Local issues loom large in the attorney general race as candidate Jared Solomon praised Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and lambasted Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and the dysfunction within the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office.
Pennsylvania voters will decide competitive primaries for attorney general. Five Democrats are running. The Republican race is two.
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Pennsylvania’s top election officials this week informed lawmakers that the process of replacing the state’s voter-records system is “behind schedule” but assured them his agency is prioritizing its completion.
Responding to questions from members of the state House Appropriations Committee in preparation for drafting the Fiscal Year 2023-24 budget, Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of State Al Schmidt said 23 counties are testing the initial version of the new SUREVote system.
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Pennsylvania state Representative Dawn Keefer (R-Dillsburg) is asking the state General Assembly to support legislation she is drafting to require periodical audits of the commonwealth’s election registry.
The representative observed that an investigation by Democratic Auditor General Eugene DePasquale that concluded in December 2019 discovered numerous problems with the accuracy of Pennsylvania’s voter records. DePasquale’s report determined, for example, that 24,408 registrations with the same driver’s license number appeared on other registrations. It also found that 2,991 active voter records contained information matching that displayed on Department of Health death notices.
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Over the weekend, Pennsylvania state Senator Ryan Aument (R-Lititz) told colleagues he will reintroduce a measure to clean up his state’s voter rolls.
Concern about the Keystone State’s voter records grew after Democratic Auditor General Eugene DePasquale issued a report in December 2019 alerting lawmakers to copious apparent errors in the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE).
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Jobs in nursing and residential care facilities fell dramatically during the pandemic and have yet to recover. Due to economic factors and long-term aging trends in Pennsylvania, bouncing back won’t be easy.
About 202,000 workers were in long-term care facilities in Pennsylvania in March 2020 before the pandemic hit, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since then, the numbers have fallen to 172,300 as of February. The worker loss may have finally ended, as preliminary figures for March show 172,700 workers.
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A committee of the GOP-run Pennsylvania Senate voted Wednesday to change the state’s voter-records system as recommended by a Democratic former state auditor general.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ryan Aument (R-Lititz), passed the State Government Committee seven to four, with all Republicans and no Democrats backing the measure.
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Pennsylvania State Sen. Ryan Aument (R-Lititz) announced yesterday he has introduced a bill to correct errors in the state’s voter record-keeping system.
In Dec. 2019, a report by Democratic then-Auditor General Eugene DePasquale detailed a host of problems with that system, known as the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE). Within that registry, which is maintained by the Pennsylvania Department of State, DePasquale and his staff discovered 24,408 cases of the same driver’s license (DL) number being indicated on multiple voter records. They also found 2,991 voter records containing information matching that on state Department of Health deceased files.
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As Pennsylvania Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee Majority Chair Cris Dush (R-Wellsboro) investigates recent elections, Democratic lawmakers against tightening election security must contend with a withering 2019 audit of Pennsylvania’s voter registry.
At his investigation’s initial hearing last Thursday, Dush announced his intention to hold the Department of State (DOS) accountable for the mismanagement identified in the audit by calling the department to testify at the committee’s next hearing to be scheduled soon.
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