Latest news with #StateGovernmentCommittee
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
More than 500,000 Pennsylvanians ineligible to vote on Tuesday, will that ever change?
(WHTM) – Pennsylvania's primary Election Day is Tuesday, May 20, but more than 500,000 voters are not allowed to participate despite their taxes helping pick up the $75 million election price tag. For 88 years, Pennsylvania has had 'closed' primary elections, meaning only registered Republicans and Democrats can vote, and they can only vote for people in their party. Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania demands end to state's 'two-party monopoly' This means Independents and third-party voters do not have a say in their options for the November election. David Thornburgh is Chair of Ballot PA and says if Independents could vote in primaries, candidates would have to appeal to the less partisan voters. 'You say, 'Well, how do you know they're less partisan?' Because if they were more partisan, they'd be Republicans or Democrats,' said Thornburgh. 'So you bring those folks into the mix. You're going to get more competition. You're going to get more responsive candidates.' State Rep Jared Solomon (D-Philadelphia) says northeast Philadelphia precincts could see less than 10% turnout on Tuesday in an off-year election. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Getting more primary voters out is one of the motivations behind House Bill 280, which would still have Republicans and Democrats vote for their own parties, but would allow non-affiliated voters to pick which primary to cast a vote for. 'Forty other states have done this; this is not the new shiny thing on the block,' explained Solomon. Republican Russ Diamond says he was an Independent but doesn't like the power this bill would give them. '(Independents) can just walk up to the polling place and say, today, 'I'm a Democrat' or 'today I'm a Republican,' when I, as a Republican or anybody here as a Democrat, can't do that.' Filming begins on HERSHEY movie Republicans also argue it's so easy to register to vote, and Independents aren't blocked from participating; they're choosing not to. The GOP also fears mischief. 'If two Democrats were running against me, I could purposely vote in the Democratic primary, vote for the worse of the two candidates,' argued State Rep. Brad Roae, a Republican who chairs the State Government Committee. 'Just, you know, mess up their primary.' 'The short reason,' Thornburgh claims, 'why politicians oppose this is because they feel like they got elected by a set of rules and they're not that willing to change those set of rules, which is a little paranoid.' Who is running for Harrisburg Mayor? House Bill 280 passed on party lines out of committee, which has happened in the past; similar bills have been kicked around since the early 1990s. Thornburgh hopes the door soon opens to open primaries. 'Pennsylvania is yeah, we're we're standing increasingly alone,' Thornburgh says. 'And I don't want to be the last to make the statement that every voter should be able to participate in every election.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Commissioner raises concerns about another election reform bill
As Crawford County readies for the May 20 primary election, County Commissioner Chairman Eric Henry is cautioning about a proposed Pennsylvania election reform bill approved by the state House's State Government Committee. House Bill 1396 was approved Tuesday by the committee on a 14-12 vote along straight-party lines with all 14 Democrats on the committee voting in favor and all 12 Republicans opposed. State Rep. Brad Roae, a Republican whose 6th District includes the Meadville area and western Crawford County, is Republican minority chairman on the committee. The proposed bill now moves on to the full state House for consideration and, if passed, would go to the Pennsylvania Senate. In the Senate, it would go to a committee for a review and vote before possible consideration by the full state Senate. Henry, a Republican, expressed concerned Wednesday at the commissioners' work session about the speed with which the bill was written and passed by the committee. It was only about 20 hours from introduction of the 98-page bill to then passage by the committee — all without input from local officials across Pennsylvania who conduct elections in their respective counties, Henry said. Roae also was critical of House Bill 1396, saying in a statement to The Meadville Tribune that it 'makes major changes to our election code without allowing our counties, which oversee elections, to provide feedback. This does not instill confidence in the election process.' The proposal had a number of requirements that were concerning to both the Crawford County Office of Elections and Voter Services and the commissioners. One would require all electronic poll books in precincts for voter rolls instead of paper ones, according to Henry. 'It's a concern for us as some of our older poll workers may not be able to work with electronic poll books,' he said. 'I'm concerned about throwing another electronic device in front of them.' The bill would require at least two mandatory ballot drop boxes out in a county with surveillance and at least one of them to have 24-hour access. 'That's just one incendiary device for losing ballots,' Henry said with a chuckle. 'The ballots (in the drop boxes) have to be retrieved every day at 4:30 p.m. by two people from opposite parties.' The proposal, if approved, would require the county to pay the postage for the return mailing of a completed ballot. However, the county already pays the postage to mail out ballots to registered voters who request them. 'We've had 11,000 (mail-in and absentee) ballots that would have to have postage for them,' Henry said. At the current rate of 73 cents per stamp to mail a 1-ounce letter first class, that's an added cost of $8,030 for return postage on 11,000 ballots per election. With a primary and a general election each year, the additional mailing cost would be more than $16,000 a year. Henry said the bill may have good intentions but would require more of a financial burden on counties. 'They're putting more fiscal responsibility on the county, putting manpower responsibility on the county,' he explained. 'I wish they'd ask the people who run elections for our advice prior to throwing a bill out in 20 hours. I wish senators and representatives when they consider these bills would ask to take the time to sit with us and talk with us about some of these concerns.' Commissioners are expected to follow up with letters to the state House and the state Senate expressing the concerns. Meanwhile, county elections officials have been doing logic and accuracy testing on the county's electronic voting machines ahead of the May 20 primary. The county's 210 machines are been tested this week along with 75 ballot scanners before deployment to the county's 61 precincts.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Casino moratorium bill stalls in Iowa Senate committee
Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell spoke against a proposed casino moratorium in a Senate subcommittee meeting Feb. 4. The measure ultimately failed to advance. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch) A proposed five-year casino moratorium hit a roadblock Tuesday in the Iowa Senate after sailing through the House. Sen. Ken Rozenboom, R-Oskaloosa, said Tuesday there is not sufficient support for the moratorium among Senate Republicans and he chose not to debate the bill at a State Government Committee meeting. House File 144, passed by the Iowa House last week, would set a five-year moratorium on new licenses for casinos in addition to setting new standards for the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission to consider when assessing future license applicants. The commission would be barred from issuing licenses for casinos that are projected to impact the adjusted gross receipts of an existing Iowa casino by more than 10%. The bill would also ban new applications from counties where a casino application was denied for eight years. While a Senate subcommittee advanced the measure, House File 144, at a Tuesday meeting, Rozenboom read a statement at the beginning of the State Government Committee stating his reasoning for not bringing the measure forward. 'I am no fan of gambling and my decision not to advance this legislation should not be considered in support of casino expansion,' Rozenboom said in the statement. 'According to my conversations, this bill did not have enough support from Senate Republicans to advance all the way through the Senate process. In the interest of moving this session forward to other issues of critical importance to Iowans, I have no plans to reconsider the legislation for the remainder of this session.' Rozenboom told reporters after the meeting that the casino moratorium has been a 'difficult' issue, but that 'at the end of the day we do have a regulatory process and a commission that deals with this, and it's not an unusual position for Senate Republicans to simply say, 'well, we have a process in place, let's just follow the process.'' With no moratorium in place, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission is expected to make a decision Thursday on granting a license for a Cedar Rapids casino. The commission will evaluate the Cedar Crossing Casino and Entertainment Center, the $275 million planned facility in Cedar Rapids which was proposed shortly after the previous moratorium expired June 30, 2024. Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell told reporters she was 'really proud that the process has been able to play out,' and is looking forward to bringing the project to the commission for a decision. Though the IRGC denied Cedar Rapids casino licenses in 2014 and 2017, she said she was hopeful the commission would see the benefits the Cedar Crossing project would bring to both Cedar Rapids and to the state. 'Times are different today, I believe, than when we brought a project before the Racing and Gaming Commission,' O'Donnell said. 'The time is right, the data shows that, and our city is in a very different position too. And it's my hope the commission sees this for the economic development opportunity that it is.' At the subcommittee meeting earlier Tuesday, supporters of the moratorium urged lawmakers to pass the measure, saying it was necessary to prevent job and revenue losses at existing casinos — especially the nearby Riverside Casino and Isle Casino Hotel Waterloo. Studies had found that more than half of revenue generated by Cedar Crossing would come from existing revenue currently heading to other Iowa casinos, while also generating $60 million in new total statewide commercial gambling revenue by 2028. Patty Koller, executive director of the Washington County Riverboat Foundation, called Cedar Rapids and supporters of the casino 'bullies.' 'My rural community is being threatened every few years,' she said. 'Our livelihood is threatened. It needs to stop, and only you senators can do it.' O'Donnell disputed the term 'bully' at the subcommittee hearing, saying other casinos and areas were keeping Cedar Rapids from having a fair bid at a casino license. She also said the impact of a Cedar Rapids casino on other state casinos should be viewed in the context of previous concerns about Wild Rose Casino & Hotel Jefferson's potential cannibalization of revenue at Prairie Meadows and other central Iowa casinos. 'Will it compete with nearby casinos?' O'Donnell said. 'Absolutely, it will. And competition makes everybody better, just as we saw (with) doom and gloom scenarios around Wild Rose — 'We're going to take all from the competing casinos' — and Prairie Meadows, lo and behold, saw a revenue burst just a few years later. The idea of Cedar Crossing has already pushed, as we hear, other casinos to be better and do better. Imagine what would happen if these casinos never had to worry about competition.' Though the Senate State Government Committee won't consider the bill, that does not mean it's dead and Thursday's commission action may not be the final word. In an Iowa Press taping Friday, Senate President Amy Sinclair said the 'pressure is less' in the Senate to pass a measure before Racing and Gaming Commission meeting because of the retroactive start date of Jan. 1, 2025 included in the bill. However, Rozenboom told reporters he does not anticipate discussions on a moratorium making a reappearance later in the 2025 session. 'A moratorium — I don't see a path forward for that approach,' Rozenboom. 'Should we consider or reconsider, 'what are those guidelines that the commission needs to consider?' That's a fair question, and in subsequent years, perhaps we'll deal with that. But no, not a moratorium — I don't see any further discussion on that in the foreseeable future.' Regardless of any future movement by the Legislature, the IRGC still plans to meet Thursday. Tina Eick, the IRGC administrator, said 'no changes have been made or are planned to the agenda' outside of a room change. 'The Commission is looking forward to completing this lengthy process,' Eick said in a statement. 'Considering a new casino application is just one small portion of the work the Commission performs. The Commission will also be handling other work as a part of its upcoming meeting including approving contracts and determining administrative fines.'
