Pennsylvania Code
Title 4 - ADMINISTRATION
Part XVI - LEGISLATIVELY ORDERED MATERIAL
Subpart A - DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Chapter 801 - LEGISLATIVELY ORDERED MATERIAL RELATING TO PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Appendix I - Procedures for Receiving, Processing and Advertising Non-emergency Proposed Constitutional Amendments

Universal Citation: 4 PA Code § I

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 44, November 2, 2024

(Editor's Note: Under section 801(b)(4) of The Administrative Code of 1929 (71 P.S. § 201(b)(4)), the Department of State established Procedures for Receiving, Processing and Advertising Non-emergency Proposed Constitutional Amendments as set forth in Appendix I. This document is published under 45 Pa.C.S. § 702(7) (relating to contents of Pennsylvania Code) as a document general and permanent in nature which shall be codified in the Pennsylvania Code.)

Introduction

Article XI, § 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution (Article XI) requires the Secretary of the Commonwealth to publish proposed amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution. Article XI states that if an amendment is agreed to by the majority of the members of both the Senate and House of Representatives, the Secretary of the Commonwealth shall cause the proposed amendment to be published three months before the next general election (November election in an even numbered year), in at least two newspapers in every county in which such newspapers shall be published; and if, in the General Assembly next afterwards chosen, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each House, the Secretary of the Commonwealth shall cause the same again to be published in the same manner and the proposed amendment will be submitted to the voters as prescribed by the General Assembly.

Article XI imposes a mandatory duty on the Secretary of the Commonwealth to advertise amendments proposed by the General Assembly. Failure to advertise in strict compliance with Article XI is fatal to the amendment process.

Supplemental to the requirements enumerated in Article XI, the Pennsylvania Election Code and Administrative Code of 1929 (as amended) impose statutory obligations upon the Secretary related to the constitutional amendment process.

Thus, the primary responsibilities of the Department of State in the constitutional amendment process are:

1 Advertise the proposed amendments in newspapers after each passage;

2 Draft the ballot question to be put forth to the voters on second passage; and

3 Administer election on the ballot question and certify results.

Purpose and Objectives

Department of State (DOS) staff must initiate, coordinate, monitor, and verify publication of constitutional amendments to ensure timely and proper advertisement of constitutional amendments in accordance with the requirements of Article XI. This document outlines the process that DOS will use to effectuate its duties under Article XI, the Administrative Code and the Election Code pertaining to constitutional amendments.

Background

Amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution may be proposed in either the Senate or the House of Representatives but must pass in both by a majority vote of the members elected. Pursuant to Article XI of the Pennsylvania Constitution, a proposed constitutional amendment must be passed in identical form in two consecutive sessions of the General Assembly before the amendment can be submitted to the voters for approval.

First Passage

After the first passage of a proposed constitutional amendment, the Secretary of the Commonwealth is required to have the proposed amendment published once in each of the three months (August, September and October) prior to a November general election (even numbered years) in at least two newspapers in every county. The advertisements do not need to be published on the same date, but each advertisement should be published on or before the day of the month on which the November election will occur. For example, if the November election is on November 7th, the advertisements should be published on or before August 7th, September 7th, and October 7th.

Second Passage

The next succeeding session, the General Assembly may at any time pass a joint resolution proposing the identical constitutional amendment. The General Assembly shall direct the Secretary of the Commonwealth at what election to present the proposed amendment to the voters in the form of a ballot question, so long as the primary or election in which voters will vote on the ballot question is at least three months after second passage. After second passage, the proposed amendment, ballot question, and plain language statement must be advertised once in each of the three months prior to the election at which the amendment is to be voted for, which could be either a municipal (odd numbered years) or general (even numbered years) or primary election. The amendment is voted on by the entire electorate. If passed by a majority vote, the amendment becomes part of the Pennsylvania Constitution. The advertisements do not need to be published on the same date, but each advertisement should be published on or before the day of the month on which the primary or election will occur. For example, if the question is to be presented to the voters at a May 17th Primary, the advertisements should be published on or before February 17th, March 17th, and April 17th.

