Dates

• Existence: 2001 - 2002

biographical statement

On January 24, 2001, Representatives Perzel and Habay introduced House Resolution 14, which provided for the formation of a joint select committee of the General Assembly to examine, investigate, and make a complete study of Pennsylvania’s election laws, practices and procedures relating to voter eligibility, to the methods of voting, to the casting, counting, and recounting of votes, to voter registration, to absentee balloting, and to protections against fraud and to legal remedies related thereto. HR14 was adopted, Jan. 30, 2001. It was amended and adopted, Feb. 6, 2001 in the Senate and adopted, Feb. 13, 2001, by the House of Representatives. It was resolved that the committee should consist of ten members of the General Assembly. Five committee members came from the House of Representatives and five members from the Senate were appointed to serve on the Joint Select Committee on March 12, 2001. Representative John Taylor was appointed Chairman and Senator Piccola was appointed Co-Chairman.

The joint committee was formed in response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Gore vs. Bush, that the absence of uniform standards in Florida for the conduct of a statewide recount of the votes cast in the United States Presidential Election on November 7, 2000, which violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It was also resolved, further, that the committee report its findings, together with its recommendations for any remedial legislation or other appropriate action, at the earliest date, to the House of Representatives and to the Senate, provided that the committee is authorized to issue such interim reports, as it deems appropriate.

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