Pennsylvania

Partisan gridlock prevents fixes to Pennsylvania’s voting laws as presidential election looms

Published

2 years ago

June 15, 2024

Partisan gridlock prevents fixes to Pennsylvania’s voting laws as presidential election looms

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania is seeing lots of action targeting gaps in its vote-by-mail laws. The problem is that it’s in the courtroom and not the legislature.

That could make the most populous presidential swing state a hotbed of challenges and conspiracy theories if the November election is close, as expected.

The state also has a U.S. Senate contest between Democratic incumbent Bob Casey and Republican challenger David McCormick that will help determine control of the chamber, increasing scrutiny on election offices if lawmakers can’t break a partisan stalemate and vote-counting is slowed by mailed ballots.

“Everyone just really feels how high the stakes are in Pennsylvania, being the largest swing state in the country,” said Lauren Cristella, president and CEO of the Committee of Seventy, a Philadelphia-based good-government group.

Political gridlock in Pennsylvania over election laws dates to 2019, when a Republican-controlled legislature greatly expanded voting by mail in a compromise with then-Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.

Within months, then-President Donald Trump began, without evidence, demonizing voting by mail as rife with fraud, turning Republican voters against it and leading Republican lawmakers to backtrack on their support. He has taken contradictory stances this year — promoting mail voting while also supporting lawsuits against it.

The attacks on mail voting have created partisan battle lines around attempts to fix it in Pennsylvania.

Democrats also want to add early in-person voting, a convenience already adopted by most states, but it’s been a nonstarter for Republicans. Unlike some other states, Pennsylvanian voters can’t change their election laws because the state constitution doesn’t allow citizens to write their own ballot initiatives.

As a result, election-related lawsuits are sprouting in state, federal and county courts, nearly all targeting mail-in voting.

Across the country, Republicans are trying more than ever now to get their voters to vote by mail, a striking change for a party that amplified conspiracy theories about mail ballots in an attempt to explain away Trump’s 2020 loss.

Still, voting by mail remains largely the province of Democrats. In Pennsylvania, roughly three-fourths of mail-in ballots tend to be cast by Democrats.

Among the most important fixes to the state’s mail balloting law is one sought by counties. It would allow local election offices to begin processing mail-in ballots before Election Day, something nearly every other state with mail voting allows. That would help them produce results more quickly on election night.

Democrats also have sought to resolve a storm of litigation by clarifying the law so that mail-in ballots that lack a handwritten date on the outer envelope, a signature or an inner secrecy envelope can still be counted. Thousands of those ballots get thrown out, although Democratic-leaning counties typically try to help voters fix those errors, so their ballots will count.

Without any fixes in state law, Democrats expect a repeat in November of the chaos around the 2020 election.

Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party chair, Sharif Street, said the state is capable of having a fair and well-run election under its existing laws. But, he said, Trump and his allies aren’t interested in that.

“He doesn’t want a smooth process in Pennsylvania or anywhere, because he believes that the chaos benefits him both in the run-up to the election, because he can rally people around saying that ‘There is going to be a steal,’ and then post-election … (he can) point to irregularities to say that he is the rightful winner, when in fact he’s lost,” Street said.

Trump has been sowing doubts about this year’s election for months. At a rally last weekend, he said only widespread fraud could prevent him from getting reelected. “The only way they can beat us is to cheat,” he told supporters in Las Vegas.

Baseless allegations about fraud filled the vacuum during Pennsylvania’s protracted post-election vote count in 2020.

Charlie Gerow, a longtime Republican activist and strategist in Pennsylvania, said the GOP will be prepared to report and document fraud in ways it wasn’t prepared for in that year’s election. To be clear, voter fraud is extremely rare, typically involves just a few ballots and even involves Republican voters — some of whom have cast extra ballots for Trump.

An Associated Press investigation in 2021 found fewer than 475 cases of potential voter fraud across the six states where Trump disputed his loss, not nearly enough to tip the election. In Pennsylvania alone, Biden beat Trump by more than 80,000 votes.

