On September 22, the Pennsylvania Senate State Government Committee held a hearing on SB 495, the ballot access bill. The Committee has eleven members but only two of them attended. Four witnesses spoke in favor of the bill. A law professor, Michael R. Dimino, testified against the bill, but he didn’t understand that if the bill were passed, minor parties with at least 5,000 registrations (approximately) would no longer need to submit petitions. He testified first, and then left, so he never even learned that his understanding of the bill is severely flawed.

Senator Mike Folmer, chairman of the committee and the bill’s sponsor, said at the conclusion of the hearing that action will be taken on the bill. Presumably that means he expects the bill to pass out of the committee. The reason attendance was so poor was that today is not a day when the legislature is in session, so most Senators were not in the state capital.