Marian K. Schneider
HARRISBURG — Marian K. Schneider, Deputy Secretary for Elections and Administration and a Chester County resident, is the 2016 recipient of the Public Guardian award from the Election Verification Network (EVN) in part for her role in creating an online voter registration system.
Schneider, who was appointed deputy secretary by Gov. Tom Wolf in February 2015, received the award Sunday, March 13, at the EVN annual conference in Washington, D.C.
“Marian Schneider is respected across the country for her vigorous, informed advocacy of verifiable voting systems,” said Mark Lindeman, chair of EVN’s Coordinating Committee. “As Deputy Secretary for Elections and Administration, she has further distinguished herself through her role in implementing a secure and user-friendly online voting registration system. Pennsylvania is fortunate to be able to draw upon her depth and breadth of expertise in election administration.”
EVN is a national network of leaders, experts and policy makers who work together to improve elections in the U.S. Many participants are affiliated with election offices, universities or non-governmental organizations. While EVN focuses on the integrity of voting systems, the group’s work covers the spectrum of election integrity issues, including privacy, accessibility, civil rights and voter experience.
The Public Guardian award recognizes a public official or governmental unit at any level or branch of government, including election officials, legislators, and procurement officers, for their work in protecting election integrity and promoting verifiable elections.
“I am very honored and touched to be recognized by such an esteemed group of scholars, elections officials and advocates as EVN,” Schneider said. “I look forward to putting our shared values into practice in my role as deputy secretary.”
Schneider has worked on election and voting rights issues since 2005. Her experience includes many aspects of election administration, contested elections and voting rights. She has litigated or consulted on several high-impact voting rights cases including English v. Chester County Board of Elections, the successful 2008 case against Chester County for failure to move the inadequately sized Lower Oxford East polling place to a more spacious polling place on the Lincoln University.
Schneider was co-counsel along with ACLU-PA, Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia and pro bono counsel Arnold & Porter in Applewhite v. Commonwealth, in which the Commonwealth Court held that Pennsylvania’s restrictive photo ID law was an unconstitutional infringement on the fundamental right to vote. She has been a frequent lecturer and speaker on voting rights issues.
Prior to her appointment with the Department of State, Deputy Secretary Schneider was a Senior Attorney at Advancement Project, a national, non-partisan, non-profit civil rights and racial justice organization based in Washington, D.C. She served as the lead attorney in Advancement Project’s Voter Protection Program in Pennsylvania and Virginia working to eliminate barriers to voting for voters of color.
Marian Schneider also deserves credit in the case filed in 2006 that prevented the state from making direct recording electronic voting machines, which create no physical record of votes, standard in polling places. The optical scan machines we use now create a written record that can be verified in case a count is manifestly wrong or a recount is needed. Thanks to that case, we can be sure our votes are actually recorded and counted.