Bill To Allow For On-Line Voter Registration In Pennsylvania Clears The State Senate
By Tony Romeo
HARRISBURG (CBS) -- The state Senate has sent the House a bill that would allow Pennsylvania residents to register on-line to vote.
The bill is sponsored by Senate Republican Lloyd Smucker, he says folks can already complete other state tasks on-line, such as vehicle registration renewal.
Smucker says, "and so I began to ask the question, Why couldn't we do voter registration?"
It turns out that the big technological challenge is the need for a signature on the registration form for poll workers to compare when you sign in to vote.
Erik Arneson is a spokesman for the Senate majority leader.
The on-line registration system would have to be linked to other state agencies that already have your signature, Arneson says, "for example, PennDOT with a driver's license or a photo ID."
If there's no signature elsewhere in the system, you'd still have to fill out a form and sign it.
The bill goes to the House where its future is not certain right now.