Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly support a cell phone ban in schools and tax skill games.
They also want the state to make housing and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity illegal. A bipartisan majority would support Pennsylvania's legislature turning over its authority to redistrict political maps to an independent commission.
Each of those policies has support from at least 70% of the public, according to the latest polling from Franklin & Marshall College.
"There's a huge list of policies that a majority of voters favor, whether we're talking about the state or the nation," said Berwood Yost, who runs the college's opinion research center.
But just being popular doesn't mean the policies will become law.
"I don't think it's difficult to understand what legislators react to, and that is people calling, writing, and visiting," Yost said.
That kind of energy is what has pushed the school cell phone ban almost across the finish line. Gov. Josh Shapiro has called on the legislature to pass the law. Bipartisan bills have separately passed the state House and Senate and now await a final push to make it to the governor's desk.
"That's a broadly popular policy. One of the most popular policies we've tested over the years," Yost said.
Voters may also get an increased tax on skill games, but that's due to a different political motivator, Yost said.
Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that skill games are slot machines and must be subject to the state's gambling laws. That means the legislature needs to pass legislation regulating skill games in the next four months, or it will become illegal to operate the state's roughly 70,000 machines at the end of the court's 120-day grace period. The issue is now a key part of budget negotiations between Republicans and Democrats in the legislature.
Nondiscrimination and redistricting
It is unlikely Pennsylvania will pass policies in housing or employment to protect people against gender identity or sexual orientation discrimination. Democrats in the state House have passed a bill to do just that, but it is dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Senate.
There is also not a viable bill in the legislature to create an independent commission to draw political lines. Yost said political pressures make it more likely for this kind of policy to be passed at the federal level rather than with states.
"Why would you unilaterally disarm?" Yost said.
Pennsylvania voters oppose efforts in other states to redraw districts for political advantage four-to-one, polling shows. Public distaste and a split legislature are enough to prevent that from happening in Pennsylvania but has not been enough to push state legislators to change the system.
"People are tired of the partisanship, even though they participate in it," Yost said. "It's going to have to come from folks themselves to get us out of this."