When Democrats brought legislation to a House vote seeking to let counties process mailed ballots before Election Day — called pre-canvassing — a Republican lawmaker warned it “could lead to various forms of abuse and fraud.”

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican, said he hasn’t heard of a single state where that sort of fraud has occurred.

The legislation passed the Pennsylvania House, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats, but is stalled in the Senate, where majority Republicans are demanding that the House first pass a constitutional amendment to expand voter identification requirements.

“I am very worried about public perception and public concern that our process is not secure, and we need to figure out opportunities to make that process more secure,” said Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, a Republican.

Democratic House Majority Leader Matt Bradford said he also is worried by the legislative stalemate and its potential impact in November.

“We passed pre-canvassing to try to bring some semblance of certainty quickly, to give people a winner as quickly and accurately as possible,” Bradford said. “That has continued to languish.”

Meanwhile, fights over mail voting in the state are piling up in the courts.

One lawsuit by Republican lawmakers would force mail-in ballots to be counted in polling places, rather than county election offices. That would add “immense complexity and burden to election administration,” county governments opposed to the lawsuit said in court documents.

Democrats and left-leaning groups are suing in state and federal courts over the practice of throwing out mail-in ballots with a missing or incorrect handwritten date on the outer envelope.

And at least two Republican-controlled counties are being sued over their refusal to help voters fix technical errors with mail-in ballots — such as a missing date or inner secrecy envelope — to avoid the ballot getting tossed out.

A bright spot is that counties are getting better at counting mail-in ballots.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, 2.6 million voters — nearly 40% of the total in Pennsylvania — cast ballots by mail. That overwhelmed counties and required almost four days of post-election vote-counting before a presidential winner could be declared, deciding the contest.

Counties since then have bought more high-speed processing equipment and fine-tuned their Election Day routines to count more efficiently.

Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, expects to produce results on election night. In 2020, it needed most of the next day.

Philadelphia expects to wrap up most of its counting this fall within roughly 24 hours after polls close, a task that could be finished by election night if given the ability to process the ballots before Election Day.

“That is a very normal practice that happens all over the country,” said Seth Bluestein, a Republican election commissioner in Philadelphia. “The fact that we can’t do that in Pennsylvania is what will cause us to not count all the ballots on election night. It is the only cause, and the Legislature could have fixed it.”

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Follow Marc Levy: twitter.com/timelywriter

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

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Pennsylvania

USA Storms Back After Early Split, to Survive Pennsylvania Push to Win Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic

Published

6 hours ago

March 29, 2026

Press Room

USA Storms Back After Early Split, to Survive Pennsylvania Push to Win Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic

Pennsylvania taking down the USA All-Stars, at the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic, has happened a few times over the years, going back to the Dapper Dan Days, but the 2026 version at Peter’s Township High School in McMurray, Pennsylvania on Saturday evening would end with another win in the book for Team USA, 23-19.

USA Turns Mid-Match Surge Into Winning Edge

After splitting the first four matches, leading to a 6-6 tie, USA won five straight to go up 23-6 and then held off a late rally where the home state won the last three on the card, but not with enough bonus points to overtake the USA squad.

Pennsylvania’s Late Rally Falls Just Short

The match ended with three consecutive Pennsylvania victories, but PA needed bonus points in the final three bouts. Faith Christian’s No. 2 Adam Waters edged Lawrence North’s No. 1 Michael White of Indiana, 8-7, but left Pennsylvania without enough points available to overcome their deficit.

White is an explosive wrestler, capable of putting points up in bunches, but Waters was able to slow him down in the first frame. White gained a late takedown when he finished off a sweep single with about 10 seconds left. Waters chose down, and got an escape point, some hands to the face preceded a shot from Waters, that in our opinion, should have been whistled dead after Waters inadvertently poked White in the eye. With White calling for timeout, the referee allowed the action to continue, and Waters easily put him on the mat to tie it at four.