Pre- and Post-Advertisement Notification to the General Assembly and Legislative Reference Bureau

Under Section 801 of the Administrative Code of 1929 (as amended), 71 P.S. § 271, the Secretary of the Commonwealth must provide written notice to the following individuals of the date that the advertisements required under Article XI are scheduled to be completed for a proposed amendment:

1 Every member of the General Assembly;

2 The Secretary of the Senate;

3 The Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives;

4 The Parliamentarian of the House of Representatives; and

5 The Legislative Reference Bureau.

The written notice must be given no later than 14 days before the date on which publication is scheduled to begin, or as soon as practicable.

Likewise, after the publication process is complete, the Secretary of the Commonwealth must certify to the above referenced officials that the requirements of Article XI have been completed. The Secretary is required to certify no later than 14 days after the last advertisement occurs.

Ballot Question and Plain Language Statement

Under Section 201.1 of the Election Code, when a proposed constitutional amendment is submitted to the voters in referendum, the Attorney General is required to prepare a statement ''in plain English'' that indicates ''the purpose, limitations and effects of the ballot question on the people of the Commonwealth.'' See 25 P.S. § 2621.1. The Secretary of the Commonwealth drafts the ballot question itself with approval by the Attorney General. See 25 P.S. § 2755. The Secretary then includes the ballot question and the plain language statement in the constitutional amendment advertisement. See 25 P.S. § 2621.1. The ballot question and the plain language statement is sent to each of the county boards of elections as part of the notice of elections published not earlier than ten (10) days nor later than three (3) days before the primary or election. See 25 P.S. §§ 2621.1, 3041. The county boards of elections are also required to post copies of the ballot question and plain English statement at the polling places and in specimen ballots. See 25 P.S. § 2621.1.

Emergency Amendments under Article XI, § 1(a)-(b)

Article XI also delineates a truncated process for amendment ''in the event a major emergency threatens or is about to threaten the Commonwealth and if the safety or welfare of the Commonwealth requires prompt amendment'' to the Pennsylvania Constitution.

An emergency amendment subject to the process set forth in Article XI, § 1(a)(b) only needs to be considered and passed once by the General Assembly, as opposed to the two consecutive session passages required for non emergency amendments.

Amendments under subsections a and b of Article XI may be proposed in either a regular or special legislative session, but they must be agreed upon by two thirds of the members of each the Senate and House of Representatives.

Once the General Assembly passes the proposed amendment, DOS must promptly advertise the proposed amendment in two newspapers of general circulation in every county.

The proposed amendment can be put to the voters at any time at least one month after it is passed by the General Assembly.

Process terminology and references

Term Reference
DOS	Department of State
SOC	Secretary of the Commonwealth
DDS	Designated Deputy Secretary
DSEC	Deputy Secretary for Elections & Commissions
OCP	DOS Office of Communications and Press
OCC	DOS Office of Chief Counsel
BE	DOS Bureau of Elections
BCNL	DOS Bureau of Commissions, Notaries and Legislation
OLA	DOS Office of Legislative Affairs
Advertising Materials	1) Preamble 2) Text of Joint Resolution 3) Ballot question (only applicable on second passage) 4) Plain language statement
XO	DOS Executive Office
EOA	Executive Office Assistant (Assistant to the SOC)
OGC	Governor's Office of General Counsel
GO	Office of the Governor
OAG	Office of Attorney General
OP	Office of Policy

Department of State Employees Covered by this Procedure

Designated Deputy Secretary (DDS)

Pursuant to Section 801 of the Administrative Code of 1929 (as amended), 71 P.S. § 271, the Secretary of the Commonwealth must designate a deputy secretary to oversee implementation and training on the procedure for advertising constitutional amendments. The Secretary shall so designate the pertinent deputy in writing, and a copy of the designation can be obtained by contacting the Executive Office Assistant or referring to the Executive Office Share Point folder entitled ''Joint Resolutions.''

