Pennsylvania is set to get a digital overhaul to their election software systems. The Department of State announced on March 5 that a $10.6 million contract has been signed; with the goal of updating systems in time for the 2028 presidential election.

Pennsylvania has been trying to replace the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) since 2019. The Wolf administration put signed a contract for the overhaul in 2020, but the vendor did not follow through and the contract was canceled in 2023.

After a year of search and research, State Department has signed with Civix, a software development company who focuses on government systems.

Civix will overhaul the SURE system—which is how county election offices update and compare voter registration data. Their contract also calls for them to update election night reporting, campaign finance, and lobbying disclosure systems.

The final product should be a website that is easy to use for county officials on the back end. It should be accessible for the general public participating in elections; and should make election and other ethics data more accessible for transparency.

March on Harrisburg, a group that advocates for transparency and less money in politics, gave their honest feedback on the current campaign finance system;

“It's awful!” Michael Polluck said, executive director for March on Harrisburg. "It is so hard to navigate. It is so broken."

Polluck says it currently takes an entire year for a group of volunteers to pull a number of who was spending money and how much money they were spending in an election. The organization also notes that even if a new website makes data more accessible, current law has low standards for what is required to report.

For example, a lawmaker can disclose very little information on how and where they make external income to their official duties. While more transparency requires legislative action, an easier to navigate website that makes already publically disclosed information easier to compare would be a step in the right direction.

"A better, more ideal campaign finance reporting website would allow somebody to search by donor, search by political name, search by party, search by industry,” Polluck said.