A stack of ballots that arrived at the Berks County Office of Election Services June 4, two days after the deadline. Many thousands of ballots were late statewide, even in the seven jurisdictions covered by deadline extension orders.
Emily Previti/PA Post
Emily Previti/PA Post
A stack of ballots that arrived at the Berks County Office of Election Services June 4, two days after the deadline. Many thousands of ballots were late statewide, even in the seven jurisdictions covered by deadline extension orders.
Emily Previti/PA Post
A stack of ballots that arrived at the Berks County Office of Election Services June 4, two days after the deadline. Many thousands of ballots were late statewide, even in the seven jurisdictions covered by deadline extension orders. (Emily Previti / PA Post)
Across the state, voting rights advocates and county officials agree the legislature must modify Pa.’s election code to avert disaster in November.
And they say deliberations need to start now. The problem: Republican legislators are planning to wait until late July to start those talks, just before a detailed report on last week’s primary would be due under a bill sent to the governor Wednesday.
Stakeholders vary on what changes they believe are needed.
The majority of election directors want to start processing mailed ballots sooner, with sanctions and security measures in place to ensure results aren’t released early (as they explained to legislators more than one month before the primary).
“They can make it a felony. I’ve never met a candidate worth going to jail for,” said Lycoming County Elections Director Forrest Lehman earlier this week. He also said ballot scanners could possibly be programmed to prevent tabulation except in response to a single set of credentials.
How soon should counties be allowed to process mail-in ballots? Suggestions range from the Monday before the election to two weeks prior to Election Day; state Sen. Stephen Santarsiero (D-Bucks) on Wednesday called for a 21-day lead time.
Even counties that had unofficial results on primary night want changes in place for the general election.
“The amount of work involved in opening and prepping ballots is exorbitant. Elections offices need to be allowed to begin this process sooner,” said Northampton County Election Director Amy Cozze. “We were able to have completed election results on election night this time around, but when the number of mail-in ballots more than doubles in the fall we will not be able to have results that quickly.”
A few voting officials, including those in Blair, Montour and Erie counties, said an earlier start time wouldn’t be much help since they are busy with so many other tasks leading up to the election.
And some say more election infrastructure upgrades – e.g., state funding for electronic poll books and an updated voter registration system — would be a critical part of the equation to deal with the problem of voters who applied for a mail-in ballot but decide to show up in-person. This proved to be a significant burden in the primary, as we reported last week.
If those changes aren’t possible, some election officials say a two-week buffer between the deadline for applying for a mail-in ballot and the election night deadline for a voter to return it could greatly help to cut down on confusion. Currently, voters can apply all the way up until one week before Election Day.
Another way around this would be sending ballots to all voters — or, at minimum, applications for mail-in ballots (which Allegheny and Luzerne actually did for the primary), according to voting rights advocates
A few election officials — including those in Erie and Sullivan counties — say they want to give mail-in ballots up to one week to arrive at elections offices, so long as they are postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day. This is the policy Gov. Wolf put in place in a handful of counties for the primary.
“That’s allowing us the opportunity to … make sure every ballot was recorded as returned before opening and scanning,” said Erie County Election Supervisor Tonia Fernandez.
But most election directors who responded to our query this week think the deadline for mailed ballot return should remain Election Day, with some (Dauphin, Delaware and York among them) instead advocating for an earlier application deadline for voters who are requesting one without an excuse.
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
A cyclist ride past a portrait of George Floyd, left, and Breonna Taylor, on Tuesday, June 9. 2020, that were painted last weekend by a group of two dozen Pittsburgh artists along the Three Rivers Heritage trail along the Allegheny River in downtown Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Protests continued across Philadelphia and multiple suburbs Wednesday for the 12th straight day of demonstrations against racism and excessive use of force by police. Also Wednesday: The National Guard started demobilizing after 10 days in Philly, just as news broke that city officials specifically authorized police to use tear gas to disperse protesters.
In Pittsburgh, local artists are continuing work on a new Black Lives Matter mural in a prominent spot along the Allegheny River, where police declined to enforce complaints about the project begun without any official notification of or approval from the city, as WESA reported Wednesday. It’s a different note struck from the one revealed in this Pittsburgh City Paper piece that detailing the events of the first weekend of protests that transpired without much in the way of official documentation and are now being reconstructed by the county’s public defender (even as the district attorney drops dozens of charges against protestors arrested during the incident).
Policing was the topic of a public meeting in Berks County last night. PA Post’s Anthony Orozco live-tweeted the session, while the Reading Eagle produced this story.
Republicans are suing Gov. Tom Wolf to try to force an end to the state’s disaster proclamation. They filed a lawsuit Wednesday afternoon before Wolf could make good on his own threat to seek judicial intervention. At issue is a resolution passed Tuesday to end Pa.’s coronavirus state of emergency. Legal scholars say the courts might avoid getting fully involved in such a politically charged matter. And it “could create a separate separation of powers issue, since it would mean the judiciary ordering the executive branch to take action,” Ben Pontz writes in this story for PA Post examining the fight that could have huge implications for how state officials handle future emergencies.
Erie is making its case to the state Board of Education for creating a new community college in the county. Ed Mahon watched Wednesday’s full-day of hearings on the proposal and produced this story for PA Post. The board is expected to vote today. As always, there’s politics in play, as the state’s most powerful senator opposes Erie’s application. (Here’s GoErie.com’s story on the hearing.)
After 13 years, the state Department of Health isn’t re-upping its emergency response agreement with the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania. State health officials deny HHAP’s major lobbying power played into their decision to shift gears mid-pandemic and forge a new partnership with a Philadelphia nonprofit instead. Meanwhile, HHAP representatives told WITF Transforming Health reporter Brett Sholtis they were “shocked and dismayed” to lose the contract. Federal rules require states to retain a group to coordinate responses to health emergencies (like a pandemic), Brett reports.
The York Daily Record reports that construction magnate Robert Kinsley died Wednesday at the age of 79. Here’s a 1998 YDR profile of Kinsley.
Further reading:
ESPN: NASCAR bans Confederate flag from events. The Pocono Raceway, which hosts a big race later this month, said it backed the decision, WNEP reports.
NPR: Pittsburgh editor defends sidelining black reporter, citing journalism ethics
Pittsburgh City Paper: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editor’s photo with Trump proves own journalistic bias he claims to condemn
BillyPenn: I’m a doctor who treated protesters tear-gassed and shot by rubber bullets
Philadelphia Magazine: WATCH: Senator Bob Casey Talks About the Police Reform Bill He’s Co-Sponsored
Louisville Courier-Journal: Police release the Breonna Taylor incident report. It’s nearly blank.
Stateline: After George Floyd, some school districts cut ties with police