The Secretary should update this designation at the following occurrences and intervals:

* When a new Secretary is appointed,

* Upon departure of a deputy who has been designated responsibility under this policy, and

* As otherwise necessary to reflect a change in designation.

Other Owners and Stakeholders

The following owners (white boxes) and stakeholders (shaded boxes) share responsibility for the publication of the process. Unless otherwise noted the documents should be shared with the head of the bureau.

Click here to view image.

Process

The Office of Legislative Affairs tracks and monitors all legislation impacting DOS, including legislation proposing amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution. A proposed constitutional amendment, when agreed upon by the Senate and the House of Representatives, is filed with DOS in the form of a Joint Resolution.

The outline, below, sets forth the tasks and parties responsible for completing each. Each action item has been assigned an owner who is accountable to the team for ensuring completion of the action item. The owner is responsible for working with and/or obtaining the approval of those identified to be consulted for each action item. Where the identified ''Owner'' of each action item is an office, bureau or program area, the accountable individual is the manager responsible for oversight of that office, bureau, or program area, unless said manager has designated another employee from within that office, bureau, or program area to serve as proxy in an email to the DDS.

Pre-passage tasks

Tracking proposed legislation

The Department's Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA), is responsible for tracking legislation proposing one or more constitutional amendments during the time the legislation is under consideration by the General Assembly.

OLA notifies the XO by email (SOC, DDS, OCC, and DSEC) when a Joint Resolution crosses from one chamber to another, passes both chambers, and is signed by both chambers in the General Assembly.

In addition to OLA, the Designated Deputy Secretary will assign others to monitor joint resolutions introduced in the General Assembly through Pennsylvania Legislative Services.

Maintaining contact lists

The following contact lists are utilized to notify parties in this process. They should be reviewed for accuracy and updated bi-annually, and if possible, upon information regarding separation/hiring:

* BCNL Legislative contact list

* Internal Constitutional Amendment contact list

Post-passage process

ACTION	OWNER	CONSULTED
1.	The General Assembly delivers the signed joint resolution to BCNL, and BNCL immediately assigns the Joint Resolution # and date stamps original document.	BNCL
2.	BCNL emails legislative contacts to provide assignment of joint resolution number.	BNCL
3.	BCNL logs the joint resolution in the legislative log, prepares and retains a certified copy, routes original copy of the joint resolution to Executive Office (SOC, DDS, and DSEC) via the Executive Office Assistant (EOA).	BNCL
4.	The EOA logs receipt of the joint resolution electronically, scans the joint resolution, uploads it to the internal tracking system for joint resolutions passed by the General Assembly.	EOA
5.	The EOA transmits (via email) the Assignment of Joint Resolution Message to all internal contacts.	EOA
6.	The EOA provides the original joint	DDS,
resolution to the DDS who acknowledges receipt of the joint resolution and returns it to the EOA. The EOA retains the original joint resolution.	EOA
7.	No later than 10 days of receipt of the joint resolution, or sooner depending on the circumstances, DDS initiates a kickoff meeting for internal staff (OLA, BE, BNCL, OCC, BFO, DSEC, OP, OCP, and SOC) to discuss a timeline (including both internal and external deadlines) and requirements of advertising the proposed constitutional amendment. After the meeting, DDS works with the EOA to update the internal tracker with pertinent internal deadlines.	DDS
8.	Promptly after the kickoff meeting, OCP submits the required form to Commonwealth Media Services (CMS). CMS notifies the department's contracted advertising vendor to schedule meeting between all parties and the DOS team (OCP, BFO, DDS, OCC, and DSEC) to discuss requirements and deadlines for advertising the proposed constitutional amendment. The vendor will provide a proposed schedule for advertising. Subsequently, the vendor will provide a list of publications and a quote for advertising services based on information provided during the meeting. CMS will provide, in writing, an approval for BFO to proceed with executing a purchase order to advertising vendor.	OCP	BFO, OCP, BE, OCC
9.	BE reviews and approve list of proposed newspapers.	BE	OCC, DSEC, DDS, and SOC
10.	BFO obtains a quote from the vendor and reviews it to ensure that DOS has funding in its current budget available for advertisement. If funding is unavailable, BFO sends a letter for Executive Authorization to the Governor's Budget Office (GBO) to request additional funds to advertise.	BFO
11.	DSEC drafts advertisement preamble and submits to OCC for review.	DSEC	OCC
12.	DSEC obtains signoff from DDS and SOC.	DSEC	DDS and SOC
13.	DSEC forwards the approved preamble with text of proposed amendments to BFO.	DSEC

