Election category, Page 103
Here are 5 things to know about Inauguration Day
Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday in an inauguration ceremony that, amid violent threats and a deadly pandemic, will look unlike any other. What’s the schedule of events? The ceremony begins at 11:30 a.m. with the playing of the national...
County leaders in Pa. call for mail-in ballot reform
County commissioners throughout Pennsylvania are calling for a series of election reforms they contend will improve the balloting process across the state and clarify procedures that resulted in counting delays and litigation. According to a preliminary report released Thursday by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, officials recommend state lawmakers...
Jim Brewster looks forward after tight, tense Pa. Senate race: ‘At the end of the day, you’re supposed to shake hands’Video
State Sen. Jim Brewster knew the initial Jan. 5 swearing-in for members of his chamber could get dicey. He had been declared the winner of the 45th District race by the Pennsylvania secretary of State, and a legal ruling from the state Supreme Court concurred. But his Republican opponent, Nicole...
Biden outlines ‘Day One’ agenda of executive actions
WASHINGTON — In his first hours as president, Joe Biden plans to take executive action to roll back some of the most controversial decisions of his predecessor and to address the raging coronavirus pandemic, his incoming chief of staff said Saturday. The opening salvo would herald a 10-day blitz of...
Vaccines to stimulus checks: Here’s what’s in Biden plan
WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden is proposing a $1.9 trillion plan to expand coronavirus vaccinations, help individuals and jump-start the economy. The plan, which would require congressional approval, is packed with proposals on health care, education, labor and cybersecurity. On Friday, he outlined a five-step approach to getting the...
Westmoreland County Democrats flock to the GOP in week of D.C. riot, bucking Pa. trend
Nowhere else in Pennsylvania saw more Democratic voters switch their party allegiances to Republican than in Westmoreland County during the first week of January. From Jan. 4 through Jan. 11, there were 189 registered Democrats who became members of the GOP, according to figures from the Pennsylvania Department of State....
Trump to leave Washington on morning of Biden’s inauguration
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will leave Washington next Wednesday morning, just before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, to begin his post-presidential life in Florida. He will be sent off with a departure ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, according to a person familiar with the planning who spoke on condition of...
Counting of lost ballots underway in Westmoreland County
Westmoreland County elections officials Wednesday morning started counting more than two dozen provisional ballots cast in November but just recently discovered by staff during routine inspections of voting equipment. Elections bureau staffers, serving as appointed members of a reconstituted provisional board, reviewed and qualified 20 ballots cast in North Huntingdon...
Tom Hanks heads TV special celebrating Biden’s inauguration
NEW YORK — Tom Hanks will host a 90-minute primetime TV special celebrating the inauguration of Joe Biden as president of the United States, with performances by Justin Timberlake, Jon Bon Jovi, Demi Lovato and Ant Clemons. “I was left speechless when I was asked to perform! ” Lovato wrote...
State Sen. Jim Brewster sworn in after 2 months of legal wrangling over results
State Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, was sworn in Wednesday morning to his third term serving the 45th Senate District. Brewster, 72, took the oath from Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David Spurgeon in a brief ceremony in Harrisburg with no fanfare or objection — unlike the chaos that ensued last...
Special election set to fill Mike Reese’s state House seat
A special election to fill the vacancy in the state House 59th District left by the sudden death of Rep. Mike Reese will be conducted May 18. Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, announced Tuesday the special election will be held along with the regularly scheduled primary the same day....
Ziccarelli concedes, Brewster to be sworn in Wednesday morning
State Sen. Jim Brewster, who will be sworn in Wednesday to the 45th District seat, said it has been a long two months of legal maneuvering as he defended his seat from court challenges raised by Republican challenger Nicole Ziccarelli. The incumbent Democrat said Tuesday — hours after a federal...
Sens. Toomey, Murkowski urge Trump to resign; impeachment gains support
WASHINGTON — Two Republican senators now say Donald Trump should resign and a third says the president should be “very careful” in his remaining days in office as the House prepares to impeach Trump in the wake of deadly riots at the Capitol. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey on Sunday joined...
