Pa. voters will decide the governor’s disaster powers. GOP leaders say the ballot questions are ‘prejudicial’
When Pennsylvania voters head to the polls this spring, they will decide how long a governor’s emergency disaster declarations last, but two of Centre County’s representatives in Harrisburg have issues with how the ballot questions will appear.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, and House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte, held a news conference Wednesday with Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, to accuse the Wolf administration of using “prejudicial” verbiage in the ballot questions to sway the vote.
Three proposed constitutional amendments will appear on the May 18 primary ballot for ratification; two surround the year-long feud between GOP leaders and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s response to COVID-19. If approved, an emergency declaration would be limited to 21 days and could be extended if the General Assembly passes a resolution.
In its present form, the constitution allows an emergency declaration to last up to 90 days, and the governor can extend it indefinitely.
“There are no checks and balances right now; we have totalitarian rule,” Corman said Wednesday at the press conference. “We have one person making every decision.”
Pennsylvania is operating under two disaster declarations. The first was made in January 2018 in response to the opioid crisis. Wolf has renewed the declaration 13 times. The second was declared as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and has been renewed four times since being signed on March 6.
Corman said the Department of State used intentional language to write the ballot questions so voters would oppose the amendments. He called the wording the “final act” of former Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, who resigned from her post earlier this month after the department made a mistake that delayed a statewide vote on whether survivors of decades-old sexual abuse should be able to sue perpetrators and institutions that covered up the crimes.
“We respect the different branches of government, but they can’t go on and on and on,” Benninghoff said, describing the ballot questions as “inappropriate, difficult to understand, and over-the-top.”
In response to the accusation, the Department of State said the ballot questions “fairly, accurately and clearly apprise the voter of the issue to be voted on.”
“The proposed amendment removes the existing check and balance — already contained in the PA Constitution — of presenting concurrent resolutions to the governor for approval or disapproval,” a spokesperson told the CDT. “A long series of court cases has emphasized it is necessary for voters to have sufficient context related to the question being presented to them for a vote.”
Leading up to the primary, Corman said the GOP will focus on educating voters, so they understand how the ballot questions, if approved, would change the state constitution.
“We respect the voters. We think they’ll see through it. They’ll understand it,” Corman said. “And we hope to do our best to educate them on it.”
The language of ballot question No. 1 and No. 2 is as follows:
No. 1: Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to change existing law and increase the power of the General Assembly to unilaterally terminate or extend a disaster emergency declaration — and the powers of Commonwealth agencies to address the disaster regardless of its severity pursuant to that declaration — through passing a concurrent resolution by simple majority, thereby removing the existing check and balance of presenting a resolution to the Governor for approval or disapproval?
No. 2: Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to change existing law so that: a disaster emergency declaration will expire automatically after 21 days, regardless of the severity of the emergency, unless the General Assembly takes action to extend the disaster emergency; the Governor may not declare a new disaster emergency to respond to the dangers facing the Commonwealth unless the General Assembly passes a concurrent resolution; the General Assembly enacts new laws for disaster management?
This story was originally published February 24, 2021 at 1:23 PM.
