Election category, Page 121
Ballot box fire in Los Angeles County may be arson, officials say
LOS ANGELES — An official ballot drop box at the Baldwin Park, Calif., library ignited Sunday night, potentially destroying election ballots inside, authorities said. The fire started around 8 p.m. Sunday at the ballot box near Ramona and Baldwin Park boulevards, according to Los Angeles County Fire Department spokeswoman Leslie...
Florida begins early voting with no major problems reported
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Floridians began early voting in much of the state Monday with no serious problems reported as the Trump campaign tries to cut into an early advantage Democrats have posted in mail-in votes in the key swing state. The most populous counties reported wait times of 15...
Prospects dim for critical election bill in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG — With 15 days until the presidential election, Republican lawmakers in the battleground state of Pennsylvania appeared unwilling Monday to authorize counties to process mail-in ballots before Election Day, seen as crucial to producing a prompt election result. A spokesperson for the House Republican majority said in a statement...
Democrats plunge cash into U.S. House race in suburban Philadelphia
HARRISBURG — Democrats are showing that they think they can beat second-term Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in a politically divided U.S. House district just north of Philadelphia. The major Democratic super PAC helping elect Democrats to the House filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission that it is spending nearly...
Allegheny County election phone lines jammed with more than 7,000 calls a day
If you have a question about voting in Allegheny County and want to talk to someone on the phone, be prepared to get a busy signal or wait a while. “We have expanded phone lines, are utilizing a call center and a queue, but the demand is still greater. We...
Trump, Biden go on offense in states they’re trying to flip
LAS VEGAS — President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden went on offense Sunday, as both campaigned in states they are trying to flip during the Nov. 3 election that is just over two weeks away. Trump began his day in Nevada, making a rare visit to church before...
Most U.S. clergy avoid hellfire threats over abortion politics
James Altman is a Roman Catholic priest in Wisconsin, little known outside his parish until a few weeks ago. Robert Jeffress is the high-profile pastor of a Baptist megachurch in Dallas. They have a message in common for members of their faiths: Voting for Democrats who support abortion rights is...
In 1st re-election bid, Rep. Reschenthaler faces Democratic challenger Bill Marx
To say Rep. Guy Reschenthaler’s first term in the U.S. Congress was busy might be an understatement. The Peters Township Republican was elected in 2018 to represent most of Westmoreland County, as well as Fayette, Greene and Washington counties, in the newly drawn 14th District. He was thrust into a...
Scammers seize on U.S. election, but it’s not votes they want
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The email from a political action committee seemed harmless: If you support Joe Biden, it urged, click here to make sure you’re registered to vote. But Harvard University graduate student Maya James did not click. Instead, she Googled the name of the soliciting PAC. It didn’t exist...
Pence rallies Trump supporters in Reading: ‘Road to victory runs right through Pennsylvania’
READING — Vice President Mike Pence returned to the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania on Saturday, declaring President Donald Trump a champion of the “forgotten men and women of America” and blasting Joe Biden as a “Trojan Horse for the radical left.” “The road to victory runs right through Pennsylvania,”...
Trump leans into fear tactics in bid to win Midwest states
MUSKEGON, Michigan — President Donald Trump leaned into fear tactics Saturday as he accused the left of trying to “erase American history, purge American values and destroy the American way of life” in a late reelection pitch to voters in Michigan. “The Democrat Party you once knew doesn’t exist,” Trump...
Republican congressional candidates seek poll watchers at Allegheny Co. satellite election offices
Two Republican congressional candidates in Western Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday seeking permission to post poll watchers at seven satellite election offices that were approved last month in Allegheny County. The complaint contends that poll watchers in the satellite offices are necessary to preserve the integrity of...
Route 22 battle royale: Murrysville area serves as ground zero for Biden, Trump supportersVideo
The battle for the crucial suburban vote in the Nov. 3 presidential election is playing out along an unlikely 7-mile stretch of Route 22 through Murrysville and neighboring communities through competing campaign offices and billboards. The affluent Westmoreland County community of about 20,000 grew up in the post-World War II...
Trump on defense, courting voters in 2 must-win states
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Backed into a corner and facing financial strains, President Donald Trump fought to defend his sagging reelection bid Friday in a state Republicans haven’t lost in nearly three decades. With Election Day looming, Democrat Joe Biden pushed to keep voters focused on health care in the...
Pennsylvania breaking records in voter registration by mail and in person
More than 2.7 million Pennsylvanians are approved to vote by mail in the upcoming election, and about a quarter have mailed in their ballots, state officials said Friday. “We are right on track to end up right around 3 million, which was our estimate after the primary (election),” Secretary of...
5 takeaways from the dueling presidential town hallsVideo
Voters got to see a presidential debate after all Thursday night. But it wasn’t between President Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden. It was between Trump and NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie, who moderated one of the dueling town hall meetings held simultaneously in place of a...
Biden out-raises Trump $383M to $248M in September
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was out-raised by Democrat Joe Biden in September and is being outgunned financially by his rival with just weeks to go until Election Day. Trump’s campaign, along with the Republican National Committee and associated groups, raised $247.8 million in September, well short of the $383...
Westmoreland County approves drop box sites for mail-in ballots
Westmoreland County will have drop boxes at five regional sites before the Nov. 3 general election to help collect tens of thousands of expected mail-in ballots. Voters started to receive ballots this week, and as of Thursday, more than 51,600 were sent. Another 9,600 are in the queue to be...
‘A really destructive scenario’: Pennsylvania could hold up outcome of presidential election
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania, one of the states most likely to decide the presidential election, is bracing for one of the slowest ballot counts in the country. The coronavirus pandemic has driven a record 2.6 million Pennsylvanians to request mail-in ballots. But state law bars the processing of those ballots until...
Talks on critical election legislation in Pennsylvania stall
HARRISBURG — Closed-door talks on legislation seen as crucial to producing a prompt election result in the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania appeared stuck Thursday between the Democratic governor and the Legislature’s House Republican majority. In a statement to The Associated Press, Gov. Tom Wolf’s office said an offer extended...
Kamala Harris suspends travel after staffer tests covid-19 positive
WILMINGTON, Del. — Joe Biden’s presidential campaign said Thursday that vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris will suspend in-person events until Monday after two people associated with the campaign tested positive for coronavirus. The campaign said Biden had no exposure, though he and Harris spent several hours campaigning together in Arizona...
CNN, New York Times spotlight Westmoreland County as key in presidential race
National media outlets are eyeing Westmoreland County as a key battleground in the looming presidential election. Both CNN and the New York Times this week spotlighted the county in reports, talking to residents and politicians about their efforts to swing the race in favor of either President Donald Trump or...
AP explains: Trump seizes on dubious Biden-Ukraine story
WASHINGTON — Looking to undermine rival Joe Biden 20 days before the election, President Donald Trump’s campaign has seized on a tabloid story offering bizarre twists to a familiar line of attack: Biden’s relationship with Ukraine. But the story in the New York Post raises more questions than answers, including...
Westmoreland approves poll changes in wake of coronavirus concerns
Seven polling sites in Westmoreland County will be relocated for the Nov. 3 general election amid concerns related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. All 307 voting precincts will be open, but a handful — which could not meet safety protocols or are located near senior housing communities prohibited from hosting...
Ohio voter registration hits near record, led by Democratic surge
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Nearly 8.1 million Ohioans are signed up to vote in the November election, a near record, the latest figures from the state elections chief show. The presidential battleground state has never seen more registered voters, other than in 2008, when Democrat Barack Obama faced Republican John McCain....
