Mastriano Wants More Election Day Poll Watchers In PA, Seeks Change In Law

HARRISBURG, PA — Amid rumors of a potential run for Pennsylvania's seat in U.S. Senate in 2024, State Sen. Doug Mastriano is pushing forward with another election reform bill that would change the law surrounding poll watchers.

The bill falls in line with the type of reform that election deniers falsely claim has led to losses by President Donald Trump in 2020, Mastriano himself in the 2022 midterm gubernatorial race, and other MAGA candidates across the country.

A nearly identical bill was passed by the Republican-controlled Senate last session and vetoed by Gov. Tom Wolf.

“Transparency is the key to rebuilding trust in our election system, and that starts with ensuring all parties have a fair opportunity to view the vote-counting process,” Mastriano said at the time.

Poll watchers have long been a noncontroversial part of America's democratic elections, but like so much else, that changed in 2020. The presence or absence of watchers in certain locations across battleground states became a point of animus for those on the right who claimed, in contradiction to investigations that proved otherwise, that electioneering or fraud was taking place.

Mastriano's new bill would allow any registered voter to be a poll watcher in any precinct across the state, meaning that someone from Beaver County can travel 340 miles to Philadelphia to monitor proceedings at a polling location they've never seen. Current law requires watchers stay in their home county.

The bill also mandates that watchers have a clear view of pre-canvassing ballots from no more than six feet away, and also includes language that penalizes election officials who impede poll watchers.

“We saw numerous problems in previous elections where poll watchers were denied access to a polling place even with a legal certificate," Mastriano said. "We also saw issues where poll watchers were so far away from the ballot pre-canvassing process that they were forced to use binoculars. That is simply unacceptable."

Issues like distance and "impeding" are both common points in election lawsuits filed by Republicans in Pennsylvania since 2020. Specifically, the GOP has long relied on the unproven notion that mail-in ballots are suspicious because they are "hidden" from watchers.

RELATED: Mastriano, Trump Hold Huge Leads In PA In New 2024 Polls

Mastriano holds a huge lead in the latest polls for the U.S. Senate seat in 2024. Though he has not yet announced a run, most analysts condsider it likely. And renewal of this latest election reform bill reaffirms that the core issues shaping the campaigns of Mastriano-like MAGA candidates across the nation will remain the same heading into the next election cycle.