STEPS 14 THROUGH 16: SECOND PASSAGE ONLY
14.	DDS drafts the question to be presented to voters on the balloting materials at the next election.	DDS-----	BE, OCC, DSEC, SOC, GO, and OGC-----
15.	DDS obtains the necessary internal approvals of the question from DOS Executive Office, Governor's Office, and OGC.	DDS-----	OCC-----
16.	OCC submits ballot question to OAG for approval and requests the plain language statement from OAG that will accompany the proposed constitutional amendment. Upon approval of the ballot question and receipt of the plain language statement, OCC forwards final documents to BFO.	OCC

ACTION	OWNER	CONSULTED
17.	BFO provides final copies of all documents received from DSEC and/or OCC to established Commonwealth vendors for Spanish and traditional Chinese translation (as currently required for certain counties under Section 203 of the VRA). Translated materials are also professionally verified and also reviewed by community verifiers in consultation with Community Engagement (where time permits). Changes recommended by community verifiers should be vetted with professional translators.	BFO	Community Engagement, OCC
18.	Once translated documents are finalized, BFO transmits the following Advertising Materials to the contracted advertising vendor and requests draft ad copy for publication: * Preamble; * Text of the Joint Resolution; * Text of the approved Ballot Question (2nd passage only); * Text of the approved Plain Language Statement (2nd passage only); * Text of Paid for with PA Taxpayer Dollars disclaimer; and * Translations of the Advertising Materials.	BFO	BE
19.	BFO receives ad copy templates (English, Spanish, and Chinese) from the advertising vendor and obtains review and approval of the templates from internal team.	BFO	OCC, DSEC, OCP
20.	BFO communicates approval of the ad copy templates and then receives sized ad copy for each publication from the advertising vendor.	BFO
21.	DSEC coordinates review teams to review and approve sized ad copy for each publication as provided by the advertising vendor.	DSEC	OCC, BE, OCP
22.	No later than 14 days prior to the date of publication, OLA transmits notice from SOS to all of the following of the dates on which publication in newspapers will be completed: (1) each member of the PA Senate; (2) each member of the PA House; (3) the Secretary of the Senate; (4) the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives; and (5) the Parliamentarian of the House of Representatives.	OLA	OCC, SOC, DDS, DSEC
23.	No later than 14 days prior to the date of publication, OCC notifies the Legislative Reference Bureau of the dates on which publication in newspapers will be completed.	OCC	OLA, SOC, DDS, DSEC
24.	OCP posts electronic copies of English, Spanish, and Chinese ad copy on DOS website.	OCP	BE
25.	BFO tracks progress of advertisements and collects and stores 1) proofs of publication and 2) tear sheets as they are received by the advertising vendor.	BFO	BE, OCC
26.	Advertising Materials published for first time in approved newspapers	DOS
27.	Advertising Materials published for second time in approved newspapers	DOS
28.	Advertising Materials published for third time in approved newspapers.	DOS
29.	BFO promptly notifies OCC, BEN, OLA, DSEC, DDS, and SOC if any newspaper failed to properly publish the advertisement. In the event of such a failure, obtain form affidavits (see Appendices) from both the newspaper and the advertising vendor documenting that DOS provided the advertisement in ample time.	BFO	OCC, OLA, DSEC, DDS, SOC
30.	BFO obtains invoice for payment of advertising services submitted by vendor after each round of publication and processes payment.	BFO	DDS, SOC
31.	Within 7-10 days of each publication, BFO obtains list from advertising vendor confirming actual dates of publication.	BFO	OCC
32.	No later than 14 days after the last advertisement, SOC via OLA certifies to all of the following of the dates on which publication in newspapers was completed: (1) each member of the PA Senate; (2) each member of the PA House; (3) the Secretary of the Senate; (4) the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives; and (5) the Parliamentarian of the House of Representatives.	OLA	OCC, SOC, DDS, DSEC
33.	No later than 14 days after the last advertisement, SOC via OCC certifies to the Legislative Reference Bureau of the dates on which publication in newspapers was completed.	OCC	OLA, SOC, DDS, DSEC

