ballot initiative

On today’s episode of The Confluence: Some conservative activists want to eliminate electronic voting machines and are petitioning their counties to add a ballot question, taking the proposal to voters; an initiative from the University of Pittsburgh looks to make homes more accessible so aging residents can continue to live independently; and we speak to two professors at Pennsylvania Western University who received a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study the influence of learning communities on student outcomes. Today’s guests include: Gillian McGoldrick, Harrisburg bureau chief for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Everette James, director of the Health Policy Institute at the University of Pittsburgh; and Peter Cormas, associate professor in the Department of Education, and Kyle Frederick, professor in the Department of Geosciences, at Pennsylvania Western University.

From Pittsburgh's mayoral and council races to what those statewide ballot initiatives really mean, this week's Pittsburgh Explainer talks with political reporters from around Pennsylvania about what you can expect at the ballot box next week.

A few different versions of one of the ballot questions were designed and then randomly assigned each of the voters to answer one.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf urged voters to reject two primary ballot questions that would curtail the executive branch's power to declare disasters.

Amending the Pennsylvania Constitution is a lengthy process that ends at the ballot box, where voters are asked to make consequential decisions based on a…