White went down for the third and hit Waters with a reversal. Waters would escape and then gather the winning takedown on a reattack to a double for an 8-6 advantage. White would get free but could not add any more points in an 8-7 Waters win.

Their only meeting prior to this one occurred at Fargo, where Waters jumped out to an early lead before suffering a hamstring injury. He tried to work through it but was hobbled and White came back to take the lead before Waters threw in the towel on an injury default. Waters fell to Delbarton’s No. 3 CJ Betz in the semis and did not get a chance to face White in the Ironman Finals. White beat Betz to claim the number one ranking.

Jayden James Tested, Responds Like a Champion

World Champ, No. 1 Jayden James (Delbarton, NJ) has been a bonus point machine this year, even taking down the number two guy in the country, Birmingham, California’s Slava Shahbazyan by tech fall in the 165-pound Doc Buchanan Final. So, it was reasonable to expect more of the same when James took on No. 9 at 157 pounds, Reagan Milheim (Warrior Run) at 160 pounds.

It seems Milheim did not agree to keep that script going and instead challenged James like he hadn’t been challenged this year, wrestling to a 10-10 tie in the third period that contained two takedowns earned by Milheim.

It looked like it would be a normal showcase for James as he started off in his typical manner and began to do the “take ‘em down, and let ‘em up” thing, building to a 6-2 count when Milheim surprised his foe with a dump to the back, although he was not able to secure back points, but was now only down by one as the first closed, 6-5.

The second period began with James back to attacking but he was held to just one takedown as Milheim, buoyed by his big move at the end of the first, was wrestling with renewed vigor. It was 9-7 at the start of the third, James got an escape point and then Milheim countered a shot from James with a simple spin behind to electrify the crowd.

Would they see James fall for the first time in two years to a high school grappler? With 1:21 left to go, James got it together and shut down Milheim, scoring a takedown on a spin behind of his own then adding three back points for the final, 17-10, tally.

Bonus Points Fuel Pennsylvania’s Final Push

No. 5 Elijah Brown of Belle Vernon put on the kind of display we’re used to seeing from James in his encounter with Valiant Prep, Arizona’s Kal-El Fluckiger. Valiant wrestlers don’t wrestle a high school schedule, so they are removed from the rankings during that period.

If Fluckiger was in the report, he would have been number five pushing everyone else down (Brown to six). The reason for that being Fluckiger won a Super 32 Belt and beat DuBois’ Kendahl Hoare there. Hoare dished Brown his only loss this year in an early season dual meet, 10-8.

Brown hit a blast double immediately and then started piling up back point going up 7-0 after 17 seconds. Two more sets of tilts would propel Brown to a quick, 15-0 tech of Fluckiger in 1:12.

No. 4 Dean Bechtold (Owen J. Roberts) followed Brown at heavyweight with an almost identical state line that culminated in a 15-0 technical fall of unranked Cliff Nicholson III (Medina, OH) in 1:31. Lake Highland Prep, Florida’s Tyler Dekraker is rated third at 144 pounds but competed here at 139 and dropped an 18-3 tech on No. 33 Dalton Wenner (Cranberry) in 4:23.

Trinity’s Will Detar (No. 12 at 132 pounds) provided the home crown a boost when he authored the first upset of the dual in his meeting with No. 9 Mason Jakob (Dobyns Bennett, TN) at 127 pounds.

Overtime Drama Highlights Competitive Night

Detar and Jakob took turns earning escapes but other than that just jostled for positioning over regulation. That changed in overtime as Detar got in on a low single and worked to the winning finish in the 4-1 win.

Bethlehem Catholic’s No. 4 Keanu Dillard followed Detar and also went into overtime to gain his win over Illinois’ No.7 Nicholas Garcia (Marmion Academy) at 133 pounds.

Like the previous bout, these two exchanged nothing but escapes during regulation. The similarities ended there as these two wrestled through a scoreless first overtime period and the Dillard took over with an escape and a spin behind following a poor shot from Garicia in the middle portion of OT. Dillard contained Garcia in the final frame for a 5-1 win in the tiebreaker.

