Ghost in the (voting) machine

• 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.

 Matt Rourke / AP Photo

Steve Marcinkus, an Investigator with the Office of the City Commissioners, demonstrates the ExpressVote XL voting machine at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, Thursday, June 13, 2019.

Problems in Northampton and York counties

Matt Rourke / AP Photo

Steve Marcinkus, an Investigator with the Office of the City Commissioners, demonstrates the ExpressVote XL voting machine at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, Thursday, June 13, 2019.

• Northampton County had major problems with the ExpressVote XL when the machine debuted there Tuesday (following months of controversy over the decision to buy the machines there as well as in Philly, not to mention the ongoing objections by some activists to the state’s certification of the XL in the first place). We’ll be following that story’s many angles; our first report on what went wrong in Northampton is here. The county executive and a representative from the XL’s manufacturer were apologetic about the problems and vowed to get to the root of them and ensure they don’t happen again during the 2020 primary and general election. WHYY captured similar sentiments from officials in Philadelphia, who also rolled out the XL Tuesday.

• The Pennsylvania Republican Party got a lot of attention Tuesday night when it claimed York County’s handling of the election was an example of widespread problems with Gov. Wolf’s program to upgrade voting machines across the state. Seems some face-to-face conversations and a good night’s sleep had everyone on better terms Wednesday. PA Post‘s Ed Mahon has a story on what happened in York and what officials there are doing to avert any problems in 2020.

• Incumbents swept elections for the Tamaqua school board despite recent controversies over arming teachers and the board president’s sexual misconduct case. Jen Kinney’s been following this story for Keystone Crossroads. Her latest is here.

• One Democrat and one Republican emerged victorious Wednesday from the four-candidate field in a statewide judicial race that was too close to call Tuesday night, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. More analysis here from the Legal Intelligencer.   `

• Supporters of a victims’ rights ballot initiative overwhelmingly supported by voters Tuesday are calling on opponents to drop the lawsuit that has the amendment in limbo. More here from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Best of the rest

Susquehanna Township EMS tend to a patient being transported to the hospital. (Brett Sholtis/Transforming Health)

• Drug overdoses have spiked in the past few days in Dauphin County. EMT’s told Brett Sholtis they’ve also had to administer a relatively high dose of narcan to revive people after an OD. Brett explores what’s behind the surge in this Transforming Health story.

• Pennsylvania’s hardwood industry employs about 63,000 people — and they’ve been affected by the ongoing trade war with China. WPSU’s Anne Danahy traveled to McKean, Forest and Clarion counties to learn more about how businesses are managing. Listen/read here.

• The city of Reading made history on Tuesday with the election of its first Latino mayor. But Berks County voters made history too by election a Republican county commissioner who also happens to be Latino. The Reading Eagle has more on Michael Rivera here.

• State Attorney General Josh Shapiro addressed his biggest cases, his gubernatorial ambitions and more during a sitdown Wednesday with LNP’s editorial board. You can read their recap or watch the entire discussion here.