Election category, Page 104
Biden calls on protesters to ‘pull back,’ urges restoring decency
WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden called Wednesday for the restoration of “just simple decency” as a mob incited by his predecessor stormed the U.S. Capitol and delayed Congress from certifying the results of November’s election in which Biden won the White House. Biden had planned to deliver a speech...
Pence defies Trump, says he can’t reject electoral votes
WASHINGTON — Defying President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged Wednesday he does not have the power to throw out the electoral votes that will make Democrat Joe Biden the next president in two weeks, dashing Trump’s baseless hopes that Pence somehow could find a way to keep him...
Capitol session on Biden victory halted as protesters swarm buildingVideo
WASHINGTON — Angry supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, marching through the building, shouting and waving Trump and American flags and forcing a halt to congressional deliberations over challenges to Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. Senators were being evacuated. Some House lawmakers tweeted they were sheltering...
Trump challenges to election reverberate in New Mexico
SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico’s top elections official is urging a federal court to dismiss a challenge by President Donald Trump of absentee voting procedures for ballot drop boxes. She also wants Trump’s campaign to be sanctioned for pursuing meritless litigation. Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver says the...
Warnock, Ossoff win in Georgia, handing Dems Senate control
ATLANTA — Democrats won both Georgia Senate seats — and with them, the U.S. Senate majority — as final votes were counted Wednesday, serving President Donald Trump a stunning defeat in his last days in office while dramatically improving the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s progressive agenda. Jon Ossoff and...
Georgia counts ballots as Senate control hangs in balanceVideo
ATLANTA — Georgia officials counted the final votes of the nation’s turbulent 2020 election season early Wednesday as polls closed in two critical races that will determine control of the U.S. Senate and, in turn, the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative agenda. The two Senate runoff elections are leftovers...
Uncounted ballots discovered among Westmoreland County voting equipment
Westmoreland County elections officials disclosed Monday that 21 uncounted provisional ballots submitted at a North Huntingdon voting precinct on Election Day were discovered last week among computer equipment used at the polls in November. Elections bureau staffers found the unopened ballots during a routine inspection of voting machines stored at...
Satellite offices gave Pa. voters more options to cast early ballots in person. Were they worth it?
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — A week before the Nov. 3 election,...
More GOP lawmakers enlist in Trump effort to undo Biden win
WASHINGTON — A growing number of Republican lawmakers are joining President Donald Trump’s extraordinary effort to overturn the election, pledging to reject the results when Congress meets next week to count the Electoral College votes and certify President-elect Joe Biden’s win. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Saturday announced a...
GOP torn over Trump’s Electoral College challenge of Biden
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s extraordinary challenge of his election defeat by President-elect Joe Biden is becoming a defining moment for the Republican Party before next week’s joint session of Congress to confirm the Electoral College results. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is urging Republicans not to try to overturn...
Sen. David Perdue quarantines for coronavirus exposure ahead of Georgia runoff
ATLANTA — Republican Sen. David Perdue was forced into quarantine Thursday in the home stretch of Georgia’s high-stakes Senate runoffs, disclosing just five days before the election that he had been exposed to a campaign worker infected with the coronavirus. Perdue’s campaign did not say how long he plans to...
As runoff nears, Trump complicates GOP case by demanding that Gov. Brian Kemp resignVideo
ATLANTA — President Donald Trump demanded that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp resign because he refused his demand to illegally overturn election results, his harshest rebuke yet of his fellow Republican days before crucial Georgia runoff votes for control of the U.S. Senate. The president’s attack on Kemp, calling him an...
Stories of the Year: In a contentious election, Western Pa. again became a focal point for candidates
The presidential election of 2020 proved to be historic, from the unprecedented number of voters who cast ballots to the way they voted to the chaotic court-case aftermath — and Western Pennsylvania held a front-row seat. When the counting was finished, including tens of millions of ballots by mail, former...
Federal judge rejects request to stop Georgia runoff electionVideo
ATLANTA — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to stop the Jan. 5 runoff election in Georgia. Attorney L. Lin Wood Jr. filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Atlanta earlier this month, saying Georgia’s processes for handling absentee ballots for the runoff violated state law....
Voters saw presidential campaign like no other in 2020
Editor’s note: Three topics kept us transfixed this year: the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the election and a wave of protests demanding racial justice. As the year comes to an end, the Tribune-Review explores the moments that defined the year. America’s quadrennial exercise in presidential politics took a new twist in...
Westmoreland officials weigh bill for mail-in ballots
Westmoreland County officials said this week no decisions have been reached about how it will handle bills recently received from an Ohio direct mailing company that claimed mechanical issues caused two delays in sending ballots out to voters this fall. The county received two invoices earlier this month totaling more...
In wake of election, Republican leaders seek vote restrictions
ATLANTA — Changes to the way millions of Americans voted this year contributed to record turnout, but that’s no guarantee the measures making it easier to cast ballots will stick around for future elections. Republicans in key states that voted for President-elect Joe Biden already are pushing for new restrictions,...
Turnout among young voters key to Georgia Senate runoffs
ATLANTA — Preethi Gowrishankar was never really politically active before this year. But watching polarization increase during President Donald Trump’s administration changed that. The 27-year-old data scientist put on a face mask and stood in line on a recent sunny but cold day in Atlanta to cast a ballot early...
Thousands of ballots will be audited as part of Pa.’s post-election review
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — At least 64 counties in Pennsylvania have...
Despite smooth election, GOP leaders seek vote restrictions
ATLANTA — Changes to the way millions of Americans voted this year contributed to record turnout, but that’s no guarantee the measures making it easier to cast ballots will stick around for future elections. Republicans in key states that voted for President-elect Joe Biden already are pushing for new restrictions,...
As he seeks to overturn Pa.’s election, Trump invites state’s GOP senators to White House lunch
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — As he seeks to overturn Pennsylvania’s election results in the courts, President Donald Trump invited Republican members of the...
Texas AG Ken Paxton pushed to rescind Houston virus relief funding
AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked Trump administration officials to rescind federal virus relief funding that Houston used to expand people’s voting options, according to a document revealed Tuesday. In a May 21 letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Paxton accused officials in Harris County, which includes Houston,...
High court opening tops Pennsylvania’s 2021 judicial races
HARRISBURG — Statewide judicial races will be among Pennsylvania’s most closely watched election contests in the coming year, with lawyers and judges around the state already lining up supporters and trying to figure out if they can raise enough money to win. The marquee race will be for Supreme Court,...
Fox, Newsmax shoot down their own aired claims on electionVideo
NEW YORK — Two election technology companies whose names have come up in President Donald Trump’s false charges of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election are fighting back, prompting unusual public statements from Fox News and Newsmax. The statements, over the weekend and on Monday, came after the companies...
Appeals court rejects lawsuit over Georgia absentee ballot signatures
ATLANTA — The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a Republican Party effort to reject more absentee ballots in Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoffs by changing how election officials check absentee ballot signatures. A three-judge panel ruled unanimously on Sunday against the lawsuit brought by the political campaigns of...
