HARRISBURG - Gov. Ed Rendell is forming a task force to study whether to move up Pennsylvania's primaries so that voters have an earlier say in choosing presidential candidates and whether to allow early voting to avoid long lines at the polls.

Rendell spoke to reporters Monday before Democrats gathered in the House of Representatives and officially cast the state's 21 electoral ballots for John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for president who won Pennsylvania but lost the national election to President Bush, and his running mate, John Edwards.

While elections went "very well" in Pennsylvania this year, Rendell said, there are ways the process can be made more accessible.

"It's been awhile since any nomination process lasted into April, so I think we should look long and hard (into) moving up our presidential primary to make Pennsylvania relevant in this process," the Democrat said.

House Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, said he has pushed for the idea before, and could support it again.

"Right now we really don't count in these primaries," Perzel said. "I'm willing to look at it."

Rendell also wants the task force to explore making the use of absentee ballots less restrictive, splitting presidential electoral votes proportionally among the candidates, and sending overseas ballots out earlier to give those citizens more time to return them.

He also said the state needs to do a better job educating the public about the function of provisional ballots, which were used for the first time this year. The ballots, which are designed to accommodate first-time voters who are registered, but cannot produce identification at the polling station, were treated as "same-day registration" ballots by many unregistered voters, Rendell said.

About 50 percent of the 41,939 provisional ballots cast in 47 reporting counties were either fully or partially counted, Rendell said.

The 13-member panel would be chaired by Secretary of State Pedro Cortes and include appointees of Rendell, legislative leaders, the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania and the League of Women Voters. It would make recommendations by April 15.

Rendell also said that he wanted to explore a way to put the task of drawing legislative and congressional districts into the hands of a nonpartisan board, instead of the Legislature. Under the current system, politics - not voter interest - often drives the process, he said. However, the latter item would not be a part of the task force's responsibility and would not be an immediate priority, he added.

Later, in the House, Pennsylvania's 21 electors cast their votes for Kerry and Edwards in a carefully constructed 90-minute ceremony held every four years. Following an oath of office by each elector and an address by Rendell, electors wrote their votes on square white cards and, three at a time, dropped the cards into a wooden box before tellers hand-counted the vote.

While Democrats said they were gratified that Pennsylvania had gone Democratic in two consecutive close presidential elections, they also talked about uniting behind the president.

"Although I am definitely proud that Pennsylvania is a blue state ... we're all Pennsylvanians and we're all Americans," Rendell told electors.