STEPS 34 THROUGH 39: SECOND PASSAGE ONLY
34.	If second passage, BE includes in the ballot certification to the county boards of elections in the form of the ballot question and the Plain Language Statement in accordance with timing requirements for ballot certification under state and federal law.	BE	OCC
35.	BE compiles and prepares the election returns pertaining to the proposed constitutional amendment for certification by the SOC.	BE	OCC, SOC
36.	The SOC certifies the results of the election on the proposed constitutional amendment.	SOC	BE
37.	OCC prepares a proclamation for the Governor's signature indicating whether or not the proposed amendment has been adopted by the voters. (See Appendix E)	OCC	EOA, BE
38.	The SOC delivers the certified results for the proposed constitutional amendment to the Governor and obtains the Governor's signature on the proclamation.	SOC	OCC
39.	OCC delivers the original proclamation to the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) for publication in the next volume of the Laws of Pennsylvania (i.e., Pamphlet Laws) and the PA Bulletin. OCC returns a time stamped copy of the proclamation to DOS for the agency's files. OCC follows hard copy delivery with an email notification to the LRB's Code & Bulletin Office and the LRB's Editing and Publishing Office, including the Word version of the proclamation with the email.	OCC	BCNL

40.

DDS retains all records related to the publication of the Constitutional Amendment in accordance with the records retention schedule.

DDS

EOA, OCC, BFO

Training and Questions Regarding this Procedure

The DDS must ensure that all owners and their designated staff members are trained at the time of onboarding and at least once annually thereafter on these procedures.

At the completion of training, all staff members will understand:

* How to identify a joint resolution

* How to track the progress of a proposed joint resolution

* How to assign a joint resolution number

* Who is responsible and accountable for each task

* How to track the joint resolution through completion of every task

Specific staff members with specialized tasks will also receive training relating to:

* How to track proposed legislation

* How to assign a joint resolution number and route it to the Executive Office and DDS publication and financing for a joint resolution

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Publication requirements

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Process for selecting newspapers for publication

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Rules regarding language access

* The process for certifying a proposed constitutional amendment

* The process for certifying the results of the election on a proposed constitutional

* Reviewing ad copy

Employees who have questions related to this process and these procedures should address them to the Designated Deputy Secretary (DDS).

Appendices

A. Sample Constitutional Amendment Advertisement (First Passage)

B. Sample Constitutional Amendment Advertisement (Second Passage)

C. Form Affidavit for Completion by Newspaper for Missed Publication

D. Form Affidavit for Completion by Advertising Vendor for Missed Publication

E. Sample Proclamation of the Governor

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Version History:

Version	Date	Description
1.0	April 2021	Initial document release
1.1	July 2021	Minor revisions
2.0	August 2022	Act 86 of 2022 update

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