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This week legislators were gearing up for a debate about Sunday hunting during next week's session,  Pennsylvania voters will now be able to submit absentee ballots via their home computers and lawmakers were at odds over whether or not to change the way alcohol is priced by the PLCB.

The Pennsylvania Department of State is doubling down on its re-examination of a voting machine that election security advocates say is vulnerable to tampering. 

The department recently conducted a re-examination of the ES&S ExpressVote XL, a touch-screen voting machine that produces a voter-verifiable paper record, after three election security advocacy groups petitioned the state to take another look at what they labeled as “deficiencies” in the machine.

A commission tasked with studying how to reform the drawing of congressional and legislative maps in Pennsylvania released its report on Thursday, which calls for a citizen-led commission to draw state maps, rather than the Legislative Reapportionment Commission that draws them now. 

The Pennsylvania Redistricting Reform Commission, which was formed through a 2018 executive order from Gov. Tom Wolf, surveyed close to 1,500 Pennsylvanians through public forums and online mediums, concluding that “as much as possible, citizens, not politicians, should hold the pen that draws and revises election maps.”

Philadelphia City Commissioners voted to maintain their contracted purchase of new voting machines from Election Services and Software. They did so despite the protest of citizens and the city’s Controller, who is still investigating the transaction. 

The City Commissioners voted in February to order over 3,000 new machines to satisfy the state’s mandate for new machines by the 2020 elections. The proposal has been met with opposition and controversy, from the questionable history of the machines to possible bribery used to influence and win this contract.

Ahead of the 2020 Census, Philadelphia legislators and activists are making a case for incarcerated individuals to be counted at their home addresses rather than at the prisons where they are being housed. 

Rep. Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) introduced HB 940 in March that would amend Pennsylvania Election Code to count individuals incarcerated in Federal or State correctional facilities at their last known residence. The bill has 18 co-sponsors in the House so far.