Key Wins Spark USA’s Decisive Run

There were two 139-pound matches and in the first, No. 1 Moses Mendoza (Gilroy, CA) survived an early threat from No. 5 Camden Baum (Bishop McDevitt) to gain an 8-6 win and halt Pennsylvania’s streak at two and begin a run of five straight wins by the national squad.

Baum started off with a slick double leg and ended the first up 3-1. Mendoza started down in the second and hit a quick turn-in to a smooth single. After a Baum escape, Mendoza got right back in on a double for his final points. Baum added a third period escape to his total.

Oklahoma’s No. 4 Joseph Jeter (Edmond North) picked up the final USA win at the end of their five-match run with a 13-7 decision of No. 13 Gage Wentzel (Montoursville) at 172 pounds. It was all Jeter for two periods and after gaining four back points on an Assassin, he was up 11-0. Wentzel made a late charge in the third but was kept at bay.

A match between two guys who wrestled 150/152 pounds all season was held at 145 instead of having a second 152-pound bout as they did at 139. Wolbert (Oconomowoc, WI) is rated second and beat No.19 Michael Turi (Wyoming Seminary) 4-1 with the winning points coming in the first period.

At 121 pounds, No. 8 Alex Rozas (Teurlings Catholic, LA) greeted Chestnut Ridge’s Dominic Deputy (No, 12 at 132) in his match and kept the local grappler off the board in a 4-0 win where the big points came on a takedown in the final round on a heel pick.

The 152-pound matchup lacked the firepower of the others as the favorite, Hunter Stevens (Mt. Horeb, WI) was ranked 15th and was facing No. 30 Hudson Hohman (Grove City). Stevens’ 4-1 win came in the middle of Team USA’s winning streak.

Team USA 23, PA All-Stars 19

(match started at 121)

121-Alex Rozas (USA) dec Dominic Deputy, 4-0

127-Will Detar (PA) dec Mason Jakob, 4-1 SV OT

133-Keanu Dillard (PA) dec Nicholas Garcia, 5-1 OT TB2

139-Moses Mendoza (USA) dec Camden Baum, 8-6

139-Tyler Dekraker (USA) tech fall Dalton Wenner, 18-3 (4:23)

145-Kellen Wolbert (USA) dec Michael Turi, 4-1

152-Hunter Stevens (USA) dec Hudson Hohman, 4-1

160-Jayden James (USA) dec Reagan Milheim, 17-10

172-Joseph Jeter (USA) dec Gage Wentzel, 13-7

189-Adam Waters (PA) dec Michael White, 8-7

215-Elijah Brown (PA) tech fall Kal-El Fluckiger, 15-0 (1:12)

285-Dean Bechtold (PA) tech fall Cliff Nicholson III, 15-0 (1:31)

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Pennsylvania

Greencastle fire company gets unclaimed money from PA Treasury

Published

18 hours ago

March 29, 2026

Press Room

Greencastle fire company gets unclaimed money from PA Treasury

A Greencastle fire company received $16,000 in unclaimed funds from the Pennsylvania Treasury.
Pennsylvania currently holds about $5 billion in unclaimed property, with one in ten residents estimated to have a claim.
Unclaimed property can include uncashed checks, old bank accounts, and tangible items from abandoned safe deposit boxes.
Residents can search for and claim property online or through treasury outreach events.

An oversized check presented to Greencastle’s Rescue Hose Co. by Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity on Thursday, March 26, 2026, is a small representation of billions of dollars of unclaimed property her office wants to return to its owners.

The $16,000 was uncovered by Larry Booker, who works in regional outreach for the Pennsylvania Treasury Department, during an unclaimed property event hosted in Greencastle by state Rep. Chad Reichard, a Republican who represents part of Franklin County.

“Near the end of the event, Larry asked for the local municipalities and fire stations so he could look them up,” according to Josh Peters, Reichard’s district director.

When Reichard’s office called the Rescue Hose Co. with a message about the money, Bill Hull, president, recalled he quickly asked, “What do we have to do?”

