Every two years the volunteers and staff at MarchOnHarrisburg work together to prepare for the upcoming session in Harrisburg by researching our legislative agenda.

To do so, our legislative team prepares a list of policies, based on the criteria on this page.

After the legislative team narrows down their list and votes, that proposal is sent to the chapter leaders, and then to our board to have the final vote on our agenda. In the winter, we begin state-wide lobbying.

This year, we are doing things differently. We want to make sure that we are fighting for anti-corruption and democratic policies that best support our allies' campaigns.

MarchOnHarrisburg is currently assembling our legislative agenda for the 2021-2022 Pennsylvania State Legislative Session. This year, we are issuing a survey to all of our allied organizations (like the other members of the Pennsylvania Poor People's Campaign Coordinating Committee!) to ask them in what ways our work on democratic and anti-corruption policies could support the work of their social justice campaigns. We will be collecting survey data from these organizations and our members through the fall. If you work with an organization and would like to fill this survey out on behalf of that organization, please email info@marchonharrisburg.org.

Here are the reforms we asked organizations to rank:

Voting Rights:

Ballot Initiative:
The PA Legislature passes 7% of introduced legislation, the 3rd lowest rate in the country (behind Congress and the Minnesota State Legislature). A ballot initiative process allows the people to bypass the Legislature by collecting a certain number of signatures, and then voting directly to make new laws. 27 states + DC have a ballot initiative process, and popular issues ranging from marijuana legalization to democracy reforms have flourished in them.

Same Day Registration:
Currently, voters need to register to vote at least 15 days before an election. In 21 states + DC, voters can register the day of the election, and then vote. It increases voter turnout by an average of 5%, and helps counter voter roll purges or other election day irregularities (purged voters can simply re-register and vote).

Automatic Voter Registration:
When eligible voters interact with a government agency, and they are already supplying their information to that agency, they will be automatically registered to vote (unless they choose to not be registered). Since 2015, 15 states + DC have adopted AVR.

(In Person) Early Voting:
Pennsylvania is one of nine states that does not allow for early in person voting. In some states, early voting is available as early as 45 days before the election.

Equal Petitioning:
In order to get on the ballot, third party candidates must gather significantly more signatures than candidates from the two major parties. This keeps third party candidates off the ballot, and keeps our two major parties from being effectively challenged.

End Gerrymandering:
Our Congressional and State Legislative maps are drawn by elected officials with inherent partisan conflicts of interest. Gerrymandering is when politicians choose their voters through clever partisan mapmaking and pre-determine election results, instead of voters choosing our elected officials through honest elections. The solution is an independent nonpartisan redistricting commission that will draw our maps fairly and transparently.

Establish Prison Voting:
In Pennsylvania, people can vote once they leave prison, but not while in prison. And while those that are awaiting sentencing can technically vote, the opportunity to actually cast a vote in prison is rare. Establishing prison voting and decoupling voting rights from legal status ensures that we all have a voice. There should be no connection between someone’s legal status and their voting rights. 

End Prison Gerrymandering:
When districts are drawn, people in prison, who are denied the right to vote, are included in the district where the prison is, instead of the district where they are from and will return to once released from prison. Prison gerrymandering effectively moves legislative districts and additional representation to areas (often rural) where prisons are located.

Ranked Choice Voting (RCV):
In our current system, we all vote for only one candidate, and whichever candidate wins the most votes wins the election. This allows for candidates to win with less than 50% of voter support, and increases negative campaigning. With RCV, voters rank the candidates in order of choice. If a voter’s first choice comes in last place, then their votes are transferred to their second choice, and so on until a candidate has over 50% of votes. Candidates also need to vie for voters to not rank them last, which decreases negative campaigning.

Open Primaries:
43% of Americans, including 50% of Millennials, identify as politically independent, and yet independents and third party members are currently not allowed to vote in party primary elections. This bill would allow independents and third party members to vote in the primary election of one of the two major parties.

Top 2 Primaries:
In this system, voters would vote for their preferred candidate regardless of party, and the two candidates with the most votes in the primary election would advance to the general election (so that the general election matchup could be a Democrat vs. a Democrat, or a Republican vs. a Republican).

Abolish the Electoral College:
If enough State Legislatures agree to give their electoral votes to whoever wins the national popular vote, then we effectively abolish the electoral college. So far, 15 states + DC have signed onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), representing 196 electoral votes. Adding Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes to the NPVIC would be a big step toward abolishing the electoral college.

Election Day as a Holiday:
Election day is not an official holiday, and employers are not required to give employees time to vote. With this bill, employers must give their employees time off during Election Day for them to go vote, and state employees get the full day off automatically.

House and Senate Rules:
The votes of many of our legislators are also suppressed. Through the rules, our legislature structures itself into an authoritarian system where a small group of committee chairs and legislative leaders must approve of bills if they are going to pass. Rules reform ideas include guaranteeing votes on bills that gain enough co-sponsors, every legislator chooses one bill per session that is guaranteed a vote, and other rules that democratize power within the legislature.

Money in Politics:

Public Campaign Financing Vouchers:
Every resident would get a certain number of democracy vouchers that they can contribute to eligible candidates. Candidates then redeem those vouchers and use public funds to run their campaigns. Instead of asking rich people for money, candidates will instead talk with voters and fundraise from voters. The democracy voucher system currently only exists in Seattle, and it has transformed their political system over the last four years.

We would pay for this program by highlighting the financial cost of corruption, and choosing from a number of possible revenue sources that will cover the cost of vouchers and more. For example, Pennsylvania allows large corporations to avoid taxes by claiming they are in Delaware, and this costs Pennsylvania about a billion dollars a year in missing tax revenue. We will pay for democracy vouchers by closing the Delaware tax loophole (or by ending the $240 million a year horse racing subsidies, or by ending fracking subsidies, or by defunding bloated police forces, etc.)

Campaign Finance Limits:
It is currently legal to contribute unlimited amounts of money to political campaigns. We need to impose limits on private campaign contributions.

Campaign Spending Transparency:
Candidates are not required to properly disclose what they do with campaign contributions, and candidates have been found using campaign funds on European wine tasting tours and other irrelevant and luxury items.

Independent Expenditure (Dark Money) Transparency and Accountability:
Unlimited sums of untraceable money currently flow through our political system. We need to make all political expenditures transparent, and ensure accountability from shareholders when corporate money is spent to influence politics.

Gift Ban:
It is currently legal for Pennsylvania legislators to accept gifts of any type or value from anybody, including lobbyists with business before the state.

Close the Revolving Door:
We currently have a one year ‘cooling off’ period, meaning legislators must wait one year before they can become registered lobbyists. Our bill would institute a longer ‘cooling off’ period, and prohibit legislators, while in office, from negotiating jobs with firms that lobby or do business with the state. Also, nobody convicted of a felony crime involving governance could ever be a registered lobbyist.

No Side Jobs:
It is legal for our State Legislators to hold side jobs while serving as full-time, well paid public servants. Many legislators also work for private interests that are affected by decisions our legislators make (for example, while Speaker of the House, Mike Turzai also was a lawyer for a large firm representing Fortune 100 corporations).