By Tribune-Review

Published: Tuesday, November 6, 2012, 10:06 p.m.
Updated: Tuesday, November 6, 2012

The usual gremlins greeted voters on Election Day. And more than a few unusual and unsavory ones did, too:

• Pennsylvania was the latest state to report an instance of a voter casting an electronic ballot for one presidential candidate but the machine recording another. Mitt Romney was the beneficiary of the Keystone State case, an error corrected with the proverbial “recalibration.” But Barack Obama was the default candidate of choice in several other states in early voting. Those errors also were corrected. But as we've previously editorialized, voting machines should default to no candidate. More than a “recalibration” is in order.

• Common Cause and “its election protection partners” issued a pre-election smear of the Allegheny County Republican Party by alleging, in a letter to the Justice Department, that the GOP's poll-watching voter-fraud-prevention efforts “impermissibly” were based on the racial makeup of the target polling places and, thus, designed to suppress the black vote. There's a stretch.

• But hardly anyone, other than Republicans, that is, saw anything nefarious about Allegheny County Democrat officials using taxpayer-funded county vehicles to ferry those in largely Democrat neighborhoods to the polls. A county judge even defended the program that's been in place for the last decade. Republican neighborhoods are excluded. That's outrageous. Gee, wonder where Common Cause's pre-election letter to the Justice Department was about this bona fide case of voter discrimination?

1. Pirates notebook: Penguins jerseys in fashion for road trip
2. Steelers notebook: Less talk, more work is Tomlin’s theme
3. Coach Tomlin, Steelers facing plenty of questions as OTAs start
4. Steelers rookie moves on after PSU scandal
5. Penguins notebook: Morrow leaves practice with injury
6. Immigration bill clears Senate panel
7. Turnout light across Western Pa. as voters hit polls
8. Improved depth could drive Pirates’ fortunes deep into season
9. Senators notebook: Pens' Crosby has defensive shadows
10. Okla. senators embrace disaster aid after opposing Sandy relief bill
11. Bin Laden photos to remain classified

There are currently no comments for this story.
Subscribe today! Click here for our subscription offers.