done at all in some counties, other counties contact voters who make an error, other counties don’t tell voters they made errors but let voters ask if they made an error, etc. The uniformity requirement of the PA Constitution is not followed and some voters are disenfranchised, Roae said.

There are also issues with the deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot, which is one week before the election. Voters receive dozens of applications for mail in ballots from candidates, parties and groups that Roae said can cause confusion if they already applied for one or have told their county they don’t want one. Some voters cancel a first mail in ballot request and then request a replacement ballot but end up with two ballots and then don’t know which one to use and which one will be rejected.

Some advocacy groups are collecting applications for voter registration forms and mail in ballots over several months and then dumping them all at once on the deadline at county election boards. That, Roae said, creates concern and confusion as voters think their applications were lost so they apply again – all of which creates more work for county election offices.

Roae also said mail-in voting creates additional costs without reducing costs for Election Day.

“Uniformity as required by the PA Constitution and efficiencies created by uniformity would bring the costs down,” Roae wrote. “During the 2025 and 2026 session we can correct all of these things and then have a full year in 2027 for the Department of State and county election boards to conduct the necessary education and training that election workers need to reflect the improvements in the PA Election Code. Voters would have a year to learn about the improved vote by mail option. Parties, candidates, political advocacy groups, etc. would have a year to learn about keeping things legal while working on mail in voting. Elections effective after Jan. 1, 2028, which is the next Presidential election, would be conducted with the improved and uniform mail in voting law. Voters in all 67 counties and election boards in all 67 counties would all use the exact same laws, rules, regulations, procedures and guidance.”