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🗞️ Good Morning Pennsylvania. Find all the latest news on what’s happening in Keystone State politics with the PoliticsPA Playbook. We’ll deliver all the latest headlines in an easy-to-read format every weekday at 8 AM. And it’s free. Add your name to the list and subscribe now.

Top Story

1. A Battle Over Mail Ballots In Pennsylvania Is Latest Example of Messy Disputes Over Election Rules

“The recount underway in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race marks the end of a chaotic post-election period that has become the latest example of how disputed election rules can expose weak points in a core function of American democracy.

The ballot-counting process in the race between incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican David McCormick has become a spectacle of hours-long election board meetings, social media outrage, lawsuits and accusations that some county officials are openly flouting the law.” (AP)

Elsewhere

Bob Casey Hasn’t Conceded His Race. It’s Getting Complicated for Democrats. “The results of the Pennsylvania Senate race recount won’t be announced until Nov. 27. In the meantime, Republicans are weaponizing the high-profile Democrat’s tenuous situation.” (NOTUS)

• Gov. Josh Shapiro Defends Sen. Bob Casey’s Recount Choice and Points to Dave McCormick’s Own Failed Recount. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Allegheny County Recount in U.S. Senate Race Likely to Show Thousands Opted Not to Vote For Senator. (CBS Pittsburgh)
• Casey and McCormick Are Now Fighting Over Provisional Ballots In a Dozen Pennsylvania Counties. (Penn Capital-Star)

Dr. Oz Picked to Serve as Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Administrator. “Mehmet Oz, who ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate in Pennsylvania in 2022, was tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator.” (PoliticsPA)

State

2. Shapiro Says He ‘Will Not Let SEPTA Fail’ As Agency Faces Financial Troubles

“Gov. Josh Shapiro acknowledged Tuesday that SEPTA is “really really struggling,” but said the transit agency serving southeastern Pennsylvania “will not fail.”

Shapiro noted that he called for a statewide investment into transit in his 2024-2025 budget proposal, which was approved by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on three occasions, but did not advance in the state Senate. He said “the ball is squarely in the Senate’s court.”” (Penn Capital-Star)

• TWU President: ‘We’re Going to Shut the Region Down,’ On Potential Transit, City Strike. (PHL17)

Elsewhere

Shapiro Signs Executive Order Creating PA Permit Fast Track Program. “Gov. Josh Shapiro signed Executive Order 2024-04, creating the Pennsylvania (PA) Permit Fast Track Program to streamline the Commonwealth’s permitting process for key economic development and infrastructure projects, increase transparency, and accelerate timelines to ensure state government delivers results quickly and efficiently. ” (PoliticsPA)

Pennsylvania Considering State Bitcoin Investments. “With reinvigorated interest in cryptocurrency, Republican House legislators are vying to make Pennsylvania a pioneer of digital investments, a move some skeptics believe would be too great of a risk for the state’s bank accounts.” (The Center Square)

A Q&A With Philadelphia State Senator-Elect Joe Picozzi. “Just 29, the social media-savvy newcomer stunned the political establishment by flipping a Northeast Philadelphia district red – without the local party’s backing.” (City & State)

Pennsylvania Film Office Gives $9.2M In Tax Credits to Netflix, Sight & Sound, Others. “The state says the productions will support nearly 2,200 new jobs and generate more than $36.7 million for regional and statewide economies.” (PennLive)

Around The Commonwealth

3. Japanese Steelmaker Nippon Says It Will Not Accept Presidential Block of U.S. Steel Deal

“Nippon Steel Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori said he would not accept a potential decision by President Joe Biden to block the Japanese steelmaker’s proposed purchase of U.S. Steel.

“I will never give up,” he said Tuesday during an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in West Mifflin. “This is good for the region, good for the community, good for U.S. Steel and good for the American economy as a whole.”” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Elsewhere

Chinatown Advocates and Powerful Philly Unions Make Their Pitches As City Council Considers the 76ers’ Arena Proposal. “Chinatown residents and business owners asked City Council members at a hearing Tuesday morning why they would consider approving a new 76ers arena that researchers and residents have testified would threaten the survival of the 150-year-old Asian American neighborhood.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Hundreds Show Up In Support of Sara Innamorato’s Budget, Defending DHS Services and Programming. “County executive and council have debated increased tax rate since her proposal was introduced last month.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

‘Our City Is Going Backward’: Allentown Councilman Ed Zucal Launches Bid to Unseat Mayor. “Allentown City Councilman Ed Zucal threw himself into the city’s mayoral race Tuesday night, promising to curb crime.” (LehighValleyNews.com)

Why the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Is Suing Bucks County Over Provisional Ballots. “The Bucks County Board of Elections is being sued again. A lawsuit alleges that it disenfranchised voters in the Nov. 5 election when it rejected provisional ballots for errors made by poll workers” (Bucks County Courier Times)

Centre County Officials ‘Set the Record Straight’ on Ballot Counting. “Centre County’s ballot-counting decisions were misrepresented in national reporting surrounding a state Supreme Court ruling this week, county officials said on Tuesday.” (StateCollege.com)

Editorial

4. What’s On Your Mind

• Trump Tests the Constitution’s Limits. (William A. Galston)
• Courts Need to Decide Election Question On More Than a Race-By-Race Basis. (Greensburg Tribune-Review)
• The People Have The Power to Enforce Campaign Finance Laws. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• The U.S. Department of Education Against Education. (Elizabeth Stelle and Adam Kissel)
• Pennsylvania Democrats Have No Mandate – Except to Compromise. (Andrew J. Lewis)
• America May Have a New Third Party: the Democrats. (David Winston)
• Shapiro’s Strategy of Silence On Illegal Vote Counting in Pennsylvania. (Matthew J. Brouillette)

1 Thing

5. Memorize Nearly 1,000 Bible Verses? For Young Christians, It’s Game On

“The National Bible Bee has achieved a quiet kind of celebrity status in some Christian circles, and video clips of its young competitors sometimes circulate beyond those communities on social media. The competition demands astonishing feats of memorization that make the televised National Spelling Bee look like a game of tic-tac-toe. Competitors at 9-year-old Daniel Chew’s level memorized more than 570 verses, which they were expected to be able to recite on command.

At the senior level, ages 15 to 18, participants memorize 938 Bible verses, adding up to more than 20,000 words. In some rounds of competition, making even a single error in a long passage — an errant plural or wrong verb tense — leads to elimination.” (New York Times)

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