HARRISBURG — This is a municipal election year in Pennsylvania.
These elections regularly see low voter turnout and less media coverage, sending the message that they aren’t as important as a midterm or presidential election.
But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
This November, voters across the commonwealth will cast their ballots in local races. Ballots will vary depending on where voters live, and could include races for mayor, school board, city council, various judicial offices, district attorney, and more. These elected officials have regular, close contact with communities and can use that power for good (and bad).
Statewide, voters will decide who will be the next judge to join Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth and Superior Courts.
Voters will also be asked to consider statewide judicial retention questions. These yes-or-no nonpartisan elections ask voters to decide whether a judge should have another 10-year term.
This year, judges from all three of Pennsylvania’s statewide appellate courts are up for retention, but the big focus is on the state Supreme Court. With three justices facing retention, control of the high court is up in the air, and the stakes are high.
Spotlight PA’s nonpartisan election coverage will focus on connecting the stakes of select races to the lives of Pennsylvanians, monitoring and explaining the systems that underpin Pennsylvania elections and their administration, and combating lies and safeguarding our democracy.
We will provide essential election information on the candidates in select local and key statewide races, share how to participate in the electoral process, and explain how election systems are supposed to work. All of this coverage can be found on the Spotlight PA Election Center website.
We will create interactive tools and resources to help voters choose the candidates who best reflect their needs and values. We will relaunch our Election Assistant to help answer questions about the voting process in Pennsylvania, and continue to publish our election content in Spanish. We aim to reach, educate, and empower voters in new ways.
This voter-centric approach builds upon the years of election reporting at the core of our public-service mission. Regardless of political affiliation, trusted and nonpartisan election reporting is the bedrock of an informed electorate and an informed vote.
As always, all of Spotlight PA’s public-service election coverage will be free and available to all on spotlightpa.org and through the more than 120 community newsroom partners across the state that republish our work.
The races we will cover and why
For the first time, Spotlight PA will cover select local races.
It is impossible for us to cover the thousands of races taking place across Pennsylvania’s 67 counties this year. Instead, we’re leaning into the regions where we already have an understanding of the political landscape, the communities that live there, and a strong reporting presence: State College and Berks County.
Both of Spotlight PA’s regional bureaus will go in-depth on one local race and provide the residents who live there with candidate guides and resources.
Berks County
Spotlight PA’s Berks bureau will cover the race for the Oley Valley School District Board of Directors because of its impact on residents and the controversial board’s potential shift in focus.
Of the nine seats on the board, six are up for grabs. Just two incumbents will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.
The bureau has published a guide that includes biographical information about the candidates to help inform voters about how they are similar and different.
State College
Spotlight PA’s State College regional bureau will cover the race for judge of the Clearfield County Court of Common Pleas. This countywide contest will impact a judicial system that serves a population of almost 80,000 residents.
Two candidates are running for the open seat, and the bureau will publish a guide that explains how each would approach sitting on the bench.
Judicial races
This year is an important one for the commonwealth’s legal system. The Commonwealth, Superior, and Supreme Courts hold immense power. Judges often serve for decades, and the decisions they make touch a range of critical issues that can directly affect the everyday lives of Pennsylvanians.
Statewide, Pennsylvanians will vote to fill one vacancy on Commonwealth Court and one on Superior Court.
Pennsylvanians will also be asked whether or not to retain judges on those courts, as well as the state Supreme Court. These races will be Spotlight PA’s main coverage focus.
These elections tend to be uneventful and usually result in the retention of a judge. However, Republicans and their allies have an opportunity to make a dent in the Democratic majority on the state Supreme Court. Both political parties are already spending big on these races because of the stakes.
Our team will dig into the justices’ records, examine who is spending money on these races and why, and demystify how the high court works and explain its importance in the lives of everyday Pennsylvanians.
How we will cover candidates
As we’ve done in previous years, Spotlight PA will provide in-depth information about candidates, their policy positions, and what those policies would mean for Pennsylvania. These reports will be informed by our newsroom talking with elected officials, candidates, campaign staffers, and you.
What we will not do: regularly publish “horse race” coverage — stories that focus on campaign stops, the latest attacks, or who is winning or losing in the polls. Other news outlets will provide that coverage, and we don’t see a need to duplicate it. If you’d like to follow the granular developments on the campaign trail, sign up for Spotlight PA’s daily newsletter, PA Post.
Horse race coverage has also been shown to exacerbate the extreme partisanship we see today. Research compiled by the Journalist’s Resource, a project of Harvard and the Carnegie-Knight Initiative, shows that these stories can lead to distrust in news outlets and politicians, as well as create an “uninformed electorate.”
Additionally, Spotlight PA does not publish any editorial or opinion content, nor does it take a position on any particular political party or policy. The newsroom also does not endorse candidates.
How we will cover voting, the electoral system, and misinformation
Our effort to empower voters has three planks: to provide reliable information about where candidates stand on the issues; to explain how elections in Pennsylvania are run; and to educate voters on how to protect themselves against misinformation.
We call this a voter-centric approach.
We will produce voter guides for the primary election that provide critical information about deadlines, where to vote, how to vote, and how to get involved in the process. All of this coverage will be available as part of the Spotlight PA Election Center website, and some of it will also be available in Spanish.
Building from our 2024 coverage on Pennsylvania's electoral system, we will continue to report on election lawsuits in real time and use our statewide contacts on the ground to bring the latest updates to voters.
After the 2020 presidential election and in the years since, Pennsylvania’s voting process — in particular, its mail voting law — has come under intense scrutiny and attack by Republicans, some of whom have advanced false or misleading claims put forth by President Donald Trump. Our coverage will help readers parse the noise from the facts.
This approach, called “prebunking,” is an alternative to traditional fact-checking by news organizations. Instead of chasing down every false claim, we educate and empower voters to better recognize these efforts and guard against them. In doing so, we monitor for areas of voter confusion and explain how processes and government work. Confusion is often the precursor to mis- and disinformation taking hold.
We aim to support readers in their search for facts.
If you are concerned about confusing or false information being disseminated about this election or the voting process, please contact us using the form below. Your observations on the ground may help shape our reporting on the election.