One county’s primary turnout was insanely high

• Emily Previti/PA Post
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  Emily is a reporter for WITF who’s been covering voting and elections since July 2019 as part of her former role with statehouse accountability news organization PA Post. She was the senior reporter for statewide public media collaboration Keystone Crossroads. Previously, she covered city hall for PennLive/The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.), was a watchdog and city hall reporter at The Press of Atlantic City and reported for the Northwest Herald. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
  
  See other articles by Emily Previti for WITF.

 Image courtesy of the Pa. Department of State

Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District

From The Context, PA Post’s weekday email newsletter:

Last call

Image courtesy of the Pa. Department of State

Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District

• Voter turnout was about 50 percent in Union County earlier this week — unheard of for a municipal primary, but likely attributable to the special election for the 12th congressional district. It was relatively high in other counties in Pa-12, too, according to this breakdown from The Daily Item.

• While results in the 12th bode well for the GOP, it was a different story in Western Pa., Chris Potter explains in his analysis for WESA.

• Shamokin voters shot down a ballot initiative that would’ve let the city craft a home rule charter. Officials were pushing the measure to help the distressed city find longterm financial stability. More here.

Best of the rest

Matt Rourke / The Associated Press

An attorney with the Institute for Justice, Erica Smith, center right, embraces Courtney Haveman, center, and Amanda Spillane, right as lawyer Andrew Ward looks on during a news conference in view of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018. Haveman and Spillane, who were denied licenses to work as estheticians as a result of running afoul of a state good moral character rule, due to past drug-related convictions, are challenging the regulation in a lawsuit.

• Pennsylvania regulates licenses for more than 250 professions. And ex-offenders can be denied them, even years after their conviction and for jobs where a criminal past seems immaterial. WITF’s Katie Meyer has this story about legislation that would change the situation.

• Governor Tom Wolf hiked Glen Onoko Falls Trail in Carbon County this week to draw attention to his Restore Pennsylvania plan to address infrastructure needs. The popular, picturesque trail was closed a couple weeks ago due to erosion and other issues that created dangerous conditions for hikers. The Citizens’ Voice was there and has this story.

• An environmental group is trying to get an appeals court to order the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to develop maximum contaminant levels for toxic chemicals recently detected in high concentrations in groundwater throughout the state. Jon Hurdle has been following the issue and details the case brought by Delaware Riverkeeper Network in this story for StateImpact Pennsylvania.