Pennsylvania Republicans weigh the party’s future post-Trump
Republicans and party leaders are wondering what direction the GOP in Pennsylvania will take in the era of the post-Trump presidency and in the wake of the attack on the U.S. Capitol by an angry mob of President Trump’s supporters. Will the party return to its more moderate roots as...
Toomey calls on Trump to resign, says it’s what’s best for countryVideo
Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is calling on President Donald Trump to resign for what Toomey says would be the good of the country after the Capitol riot that was carried out by supporters of the president. Toomey says resignation is the “best path forward, the best way to get...
Twitter bans Trump, citing risk of incitement
Twitter banned President Donald Trump’s account Friday, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence” following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. Twitter has long given Trump and other world leaders broad exemptions from its rules against personal attacks, hate speech and other behaviors. But in a...
Westmoreland elections bureau to hire deputy director
Westmoreland County is seeking candidates to fill a deputy director’s position for the elections bureau ahead of the 2021 campaign season to help ease the burden on an office that was understaffed and pushed to its limits last fall. Applications will be accepted through Jan. 20. “We need to be...
GOP’s David Perdue concedes to Jon Ossoff in Georgia runoff
ATLANTA — Republican David Perdue conceded his loss to Democrat Jon Ossoff on Friday, bringing Georgia’s two U.S. Senate runoffs that will deliver Democratic control of the chamber one step closer to an end. A day earlier, the GOP’s Kelly Loeffler conceded to Democrat Raphael Warnock in the other race....
GOP’s Loeffler concedes to Warnock in Georgia runoff
ATLANTA — Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler on Thursday conceded to Democrat Raphael Warnock in one of two Georgia Senate runoffs that will give control of the U.S. Senate to Democrats. Loeffler, who was appointed to the position a year ago to replace outgoing Sen. Johnny Isakson, posted a video to...
Pittsburgh-area historians, political scientists weigh in on Capitol chaos
The chaos and destruction Wednesday on Capitol Hill will go down as one of the most significant events in American history, and academics are still coming to terms with it. As calls for President Trump’s removal intensified Thursday, scholars are trying to establish how the events will be remembered in...
Jim Brewster waits, works as 45th Senate race remains unresolved
Jim Brewster, the McKeesport Democrat who was a Pennsylvania senator until Tuesday, was working as usual for people who live in the 45th Senate District. “My staff is functioning with constituent issues,” Brewster said Thursday. But, he said, “I can’t do anything official.” On Tuesday, Republican leadership took control of...
Here’s who objected, supported certification of Pennsylvania’s electors
Members of Congress confirmed Joe Biden’s presidential win early Thursday morning, but not without first deliberating on proposals aimed to discredit the results of the contentious 2020 presidential election. The U.S. Congress voted on proposals that objected electoral votes from Pennsylvania and Arizona, key battleground states. Both proposals were rejected....
Biden win confirmed after pro-Trump mob storms U.S. Capitol
WASHINGTON — Congress confirmed Democrat Joe Biden as the presidential election winner early Thursday after a violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in a stunning attempt to overturn America’s presidential election, undercut the nation’s democracy and keep Trump in the White House. Lawmakers were resolved...
Pa. Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward defends election questions as U.S. Capitol stormed
State Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward on Wednesday refused to budge from her position questioning the integrity of Nov. 3 election in Pennsylvania, even as an angry crowd of Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol and Gov. Tom Wolf called out state Republicans for fomenting a “shameful lie.” Ward of...
‘An absolute disgrace’: Pa. delegation reacts to violent storming of U.S. Capitol
Mike Doyle has served in Congress since 1995. The Democrat from Forest Hills said he has never seen a day like Wednesday when protesters stormed the Capitol and created a violent scene that caused House and Senate members to flee. “This looks like something that would happen in a Third...
