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UPDATED: 4:03 p.m.
County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said holding an in-person election in the midst of the coronavirus crisis would be a "disaster."
He wants an expansion of the state's emergency declaration to allow the move. He is following the recommendation of the county's health department director, he said.
Officials in a pair of suburban Philadelphia counties, Montgomery and Chester, are also backing the idea of an all-mail election.
Allegheny County won't have enough staff to work the polls, and asking people to work at polling places goes against the social-distancing requirements for residents to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Pennsylvania, Fitzgerald said.
There are over 800 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Allegheny County, county officials said.
Democrats pressed for a provision in legislation last month to require counties to send mail-in ballot applications to every voter, but it lacked support in the Republican-controlled Legislature and didn't pass.
Lawmakers did, however, delay the primary election from April 28 to June 2.
New cases and deaths
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 1,366 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 24,199.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in a couple of weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.
Legislature returns
The Pennsylvania House plans to return Tuesday to voting session, and the chamber may consider legislation that would allow more businesses to open during the coronavirus pandemic.
House Republican spokesmen said Sunday that representatives may take up a proposal that would direct Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to come up with a system based on guidance for business from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new rules would also have to follow an advisory memo on the topic sent out late last month by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Another bill they may take up would allow notaries to employ technology rather than perform their duties in person during the COVID-19 outbreak. It also would permit municipal governments to meet electronically.
House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, told members Saturday he is sure the minimum 102 members needed for a quorum will be in the Capitol on Tuesday, so remote voting rules will not necessarily be needed.
Montco community testing site to re-open this week
Montgomery County’s community-based testing site at Temple University’s Ambler campus is closed, but it will re-open this week on the campus of Montgomery County Community in Whitpain Township.
Officials want to re-assure everyone who lives near the college that the county is taking steps to protect the community.
County commissioner Val Arkoosh says the site will work the same in Whitpain Township as it did in Upper Dublin.
"People who register for an appointment are given a number of instructions," she said.
Among them, people are told they should never get out of their cars, and they’re expected to drive straight to the testing site and then straight home.
“There’s no reason that any of these individuals should be in the Blue Bell area," Arkoosh said. "Virtually everything is closed there anyway."
Arkoosh says there were some residents around Temple Ambler’s campus who voiced concerns about the testing site being in their backyard. But she says, they didn’t hear about any issues at the Upper Dublin site, adding when the national guard swapped out personnel, many neighbors put up signs thanking them for their help.
PennDOT gets OK to begin some road work
Despite the governor's restrictions on non-essential road construction, PennDOT managed to get a waiver to begin a major road repair project this week on a busy 11-mile stretch of I-95.
PennDOT’s Brad Rudolph says the project will take a couple of years to finish and will roll out in phases, beginning with work over the next couple of weeks at the Pennsylvania Welcome Center.
Crews will repair several sections of damaged concrete pavement, make improvements to 41 ramps, and do minor repairs to 15 of the 33 bridges along the project route.
They’ll also fix sections of median barrier, upgrade guiderails and replace damaged or missing traffic signs.
The $68 million project is expected to be done by late 2023.
States partner together
Six states in the region will work together to reopen their economies once the coronavirus outbreak begins to subside.
It's not clear yet when the region would begin to reopen, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy stressed that the public health crisis first has to be under control before the states begin relaxing stay-at-home and other orders.
“The house is still on fire. We still have to put the fire out, but we do have to begin putting in the pieces of the puzzle that we know we're going to need — to make sure this doesn't reignite,” he said.
Murphy, a Democrat, announced the regional cooperation effort on a conference call with fellow Democratic Govs. Ned Lamont of Connecticut, John Carney of Delaware, Andrew Cuomo of New York, Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, and Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island.
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