Latest news with #ThomasMehaffie
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pennsylvania considers making Hershey Kiss the state candy
Could the classic Hershey Kiss chocolate drop become the official state candy of Pennsylvania? Here's where the process stands on the state officially adopting the Hershey Kiss. Published reports indicate the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted on Tuesday, May 13, in favor of a bill designating the Hershey Kiss as the official state candy of Pennsylvania. House BIll 1030 pointed out the history of Hershey founder Milton Hershey and the impact the candy has had on Pennsylvania's economy. "Hershey's supports many aspects of this Commonwealth's economy, including supporting this Commonwealth's proud dairy industry for more than 125 years through the company's use of fresh dairy milk that surrounds the company's chocolate factories," read a portion of HB 1030. "The globally beloved legacy of Milton Hershey and the products he created transformed Hershey into a tourist destination for visitors from around the world." HB 1030 now goes to the Pennsylvania State Senate. State Rep. Thomas Mehaffie sponsored HB 1030, and Reps. Kristin Marcell and Perry Warren were the cosponsors. Mehaffie said the idea to make the Hershey Kiss the official state candy came from a Bucks County classroom project. "A group of dedicated young Pennsylvanians formed a committee, researched Pennsylvania's confection history, and drafted a bill to establish Hershey's Kisses as the first-in-the-nation state candy," read Mehaffie's memo. "We believe that denoting Hershey's Kisses as the state candy will not only bring more attention to our state and promote tourism, but also commemorate a company and candy that has forever impacted our state's economy and values." Damon C. Williams is a Philadelphia-based journalist reporting on trending topics across the Mid-Atlantic Region. This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Pennsylvania considers making Hershey Kiss the state candy
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pennsylvania lawmakers pass bill making the Hershey's Kiss the 'State Candy'
(WHTM)– A bill to designate Hershey's Kiss as the Pennsylvania State candy has passed the House and advanced to the Senate. House Bill 1030, sponsored by state Representative Thomas Mehaffie (R-106) and co-sponsored by various other representatives from both sides of the aisle, would designate Hershey's Kisses as the official state candy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now The House passed the bill 150-53 earlier this week. According to the bill, if passed, Hershey's Kisses would immediately be designated the official State candy in perpetuity, and as long as the Hershey Company remains in Pennsylvania. The bill highlights The Hershey Company's success, calling kisses one of the most iconic candies of all time. The Hershey Kiss bill has been introduced several times in the General Assembly but has faced pushback for fear of giving the 'State Candy' title to one company. In March, Pennsylvania State Senator Lisa Boscola said she plans to introduce a bill making Peeps the official candy of Pennsylvania. Hershey sells its products in 85 countries around the globe and produces more than 70,000,000 Hershey's kisses daily in Hershey. The bill added that the Hershey Company supports many aspects of Pennsylvania's economy, including its dairy industry. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Voter ID and vote-by-mail reform bills move to Pa. House
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways A sign directs voters to a ballot drop box outside the Chester County Government Center on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Capital-Star/Peter Hall) Pennsylvania lawmakers will consider a package of election reforms including a voter ID requirement and changes to the commonwealth's vote-by-mail law after a House committee passed the long-debated measures. Most Democrats have staunchly opposed proposals requiring voters to prove their identities every time they vote but leaders have recently expressed a willingness to negotiate in exchange for support on other measures to modernize Pennsylvania's election system. On Tuesday, House Bill 771, sponsored by Rep. Thomas Mehaffie (R-Dauphin) passed with a bipartisan 14-12 vote in the House State Government Committee. Democratic Reps John Inglis of Allegheny County and Nancy Guenst of Montgomery County voted in support. The committee voted along party lines, however, to approve an omnibus bill that would eliminate ambiguity in Act 77, the law that gave Pennsylvanians the option to vote by mail without an excuse for the first time in 2020. The vote-by-mail provision has been the subject of numerous lawsuits, including one now before the U.S. Supreme Court, as candidates and parties have argued over how election officials should handle irregularities, such as errors on completed ballots, that are not explicitly addressed. The bill would make clear that county election officials are required to notify voters if their mail-in ballots have been rejected for the lack of a signature and give the voter an opportunity to 'cure' the error. Among other changes, House Bill 1396 would also give election workers up to a week before Election Day to prepare to count mail-in ballots, a process that has been a bottleneck for election results in parts of the state, providing fodder for election deniers. Rep. Brad Roae (R-Union), who is the ranking Republican member of the committee, said he has procedural objections to the bill and questions about how it might financially burden the counties responsible for implementing many of its requirements. 'This 98-page bill was called up about 20 hours and nine minutes after it was introduced, and that's just not adequate time to read and understand and get feedback from our county election boards,' he said. Republicans have pushed for a voter ID requirement as a response to unfounded claims of voter fraud for well more than a decade. The GOP-controlled General Assembly and Republican Gov. Tom Corbett enacted a voter ID law in 2012 but the Commonwealth Court found the measure unconstitutional, overturning it two years later. House and Senate Republicans have unsuccessfully attempted to advance voter ID as a constitutional amendment but the issue hasn't progressed since Democrats took control of the House in 2023. This year, there are indications Democratic opposition is softening. In March, House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) said she was open to discussions about voter ID as long as it doesn't disenfranchise voters. House Minority Leader Jesse Topper (R-Bedford) said he isn't aware of any deal to encourage Democratic support for the voter ID bill, but he has asked for it to be offered as stand-alone legislation. 