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.
DOYLESTOWN BOROUGH, PA — A major downtown street will be repaved under a resurfacing contract awarded this week by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT).
Borough officials, who have lobbied for years to have East and West State Street resurfaced, announced the news on Wednesday via its Facebook page.
When the project happens later this year, the work will be fully paid for under a major $8.3 million project bid award by PennDOT to repave 16 miles of state highways in Bucks County.
This marks the first time that State Street will be resurfaced since the 1990s, said borough officials, who credited an organized lobbying effort by local leadership and the community for pushing the project forward.
In its Facebook posting, the borough thanked State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, State Rep. Tim Brennan, Borough Council, Mayor Noni West, residents and business owners who brought the street’s condition to PennDOT’s attention.
State Street runs through the heart of the borough and serves as a heavily used business, tourism, and residential corridor for the town. It is home to the County Theater, a popular local and regional tourist attraction, the historic Doylestown Inn, and many other businesses.
More detailed timing and work plans are expected once the state finalizes its construction schedule.
One person is dead, and two others were taken to the hospital after a crash involving multiple vehicles in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, Tuesday afternoon, police said.
The crash happened around 4:45 p.m. at East Bristol Road and Brownsville roads, police said.
Police said a person driving a Toyota RAV4 was involved in a domestic-related incident in Lower Southampton Township before the crash.
The person driving the Toyota RAV4 was traveling eastbound at a high rate of speed, crossed into oncoming traffic and struck another vehicle while attempting to pass a Hyundai Kona, according to police.
The Toyota then became airborne, struck a Honda SUV and a Ford pickup truck and rolled over. The driver of the Toyota died in the crash, police said.
The driver of the Hyundai Kona left the road and came to a rest after striking a fence on Bristol Road, according to police.
It’s unclear if any drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash, police said.
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Bensalem police.
Pennsylvania
Digital News Publishers Launch Pennsylvania Independent News Association (PiNA) to Advocate for Local News Organizations – Saucon Source
The publishers of two dozen local news brands across Pennsylvania today announced the official formation of the Pennsylvania Independent News Association (PiNA).
The new Harrisburg-based organization is dedicated to bringing together digital-first local news organizations to strengthen the independent press, modernize laws and policies, and ensure the long-term sustainability of community news.
“The news industry is in a period of profound transformation, and digital news publishers need a seat at the table,” said Tom Sofield, PiNA’s president and publisher of LevittownNow.com.
PiNA’s mission is to provide these publishers with a collective voice, advocating for policies that reflect the modern reality of news consumers, local businesses and civic organizations.
An immediate focus for the new association is the reform of Pennsylvania’s outdated public notice laws, which currently prohibit digital outlets from publishing legal notices. PiNA seeks the right for qualified and established digital outlets to compete against incumbent print outlets and for local municipalities to choose the publication and medium that’s best for their communities. PiNA’s proposed amendment draws from similar legislation in Virginia that was signed into law in 2024.
“PiNA publishers have long been ready to compromise and find policy solutions that work for all Pennsylvanians,” said PiNA secretary and treasurer Davis Shaver, publisher of LebTown. “When lawmakers and local government organizations say they want the ability to self-publish notices, it’s a result of legacy newspapers treating the print monopoly over public notices as a profit center.”
PiNA’s position is that independent outlets can provide the third-party affidavits of publication required to demonstrate compliance with public notice mandates–an essential role of the notice process that would not be possible if agencies were allowed to publish on their own websites.
“We understand why self-publication is desirable, but it’s not the only way to provide urgently needed financial relief for the onerous print newspaper tax on public notices,” said Shaver. “We’re tired of waiting for legacy newspapers to disrupt themselves. Enough is enough, let’s move on.”
PiNA has already engaged with state legislators from across the Commonwealth. PiNA leadership said that the group has been encouraged to learn that its position has widespread support. In particular, PiNA commends Representative Robert Freeman (D-136) for his leadership on this issue.
PiNA represents a group of serious-minded news organizations and leaders. Its membership spans the Commonwealth, from the most rural area to the suburbs and to the neighborhoods of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. PiNA member outlets are read by millions of Pennsylvanians monthly.
“We are coming together to advocate for our staffs, our readers and common-sense policies–like public notice reform–that support a free and modern press,” said Sofield. “By combining our strengths, we can ensure that every community in Pennsylvania has access to reliable local news.”
The association will work to bring collaboration among the locally-owned Pennsylvania small businesses to share ideas and solutions for growth, technology and sustainable revenue models.
“We believe in the power of local news to build stronger communities and improve lives,” said Sofield. “By forming PiNA, we’re creating a base for independent publishers to thrive together.”
PiNA is focused on ensuring that high-quality, trustworthy local news is a permanent fixture in Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. The founding members of PiNA include Burb Media, EYT Media Group, Fideri News Network, Lazerpro, Lebanon Publishing Company, NCPA Media LLC and Street Light Media Group. The first associate members include West Hills Gazette and Saucon Source.
Member Outlets: AroundAmbler.com, CentralBucksNews.com, explore814.com, exploreClarion.com, exploreJeffersonPA.com, exploreVenango.com, GlensideLocal.com, HorshamNow.com, LebTown.com, LevittownNow.com, MediaPANow.com, MoreThanTheCurve.com, NewHopeFreePress.com, NewtownPANow.com, NorthCentralPA.com, NorthPennNow.com, PerkValleyNow.com, PhillyDaily.com, SauconSource.com, StateCollege.com, WestHillsGazette.com, WillowGroveNow.com, and WissNow.com.
About PiNA
The Pennsylvania Independent News Association (PiNA) is a trade association representing digital-first local news publishers. PiNA works to promote the health and sustainability of independent news outlets through advocacy, collaboration and innovation.
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