A ballot guide to Pennsylvania’s 2022 midterm elections

Calling all Leaders Readers + Eaters

With more than 30 shops, 40 restaurants, and 15 sports and culture venues, we’re giving you 85+ reasons to stay on campus this semester. Pick up your must-haves, find the latest trends, discover something new, & sample our tastes from sweet to savory.

Shop Local. Shop Penn.

#SHOPPENN @SHOPSATPENN

SHOPSATPENN.COM

Wants Needs + Musthaves

Movers Shakers + Quakers

A ballot guide to Pennsylvania's 2022 midterm elections

Pennsylvania's primary election, which will take place on Nov. 8, is just under two weeks away. In preparation for the upcoming election, The Daily Pennsylvanian has assembled a comprehensive ballot guide detailing how to vote in person or by mail, and a brief run-down on all the candidates for students registered to vote on campus.

Getting registered to vote

In Pennsylvania, the final day to register to vote in this election was Oct. 24. Voters that are unsure about their voting status can check to verify that they are registered to vote here.

The last day to request a mail-in or absentee ballot for this election is Nov. 1, which voters can apply for on the state of Pennsylvania's website.

Polling locations

Voters can cast their ballots for the primary on Penn's campus on Nov. 8 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Students who live in Kings Court English, Lauder, Hill, Sansom East and West, and Domus can vote in ARCH Room 108. Students who live in Harnwell, Stouffer, the Quad, Gregory, Harrison, Rodin, Du Bois, Gutmann College House, the Axis, the Chestnut, the Radian, Chestnut Hall, Hamilton Court, the Hub, and at 3737 Chestnut can vote in Bodek Lounge in Houston Hall.

Students living in The Simon at Founder’s Row can vote at Robeson High School.

How to vote by mail

Voters who have a social security number or a Pennsylvania driver’s license can request their ballot online. Voters are also able to request a ballot by mail by sending a form to City Hall. Students who do not have access to a printer, stamps, or an envelope can complete this online form to have a mail-in ballot request form sent to them with an envelope and prepaid postage.

Once voters have received their mail-in ballot, they must mail it to City Hall or place it at a drop box location. Drop box locations will close at 8 p.m. on Election Day. If mail-in ballots are mailed to City Hall, it is important that they are mailed with enough time to ensure they are delivered before Election Day, as ballots that are not received by Election Day will not be counted, according to Pennsylvania’s DOS Voting and Election Information site.

PHOTO BY JESSE ZHANG Houston Hall on Aug. 16, 2022.

PHOTO BY JESSE ZHANG Paul Robeson High School on Oct. 26, 2022.

PHOTO BY DEREK WONG The ARCH on March 16, 2022.

Gubernatorial candidates

Josh Shapiro (D)

Shapiro has served as the attorney general of Pennsylvania since 2017. As attorney general, he exposed abuse in the Catholic Church, defended reproductive rights in Pennsylvania, and fought against claims of voter fraud in the state after the 2020 presidential election.

Shapiro's top priorities include creating jobs, cutting taxes, improving the education system, and defending access to reproductive care. In September, Penn students started their own chapter of Students for Shapiro. The group held its first event on Sept. 9 with the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, Austin Davis.

Lieutenant governor

Austin Davis (D)

Davis is the current representative of Pennsylvania’s 35th District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Josh Shapiro, the Democratic candidate for Governor, has endorsed Davis as his candidate for lieutenant governor, as has the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. His priorities include ensuring access to education, creating sustainable jobs, and making sure that the working class is protected.

If elected, Davis would make history as the first Black lieutenant governor in Pennsylvania.

Doug Mastriano (R)

Mastriano was elected to the State Senate in 2019. Prior to serving in the State Senate, he served in the U.S. Army and was a faculty instructor at the U.S. Army War College. He plans to ban all COVID-19 vaccine mandates, increase election security, ban critical race theory in Pennsylvania schools, and protect Second Amendment rights.

Mastriano has been criticized for helping organize transportation for Trump supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and for calling for an audit of 2020 election results in Pennsylvania. He was endorsed by Trump in May 2022.

In August, Mastriano came under widespread criticism after photos surfaced of Mastriano in 2013 dressed in a Confederate uniform in a faculty portrait for the War College’s Department of Military Strategy, Plans and Operations.

Carrie Lewis DelRosso (R)

DelRosso is the current representative for District 33 in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. If elected, DelRosso wrote in a statement emailed to the DP in April 2022 that her biggest goals are to "get Pennsylvania back on track, stop losing jobs, stop losing population, stop losing faith in ourselves, secure elections, grow education, and fix healthcare."

“Pennsylvania deserves a woman who has experience in both the public and private sector who will bring dignity back to the Office of the Lieutenant Governor," DelRosso told the DP.

U.S. Senate candidates

John Fetterman (D)

Fetterman has held the position of lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania since 2019. He held the position of Mayor of Braddock from 2006 until 2019. As mayor, Fetterman was known for creating youth- and community-based programs.

Fetterman wrote in a statement emailed to the DP in April 2022 that his platform centers around the legalization of marijuana. "The war on drugs has been racist, costly, and ineffective," Fetterman wrote. "It is not just a failure — it's a national disgrace. We have known for decades that Black and brown communities are disproportionately prosecuted and harmed because of the criminalization around marijuana."

His other platform points include reforming the criminal justice system to include more rehabilitative options and expanding access to health care across the state.

Mehmet Oz (R)

Oz is a former talk show host and an attending physician at N.Y. Presbyterian-Columbia Medical Center. Oz's main platform points include strengthening domestic energy production, securing the country's borders, and pushing back against "cancel culture" to ensure Americans' right to free speech is protected. He received the endorsement of former President Donald Trump in April 2022.

Additionally, Oz has voiced concerns about Fetterman’s policies for drug decriminalization and police disarmament in Pennsylvania. Oz acknowledges the presence of violent crime and drug abuse in the commonwealth, vowing to fund our police systems and offer support to crime-ridden communities.

Ballot initiatives

There are four measures that will be on the ballot in Philadelphia County.

The first question proposes that the City’s Zoning Board of Adjustment should have seven members, instead of the current five members. This measure also proposes that the appointees be confirmed by City Council, and that the committee must include “an urban planner; an architect; a lawyer with zoning experience; a person with experience in the construction industry; and at least two recognized leaders from community organizations.”

The second question proposes that the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter, which serves as Philadelphia’s constitution and sets up the rules for the city’s government, should remove all gender-based references.

The third measure on the ballot proposes that the Educational Supplement to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter should also remove gender-based references.

The fourth measure posits that the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter should establish the Fair Housing Commission as an independent commission that is officially part of the City Charter.