More Pa. counties calling for all-mail primary election

But Pa. legislature, governor not yet ready to issue mandate

• 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.

A bill laying out how Pennsylvania would reopen for business passed the state House of Representatives late yesterday nearly along party lines. State Rep. Joseph Hohenstein (D-Philadelphia) protested that the bill puts “profit above people.” But Majority Leader Brian Cutler (R-Lancaster) said the state needs a plan, given “the possibility that coronavirus will be a threat for months or years,” PA Post’s Ed Mahon writes. Senate Bill 613 now goes to Gov. Tom Wolf.

Wolf says he opposes the measure, but wouldn’t commit to vetoing it when Ed asked the question during a call with reporters Tuesday.

I asked Gov. Wolf about his plan for dealing with the June 2 presidential primary. Some smaller counties have said for quite a while that virus fears will make it impossible to staff polling places. To avoid that problem, they want an all-mail election. Now, with no end in sight for coronavirus restrictions, the most populous jurisdictions are saying the same, as we mentioned in yesterday’s edition.

“I have not decided what it would take for me to say we’re actually at the point where we ought to do it, but it is something that we are discussing,” Wolf said.

Pa.’s Department of State, however, sees notable challenges to an all-mail election, including “accessibility to registered voters with disabilities and ensuring registration lists are accurate so that ballots are mailed to the correct addresses,” spokeswoman Wanda Murren wrote in an email.

House Republicans “would be disappointed” if Wolf issued an executive order mandating an all-mail election, according to spokesman Mike Straub, who didn’t respond to follow-up questions about whether the GOP would challenge unilateral moves by Wolf on this issue.

Republicans don’t “see all-mail as necessary,” given state law was changed last fall to allow every registered voter to apply for a mailed ballot without an excuse. GOP legislators want to “see how this expansion plays out before changing [the law] again,” Straub wrote in an email.

The Associated Press says voters are already taking advantage of the reforms passed last fall: “Pennsylvania counties have processed about 283,000 absentee and mail-in ballots for the June primary, and requests from Democrats are three times more common than from Republicans, state elections officials said Tuesday.”

Workers, employers struggle to obtain aid

So far, Pa.’s legislators aren’t spending a lot of energy debating whether to delay the June 2 primary until later in the summer or going all-mail, given their focus on the legislation to reopen businesses closed as part of the effort to curtail the spread of coronavirus in the state.

Since the economic shutdown started in mid-March, more than 1.3 million Pennsylvanians have filed for unemployment benefits, according to the most recent update from the state Department of Labor & Industry.

Many of those newly unemployed continue to struggle to access financial assistance.

Jim Redcay, the Lancaster County woodworker mentioned in Monday’s Context, says he still hasn’t received the personal ID number required to finish filing for unemployment benefits.

The state mails PINs to filers after they initiate a claim, which Redcay did nearly one month ago (he’s not the only one I’ve heard from who’s been waiting that long). That’s far longer than the two or three weeks L&I said claimants should expect to wait as the department struggles to accommodate historic filing levels.

But state officials say the mailroom backlog was cleared as of Monday. So, now, filers shouldn’t wait more than seven days to get their PINs by mail, according to Susan Dickinson, L&I director of the office of unemployment compensation benefits policy.

The department also confirmed it will have the benefit application portal for self-employed workers online within two weeks.

[It seems unlikely that Redcay’s employer would reopen if the GOP legislature passes SB613, which would reopen only certain construction projects. But he might if lawmakers adopt a different House measure that would restart all building projects. Ed Mahon details the differences and the debate over construction during the coronavirus in this explainer.]

In the meantime, some gig workers, sole proprietors and small businesses have applied for a share of the $376 billion in Small Business Administration funding  included in the CARES Act.

WITF’s Smart Talk discussed the issue — in particular, the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program — with local public and banking officials Tuesday morning. And WESA produced this story about African-American business owners struggling to get aid from the federal programs.

Later, I followed up with the Pennsylvania Bankers Association because I heard from a few self-proprietors who said they’d been having trouble applying. One said her longtime bank outright rejected her PPP application. Another says it’s been weeks without a word on his dual request for disaster relief and EIDL advance.

But it turns out local banks didn’t get federal guidance until midmorning Tuesday, and the banking association is reviewing next steps, according to association spokeswoman Sara Hocker.

Coronavirus stories from around the state: 

• House lawmakers sent a bill to Wolf Tuesday that would loosen Sunshine Act rules governing how municipal meetings are run. No word yet on whether Wolf will sign the measure, PA Post’s Ben Pontz reports.

• Wolf is quoted in this New York Times piece: U.S. Governors, at Center of Virus Response, Weigh What It Will Take to Reopen States

• The state has declared a fiscal emergency in the city of Chester. Despite two decades of state intervention, the municipality remains financially fragile enough that already it’s clear COVID-19 will send its balance sheets irreparably into the red, according to the Delaware County Daily Times.

• Spotlight PA: State universities facing immediate hit of up to $100 million as lawmaker floats closures as worst-case scenario

• PennLive: Real estate shutdown in Pa. wreaks havoc: Some face two mortgages, others have no home

• Reading Eagle: Is Berks County staying home? In coronavirus age, data reveal which counties are following order

• LNP: Lancaster County hiring COVID-19 adviser; mayor says some still not social distancing

• Don’t miss: The Pennsylvania Coronavirus Tracker from F&M’s Center for Opinion Research

Coronavirus national/world headlines: 

• The Washington Post: CDC, FEMA have created a plan to reopen America. Here’s what it says

• Route Fifty: COVID-19 data lag might be giving Americans false hope

• The New Yorker: Who will profit from the COVID-19 economic crisis

• Wall Street Journal: A Second Round of Coronavirus Layoffs Has Begun. Few Are Safe

• ProPublica: There’s Been a Spike in People Dying at Home in Several Cities. That Suggests Coronavirus Deaths Are Higher Than Reported

• Associated Press: China didn’t warn public of likely pandemic for 6 key days

• StatNews: Some social distancing may be needed into 2022 to keep coronavirus in check, new study says

Working from home:

• Read: Why the office dress code should never come back, from The Atlantic

• Watch: How to sit properly while working from your couch, according to Prana Functional Manual Therapy of Lancaster

• Listen: Performers tell the Wall Street Journal how they’re creating and sharing their work during the pandemic

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