'Every year it gets caught up in a big omnibus thing. Over 70% of Pennsylvania support it. That's not the case with some of these other measures. Let's give that a chance to stand on its own. That was my request,' Topper said. Under Pennsylvania's existing law, voters must show identification when they vote at a polling place for the first time. Mehaffie said the legislation before the committee Tuesday would expand the list of acceptable documents that voters could show to prove their identities to include school or work IDs, utility bills and tax returns. 'We wanted to make sure that we saw that nobody was disenfranchised,' Mehaffie said, noting that polls nationally and in Pennsylvania have shown strong support for voter ID requirements. A Franklin & Marshall College poll last year found 73% of Pennsylvania voters support it. Voters unable to provide an acceptable form of identification would also be able to have another person vouch for their identity by signing an affidavit, though Mehaffie noted falsely signing would carry criminal penalties. Philip Hensley-Robin, executive director of the democracy watchdog group Common Cause PA, said that while more options for voters to provide ID is better, the bill is flawed because it will only contribute to the complexity of administering elections. 'I don't think the legislators who voted for this have really thought through the implementation challenges,' Hensley-Robin said. He added that voter ID would deter voters regardless of the expanded list of acceptable identification. Hensley-Robin cited a study of the 2016 Wisconsin presidential election found 10 percent of nonvoters reported the state's voter ID requirement was at least part of the reason they chose not to participate. According to the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, scholarly research on the effects of voter ID laws has reached mixed and often contradictory conclusions. A Goldman School review of the research concluded that certain groups such as seniors, students, people of color, people with disabilities, and transgender people are affected more by voter ID laws because they're more likely to have difficulty obtaining acceptable identification. But some studies found voter ID requirements have a negligible effect on voter turnout. Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia) opposed the legislation, saying that although voter fraud is 'deeply insidious … because it cuts at the whole core of our democratic process,' the type of voter impersonation the Mehaffie's bill addresses is exceedingly uncommon. 'We do not have enough instances that would even reliably outline this as one of the voter fraud issues that we should be taking up in this moment,' Kenyatta said, adding that issues that could be addressed by modernizing the state's election administration system are more pressing. The Pennsylvania Department of State inked a $10.6 million contract to replace the state's aging Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors system that officials across the commonwealth use to keep track of voters, their ballots and other election-related services. The omnibus bill voted out of committee Tuesday would provide for bond issues through the Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Authority to pay for new software, computer hardware and other equipment to modernize election administration. The legislation would codify procedures the Department of State has directed or allowed county election officials to use to make voting more accessible and secure, such as the use of ballot dropboxes, logic and accuracy testing for electronic voting machines and risk limiting audits. It would also require counties to provide early voting, with one polling place open for 11 days before Election Day for every 100,000 registered voters. In the most recent election, some counties allowed voters to apply for, complete and return mail-in ballots at the election office in a form of makeshift early voting. And the bill would increase the minimum pay for election workers to $175, which Rep. Heather Boyd (D-Delaware) noted would help alleviate a statewide shortage. 'This is going to make a huge difference in our ability to get people to take a full day off of work, maybe pay for child care all day long out of their own pocket,' Boyd said.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Do you need proof of ID to vote in Pennsylvania? Bill looks to change requirements
PENNSYLVANIA (WTAJ) — A Representative announced plans to introduce legislation requiring voter identification in the Commonwealth. The bill, authored by Reps. Thomas Mehaffie, III (R – Dauphin), Frank Burns (D – Cambria) and Kathleen Tomlinson (R – Bucks), would require all voters who arrive at their election precincts to show identification or attest under the law that they are legally able to vote in Pennsylvania. The Representatives argued that the Legislature can no longer 'ignore a growing chorus' saying it 'can do more' to secure the votes in the Commonwealth. In Pennsylvania, voters do not need to show photo identification at a polling place, and workers are advised not to ask every voter for ID. In 2014, the Commonwealth Court ruled that in-person proof of ID requirements were unconstitutional, according to Act 18 of 2012. The ruling, however, only applies to identification requirements for voters who appear to vote at their polling location. This means that if a voter is voting for the first time or in a new election district, they are required to show proof of identification. Returning voters, however, do not need to show any ID unless otherwise noted. 'Public polling has repeatedly indicated that requiring voters to verify identity before casting a ballot is supported by the vast majority of Pennsylvanians,' The bill reads. 'Those same polls tell us this support cuts across ideological and geographical lines.' The Representatives also argued that requiring identification at polling locations prevents fraud and will 'begin to rebuild confidence in our electoral system.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
