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Primary Election in PA Results
I have not been affiliated with any political party for almost my entire life, except for the time I registered Republican in order to vote in the primary against my sitting House Representative Tim Murphy. Remember him? He was the one who resigned his seat after his mistress was revealed and she told the story about this strong conservative pro-life politician telling her to abort his child. My vote against him came a few years before that when I had a running battle with his office over his votes on the federal budget. My belief was that the House has the power of the purse, and as such, should just refuse to fund Obamacare. His staff’s response was that I just didn’t understand how things worked and should trust my elected representative. Besides, wasn’t I a federal employee who could lose my job if we had a protracted government shutdown? My response? I found that job and had worked in the private sector before amd wasn’t afraid to find another job. That was when his staffer cussed me out and hung up on me; that’s when I decided it was time to vote this guy out. Sorry, I digress.
Yesterday was the primary day in PA and we have a closed primary system, so normally I wouldn’t even pay attention… but yesterday was different. We had three state constitutional amendments, a statewide referendum, and my state house district had a special election to replace a 42-year-old man who died suddenly from a brain aneurysm; Mike Reese was a decent man.
The first constitutional amendment we voted on was to allow the general assembly to terminate or extend a state emergency declaration and not allow the governor to veto, and that passed 59% to 41%.
Constitutional amendment two was to limit the governor’s emergency powers to 21 days. They can only be extended by a vote of the general assembly & the governor can’t just declare a new emergency on the same issue, and that passed 60.5% to 39.5%.
Constitutional amendment three included a prohibition against denial or abridgment of equality of rights because of race or ethnicity, and that passed 64.5% to 35.5%.
The referendum was to allow fire companies to incur debt to upgrade equipment, and that passed 68.25% to 31.75%.
In the 59th House District Republican Leslie Rossi defeats Democrat Mariah Fisher 62.25% to 33%. The remainder went to a Libertarian candidate & write-ins. Leslie Rossi became well-known as the owner of the Trump House:
The results of all of these are no surprise to me and also not a surprise but to me still something that I can’t wrap my head around. When I voted yesterday, the poll workers told me that turnout was pretty heavy, and looking at the final totals, they were right, with about 31% of voters participated. Why would you allow only 3 of every 10 of your neighbors decide who & what your government will be?
Like many others, I believe we have big problems and presently are losing the battle, but to me, giving up isn’t the answer. I may still lose my country, but not without a fight… and the ballot box is round one.
Published in Elections
Sounds like some good things happened in Pennsylvania.
Be thankful the voting went the way it did. I don’t know why some people don’t want to vote, but I’d rather they not show up at the polls than have mandatory voting as is done in some countries . . .
Fortunately the word got out in spite of confusing, and I think, deceptive wording on the ballot. The answer to question 3 should have been no in my mind since I am always suspicious of language that purports to give us rights that we already have. (Some have questioned just what “ethnicity means.)
Question 4 got a lot of commentary on Facebook that urged people to vote no. I voted yes, because I believe that fire companies should be allowed to upgrade equipment without an artificially set limit on their ability to finance it.
I admit that I could be wrong about my answers, I don’t think that the vote is binding anyway – no more than our votes against public financing of stadiums was.
I hope that I voted for the right persons in the primary. I don’t know what to do when a candidate is the only one endorsed by the Republican Party in Pennsylvania. Their record has not been very good.
Is this what we might call a conundrum?
conundrum: A paradoxical, insoluble, or difficult problem
Do we have an informed electorate? With “fake news media” it is very difficult even for those who care to be informed.
I care but I don’t know the answer.
Sometimes sanity does prevail! I don’t know what we can do about the small turn-out. Of course, we don’t know how those who didn’t vote would have voted, either!
I agree with that completely. Don’t understand the not showing up but would never support a mandatory system. Freedom takes work. Being free enough to allow some to be indifferent, lazy or stupid is a by product I suppose.
I think the constitutional amendments are binding but the referendum may not be.
Agree with you also on the fire companies.
I voted yes on question 3 cause for me that should have always been there anyway.
Overall a good result.
My sister brought up that same point this morning which also dovetails with the comment from Bob above yours about an informed electorate. So what’s better , an ignorant voter or that they stay home if they aren’t going to be engaged enough to get educated?
If the other 7 are morons and sheep I don’t mind if they choose to stay home. Better that than having some indirect employee of Mark Zuckerberg arranging to have a ballot cast for them,
I’m encouraged by the small turnout if it means that People Of Sanity (analogous to “People Of Color” or “People Of [fill in the blank with the appropriate and desired voting bloc members)” are the only ones who are turning out.
Embrace the power of “or.” That is what my livestock are instructing me to say, anyway.
I’m registered as independent, but I showed up at the polls on Tuesday just to vote for the ballot measures. I’m glad they passed, it’s one small step for sanity in the commonwealth.
I originally planned to show up so I could vote on my state house district special election but once I learned of the constitutional amendments that made me want to vote all the more. Tuesday turned into a pretty good day for the state. Now let’s see what we can do about a better governor and then a smaller legislature. Believe we have the second largest legislature behind California.