Everything you should know about elections

Details on Pennsylvania’s new voting laws and an update on a contentious constitutional amendment, plus a new initiative to provide free menstrual products.

• Katie Meyer
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Katie Meyer was WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief from 2016-2020. While at WITF, she covered all things state politics for public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania. Katie came to Harrisburg by way of New York City, where she worked at Fordham University’s public radio station, WFUV, as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and co-host of an original podcast. A 2016 graduate of Fordham, she earned several awards for her work at WFUV, including four 2016 Gracies.
  
  Katie is a native New Yorker, though she originally hails from Troy, a little farther up the Hudson River. She can attest that the bagels are still pretty good there.
  
  WITF's Capitol Bureau Chief Desk is partially funded through generous gifts made in the memory of Tony May through the Anthony J. May Memorial Fund.
  
  For more information about Tony May, click here.

 Courtesy of Montgomery County

Montgomery County voters will be using a new voting system this year. Paper ballots will be filled out and then fed into a scanning machine, where they will be read and stored.

November 5 is Election Day, and in Pennsylvania that means along with the slates of judicial and local candidates, there’s a constitutional amendment on the ballot. We’ll kick off Tuesday’s Smart Talk with the latest news on Marsy’s Law, which is intended to help crime victims and is now facing a tumultuous court challenge.

In addition, PA Post’s Emily Previti and Doug Hill, Executive Director of the County Commissioners Association, weigh in on counties’ efforts to install new voting machines, and offer analysis of the changes the legislature recently made to Pennsylvania’s election laws.

Smart Talk

WITF Capitol Bureau Chief Katie Meyer guest hosts for Smart Talk November 5, 2019.

In the second half of the show, Senator Maria Collett and Representative Danielle Friel-Otten, both Democrats, explain a legislative initiative to provide free menstrual products in all of Pennsylvania’s public bathrooms—and in particular, those located schools, prisons, and state-funded nonprofits.

Smart Talk

Doug Hill appears on Smart Talk on November 5, 2019.

Collett, Friel-Otten and other backers of the bills say their idea isn’t much different than requiring bathrooms to provide toilet paper. Plus, they say, it will make a big difference for poor people who need those menstrual products.

Photos courtesy of Senator Collett and Rep. Friel-Otten

Pennsylvania state Senator Maria Collett and state Representative Danielle Friel-Otten appear on Smart Talk November 5, 2019.