Here are the official Census population numbers for Pennsylvania’s 67 counties for 2010, 2020, and how they’ve changed.
Format: [2010 population] to [2020 population] (change)
Adams: 101,407 to 103,852 (+2,445)
Allegheny: 1,223,348 to 1,250,578 (+27,230)
Armstrong: 68,941 to 65,558 (-3,383)
Beaver: 170,539 to 168,215 (-2,324)
Bedford: 49,762 to 47,577 (-2,185)
Berks: 411,442 to 428,849 (+17,407)
Blair: 127,089 to 122,822 (-4,267)
Bradford: 62,622 to 59,967 (-2,655)
Bucks: 625,249 to 646,538 (+21,289)
Butler: 183,862 to 193,763 (+9,901)
Cambria: 143,679 to 133,472 (-10,207)
Cameron: 5,085 to 4,547 (-538)
Carbon: 65,249 to 64,749 (-500)
Centre: 153,990 to 158,172 (+4,182)
“One of the frustrations for me as a political scientist who thinks of himself as caring deeply about causal effects [is] it bothers me that so many social scientists treat this topic as if it’s like everything else that we’ve studied,” Jefferson said.
“In a democracy, the right to vote is sacred,” @hakeemjefferson said, adding that “we should simply be bothered by the burden placed on voters, period, irrespective of whether the thing works or not, whether the restrictive voting law works to suppress turnout.”
PA State Sen. Doug Mastriano is asking three counties, including Philly, for essentially all election-related equipment and ballots as part of a “forensic investigation” into the 2020 election and 2021 primary.
Mastriano’s sprawling requests include stuff like all ballots; mail ballot applications; mail ballot envelopes; voting machines; ballot scanners and vote-counting equipment; ballot production equipment; poll books; computer logs; computer equipment used through election process.
Among the things to watch: Election preparation begins looooong before Election Day.
If an “audit” takes months (think Arizona), that would significantly disrupt a county’s ability to run an election.
A key GOP lawmaker says PA counties aren’t going to be getting the two things they’ve been calling for: earlier processing of mail ballots and more realistic deadlines.
“It is over until we get a new governor. We have learned our lesson,” said Grove, the chair of the House State Government Committee, after Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed his HB1300.
“Counties are just going to have to deal with it,” he said.
Grove said counties should have been more open to other changes Republicans wanted: “They got everything they wanted, and their only comment was, ‘Well, that’s nice, but we just want these two things.’ Well, that doesn’t work. Nor do we have the votes for your two little things.”
As the voter ID fight once again takes center stage in PA, you’ll probably hear a lot of competing claims.
Here are some key things to know, including why it’s so complicated to know how voter ID affects turnout and whether that’s even the right measure: inquirer.com/politics/elect…
First thing to know: Significant voter fraud, especially voter impersonation, is virtually nonexistent.
“We have tremendous evidence that voter ID laws do absolutely nothing to prevent voter fraud, because there is no systematic voter fraud to prevent,” said @blfraga.
State Rep. Seth Grove (R., York), the author of HB1300, acknowledged the voter ID proposal wouldn’t address an existing problem — “It’s not to say that there has been any” fraud — but described the current rules as “a loophole that can be exploited” in the future.