PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia District Attorney primary was the most watched race, and a bunch of heated school board races got a lot of local attention.
However, most eyes across the state are on the ballot questions this primary Election Day, including two about the governor's emergency powers.
One would let the state legislature end a declaration with a simple majority. They currently need a two-thirds majority to override a veto.
The other would limit a governor's emergency declaration to three weeks unless the legislature extends it. Currently, declarations can be renewed to 90 days or an unlimited time period.
Related
It is impossible to say how people will vote based on their party, but generally speaking, Republicans have supported limiting those emergency powers. Outside of the governor and his direct administration, Democrats have much more quietly supported the status quo.
If both ballot questions pass, since the vote is certified, the state legislature could get right to work.
However, there is a good chance the governor's COVID-19 emergency powers will have expired.
The Wolf administration has pointed out several times masking and other orders come from the Department of Health under the disease prevention and control law.
There is one other emergency order from the governor’s office addressing the opioid epidemic. The order has been renewed more than a dozen times since Jan 2018, most recently earlier this month.
There were 816,000 mail-in ballots requested for Tuesday's election, 71% of those requested by Democrats, 21% by Republicans. Expect in-person voting to lean Republican, with mail-in tabulations trending toward Democrats.