Pennsylvania
When will Pa. primary election results be ready?
This story originally appeared on Spotlight PA.
Election experts in Pennsylvania expect largely smooth sailing at the polls this week, anticipating the unofficial results for most races on the April 23 ballot will be available on election night.
Pennsylvania has been holding elections using no-excuse mail voting since 2019, and the state has steadily moved from persistent delays in reporting results to relatively quick turnarounds. This has been accomplished mostly thanks to workers’ increasing familiarity with the mail process, and state grants allowing counties to upgrade their equipment.
“I would expect almost all counties to be able to report an overwhelming number of those ballots on election night,” said Jeff Greenburg, a former Mercer County election director who now works for the good-government group Committee of Seventy. He added that “there could be a few that stretch into Wednesday.”
On the ballot are candidates for president and U.S. Senate, though those races are essentially decided on both sides of the aisle. More lively are the races for Pennsylvania’s three row offices: both the Democratic and Republican attorney general primaries have multiple candidates, and there are competitive Democratic primaries for treasurer and auditor general.
The state House and Senate are also full of races to watch.
Final outcomes for most of the races in both chambers will be decided in the primary, thanks in part to legislative maps that have created a relatively small number of truly swingable districts. Races to watch include those of state House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler, who is being challenged from the right for his Lancaster County district, and Democratic state Rep. Amen Brown, who faces two challengers to his left in a West Philly district that has in recent years seen repeated turnover in its representation.
As of Friday morning, the Pennsylvania Department of State had approved nearly 896,000 applications for mail ballots; it approved 1.82 million during the presidential primary in 2020. That year, just under 80% of voters returned those mail ballots, according to the department.
Voters who have already filled out and returned their mail ballots may have noticed several changes from previous years. The department put these in place to cut down on common ballot errors like failing to sign or date them, misdating them, or forgetting to use an interior secrecy envelope, according to Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt.
“Since the 2020 election cycle, thousands of mail ballots have not been able to be counted because of errors that voters made while completing their mail ballots,” Schmidt said in one of several recent, daily updates on election preparations.
The redesigned ballots include an instruction sheet that has graphics. The interior secrecy envelope is now yellow, which Schmidt says is intended to distinguish it more clearly from the outer envelope. The outer envelope also has a colored stripe to help the Postal Service identify election mail, and it includes a revised section for dating and signing the ballot that highlights where these elements must go.
The redesign also is in part an acknowledgment of the state laws and court rulings currently dictating Pennsylvania’s mail voting rules.
The handling of undated and misdated ballots, in particular, is still under active litigation. The most recent decision on the subject saw a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rule that ballots must be properly dated. If a voter fails to date an outer ballot envelope or writes a clearly incorrect date, such as their birthday, counties must reject the ballot.
Voting rights groups are appealing the ruling on the grounds that a missing or incorrect date is an immaterial error, and that rejecting these ballots disenfranchises eligible voters. However, the status quo will not change before the primary election.
There also remain several areas of state law in which there is no consistent statewide rule. Counties can decide whether to offer remote drop boxes for mail ballot returns. And they can decide whether to offer ballot curing, in which election officials notify voters of mail ballot mistakes before Election Day.
A Pennsylvania court ruling is reshaping abortion access in the state, striking down a decades-old ban on using Medicaid to pay for abortions and declaring that the Pennsylvania Constitution guarantees a right to abortion.
The decision came Monday from the state’s Commonwealth Court. In a 4-3 vote, judges ruled in favor of abortion rights in Pennsylvania and invalidated the state’s restriction on Medicaid-funded abortions.
Local abortion-rights advocates praised the ruling as a major step toward protecting access for low-income residents. Adrienne Daily, co-founder of Johnstown for Choice, said, “Everybody should have the right to that. If you restrict the coverage, you’re obviously discriminating against those that have lower income.”
Opponents of abortion rights called the decision a dramatic expansion of the court’s power and warned it will force taxpayers to pay for procedures they oppose. Michael Geer, president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, said, “Taxpayers now in Pennsylvania will have no choice under this court ruling to fund abortions. And there are many, many millions of Pennsylvanians who think abortion is wrong. It’s the taking of an innocent human life and to force taxpayers who conscientiously object to abortion to then fund it is just plain wrong.”
Abortion-rights advocates pushed back, arguing abortion access is healthcare and a personal decision. Daily said, “This is a family issue. This is a personal issue. This is a bodily autonomy issue.”
Pro-life leaders also warned the ruling could have broader implications for other abortion-related laws. Geer said, “It is sweeping and there’s no question it’s judicial overreach.” He added, “If this ruling stands, it will invite attacks on every remaining pro-life safeguard that has been put into law by lawmakers at the behest to the people of Pennsylvania over decades.”
The case could still be appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. That decision lies with Republican Attorney General Dave Sunday. His office has not provided a response, but the Associated Press reported a spokesperson said the office is reviewing the decision and did not say whether it will appeal.
Johnstown, Pa. (WJAC) — The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just released this year’s list of inductees, and a new clothing store just opened in the Johnstown Galleria.
What do these two things have in common?
If you grew up listening to 90’s hip-hop, then you’re probably familiar with the Wu-Tang Clan.
Wu-Tang Clan member opens clothing store in Pennsylvania (WJAC)
They said, “We’re in the building right now, we’re out in Johnstown making it happen, fashion and rapping, and Wu-Tang, you already know Wu-Tang is the witty, unpredictable talent and natural game. So, it’s all grassroots with us, man. We do everything from scratch.”
They’re being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, and Darryl Hill, aka Cappadonna, and manager Al “Heck” Felder are opening the Pillage, a clothing store in the Johnstown Galleria, selling apparel with a purpose.
Cappadonna said, “‘Cappadonna,’ that stands for ‘Consider All Poor People Acceptable, Don’t Oppress Nor Neglect Anyone,’ and we stand on that.”
They were introduced to mall owner Leo Karruli through Mustafa Curry, a childhood friend from New York, who owns a store on Main Street in Johnstown.
Heck said, “BK Styles, I’ve got to give a shout out to my boy, Mustafa. They’ve got some apparel down there, too. We’re all over. We’re spreading the word and we’re spreading the love.”
Wu-Tang Clan member opens clothing store in Pennsylvania (WJAC)
Their other clothing line, Angry Elephant, promotes being good stewards of the Earth, with a portion of the proceeds protecting the animals from poachers.
They said they believe in always putting God and family first.
Cappadonna said, “When you recognize the God in us, then you can see the God in you.”
They said they want kids to know that violence is not the answer, and it doesn’t cost anything to be kind.
Cappadonna said, “We just want to say that it’s nice to be important, but it’s even more important to be nice.”
A mother and her six children died when their Central Pennsylvania home exploded and caught on fire Sunday morning, state police said.
The explosion and fire happened at around 8:30 a.m. at a home on Long Run Road in Lamar Township, Clinton County, which is roughly 35 miles from State College. Crews arrived on the scene and found the home fully engulfed in flames, with the mother and her six children trapped.
State police identified the 34-year-old woman who died in the fire as Sarah B. Stolzfus. Her 11-year-old son, 10-year-old son, 8-year-old daughter, 6-year-old daughter, 5-year-old son and 3-year-old son also died in the blaze, according to state police.
A propane leak inside the house might’ve caused the explosion and fire, state police said. Propane tanks outside the home did not explode or contribute to the fire, according to state police.
The explosion and fire are under investigation by state police.
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