News & Brews September 6, 2024
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Yet another mail-in ballot court ruling
When the rules are still being written (or re-written by the courts) this close to Election Day, let’s just say it doesn’t inspire confidence. Yesterday, a Commonwealth Court panel ruled that voters whose mail-in ballots are rejected can cast provisional ballots. As the AP explains, “A provisional ballot is typically cast at a polling place on Election Day and is separated from regular ballots in cases when elections workers need more time to determine a voter’s eligibility to vote.” Butler County, which is one of the plaintiffs, plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court.
UPenn among worst colleges for free speech
The 2025 College Free Speech Rankings, issued by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), found that the University of Pennsylvania is among the worst five schools in the country (among 257 schools ranked) for free speech, earning a “very poor” ranking. FIRE explains, “All of the bottom five schools experienced a number of controversies involving the suppression of free expression. They also received significantly lower scores than the top five schools on ‘Administrative Support,’ ‘Comfort Expressing Ideas,’ and ‘Tolerance Difference,’ which measures the strength of students’ favoritism when it comes to allowing liberal or conservative speakers on campus.”
CNN Poll: Pa. Senate race tied for first time
Incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Bob Casey has consistently polled ahead of Republican challenger Dave McCormick throughout this campaign season. But a recently released CNN poll of likely voters has the race tied at 46% (with a +/- 4.7% margin of error). The poll also found that the top issue for voters is, not surprisingly, the economy.
Dems are losing Pa. voters without college degrees
It turns out that not spending four years on a college campus that’s more likely than not to be a cauldron of liberal thinking may correlate to how you vote. The Inquirer looks at how voters without college degrees have been “souring on Democrats.” And while the so-called “diploma divide” is certainly not the only predictor of voting patterns, it’s become more relevant than in the past.
Shapiro suddenly takes public interest in U.S. Steel
Gov. Shapiro is suddenly taking a public interest in the proposed sale of U.S. Steel to Japan-based Nippon Steel. The Post-Gazette reports, “Josh Shapiro, a Democratic star with his own presidential ambitions, had remained mostly quiet on the deal — at least publicly — before he came out against it in July. Even then, his criticism was limited to concern for union workers, whose leadership has fought the foreign takeover since it was brokered in December.” But now that reports have emerged that President Biden will block the sale, Shapiro “says he’s engaged in talks with ‘workers, the private sector, and the Biden Administration’ to save thousands of jobs in the state.” U.S. Steel has said that jobs could be lost if the sale does NOT go through.