Paperwork was completed, a regular check deposited in the general fund and the money will be used to pay bills, according to Tom Bricker, fire company treasurer.

Garrity, a Republican who took office in 2021, is running for governor of Pennsylvania this year. She stopped by the Rescue Hose Co. before attending the Franklin County Republican Committee’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner in the Marion Fire Hall.

What to know about unclaimed property

At the check presentation, Garrity took some time to talk about unclaimed property in Pennsylvania, some $5 billion, including $17.5 million in Franklin County.

One in 10 Pennsylvanians has unclaimed property, she said.

“It’s not the state’s money, it belongs to the hard-working people of Pennsylvania,” Garrity said. It also belongs to municipalities, organizations, fire companies and other groups. The total includes $17.5 million in Franklin County.

Antrim Township Administrator Chris Ardininger got some laughs at the presentation when he said his township recently claimed $67.

The money ends up in the state’s hands from a variety of sources, such as uncashed checks, closed bank accounts, rebates, old insurance policies, a misspelling or a wrong address.

There’s also tangible property from abandoned safe deposit boxes, police evidence lockers, nursing homes and college dorms. The list includes things as diverse as jewelry, fine china and guitars, according to Jake Sarwar, deputy press secretary.

Garrity is a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel and returning military medals – Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars and even a World War I Mothers and Widows Gold Star Pilgrimage Medal – to veterans and their families is very meaningful to her and her staff, Sarwar said.

How to claim unclaimed property

“We do whatever we can to help find the owners,” Sarwar said.

Treasury outreach representatives participated in about 1,300 events last year, Garrity said. They can help people search and file the paperwork to claim unclaimed property.

Anyone can look for money on their own by going to patreasury.gov/unclaimed-property or calling 800-222-2046.

The check really is in the mail

Money Match is a new way for the Pennsylvania Treasury Department to return unclaimed property. Supported unanimously by the General Assembly and signed into law by the Gov. Josh Shapiro, it went into effect last year.

When individuals with unclaimed property of $500 or less, who meet other criteria of the bill, are identified by the treasury, their money will automatically be sent to them.

“If you receive a letter from the Pennsylvania Treasury Department indicating that you have money coming thanks to Money Match, hold on to it. You should receive your check about 45 days later,” says the treasury department website.

The payout was $50 million in 2025. The first round of checks for this year – 100,000 totaling $23 million – was just sent out, according to a news release from the Treasury Deparment.

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Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania DEP accuses J&K Salvage of violating order, continuing to accept waste

Published

1 day ago

March 28, 2026

Press Room

Pennsylvania DEP accuses J&K Salvage of violating order, continuing to accept waste

YORK COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection accused J&K Salvage of violating its administrative order to close the business, according to a new court filing.

During an inspection on March 23, a DEP inspector saw several vehicles enter and exit the salvage yard while hauling scrap metal, according to the petition.

The DEP said this is in violation of its March 17 administrative order that required the business to “cease accepting all solid wastes at the site.”

READ MORE | Pennsylvania DEP orders York County scrap yard to shut down, asks court to jail owner

In his report, inspector Kalen Boyer attached several photos of vehicles that he said brought additional scrap metal to the site.

A photo submitted by DEP inspector Kalen Boyer in his inspection report. He captioned the photo, “Roll off container on the back of the roll off truck entering the Site. Scrap metal is sticking above the sides of the container.”{ }

A photo submitted by DEP inspector Kalen Boyer in his inspection report. He captioned the photo, “Roll off truck entering the Site with roll off container containing scrap metal.”

A photo submitted by DEP inspector Kalen Boyer in his inspection report. He captioned the photo, “Tan pick up truck that entered the Site with the scrap metal desk leaving the Site empty.”

In the petition, the DEP is requesting a judge enforce its order against J&K Salvage. It also requests the owners to pay $100 per day for each day they fail to comply with the court order.

CBS 21 reached out to J&K Salvage for comment and has not immediately heard back.

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