Election category, Page 123
Texas high court blocks Houston plan to offer mail ballots
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that 2 million Houston voters cannot receive unsolicited mail ballot applications from local elections officials who are dramatically expanding ways to vote in November in the nation’s third-largest county, a key battleground in Texas. The decision by the all-Republican court is...
Election HQ: A Pennsylvania voter guide to the 2020 elections
Election Day in Western Pennsylvania is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and voters are asked to wear a mask and practice social distancing inside polling places because of the coronavirus pandemic. For more information on polling places, go to the official election pages...
Voter beware: U.S. tells public how to avoid election mischief
WASHINGTON — The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity agency have issued a series of advisories in recent weeks aimed at warning voters about problems that could surface in the election — as well as steps Americans can take to counter the foreign interference threat. The issues identified...
Biden in Gettysburg: ‘Once again, we are a house divided’Video
GETTYSBURG — Joe Biden on Tuesday made an impassioned plea for national unity and bipartisan cooperation in a speech casting the 2020 election as a “battle for the soul of the nation,” with the Civil War’s most famous battlefield as his backdrop. “There’s no more fitting place than here today...
Rendell and Toomey join in congressional term limits proposalVideo
If past is prologue, a proposal from U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell seeking 34 states to force a Constitutional Convention to consider congressional term limits may be as unlikely as the partners who put out the call for it Tuesday. Just one day...
GOP seeks to curtail Senate work, but not Barrett hearings
WASHINGTON — Republicans on Saturday sought to call off legislative work in the Senate until Oct. 19 as the coronavirus reached into their ranks. But they vowed that hearings for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee would push ahead as planned. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the confirmation hearings...
Trump’s condition spurs new chapter as campaign enters final month
President Donald Trump, diagnosed with covid-19, might dispute the comparison — but it’s been 60 years since a presidential candidate was waylaid by health issues during a campaign. The closest analogy is 1960, when then-Vice President Richard Nixon was facing off against John F. Kennedy, said William A. Galston, a...
How reliable are 2020 polls after they had Clinton leading Trump four years ago?Video
It wasn’t quite “Dewey Beats Truman,” but voters who assumed the polls and predictions of a Hillary Clinton victory had a rude awakening on Nov. 9, 2016. Clinton, who led most state- level polls throughout October, fell short in her quest for the White House. Donald Trump won the race...
Biden offers sympathy, says Trump diagnosis is ‘bracing reminder’ of virus stakes
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Democrat Joe Biden offered sympathy to President Donald Trump over his coronavirus diagnosis on Friday while casting the moment as a reminder of the worldwide health crisis that has hit the United States particularly hard. Shortly after the White House announced Trump would spend “a few...
An abundance of risk, not caution, before Trump’s diagnosis
WASHINGTON — Standing apart on the debate stage, President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden looked out at an odd sight — one section of the room dutifully in masks, the other section flagrantly without. The mostly bare-faced contingent was made up of Trump’s VIP guests, who had...
Trump’s virus hospitalization rocks final stage of campaign
An election year already defined by a cascade of national crises descended further into chaos Friday, with President Donald Trump quarantined at a military hospital with the coronavirus after consistently playing down the threat. Democratic challenger Joe Biden took down his attack ads and pressed a bipartisan message in battleground...
Trump’s covid-19 diagnosis rocks final stage of presidential campaign
An election year already defined by a cascade of national crises descended further into chaos Friday with President Donald Trump declaring that he’s tested positive for the coronavirus after consistently playing down the threat. No one knows exactly what comes next. At the least, the development settles the focus of...
Stay in Congress to be fleeting for Georgia election winner
ATLANTA — More than $1 million and 30,000 ballots later, Georgia voters will be sending someone to Congress amid hopes that a month in Washington is worth it. Former Atlanta City Council member Kwanza Hall and former Morehouse College President Robert Franklin are headed to a Dec. 1 runoff after...
Westmoreland County fires deputy director of elections with Nov. 3 election looming
Westmoreland commissioners fired the deputy director of the county’s elections bureau — a move that continues upheaval in the department just a month before the Nov. 3 election. County officials on Thursday would not comment on the reasons for the dismissal of Scott Sistek, who served for more than a...
Pa. Republicans want to create and control an ‘election integrity’ panel with subpoena power
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 weekly newsletter. HARRISBURG — One day after President Donald Trump fanned manufactured fears of election fraud in Pennsylvania, Republicans in the state...
Moderator Chris Wallace on the wild presidential debate: ‘It was revealing’
Fox News anchor Chris Wallace was surprised by the ugly contentiousness of the first 2020 debate between President Donald Trump and his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, on Tuesday, but he believes the clash still offered viewers plenty of insights about the two candidates. “Obviously it was not the...
Parscale steps back from Trump team after hospitalization
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager is stepping away from the reelection campaign days after he was hospitalized after Florida law enforcement officials said threatened to harm himself. Brad Parscale, one of Trump’s closest political aides, served as the campaign manager for the reelection effort until July, when...
Biden scores big union wins on train trek through Western PennsylvaniaVideo
It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood Wednesday for former Vice President Joe Biden as he ventured deep into what was the heart of Trump country in Westmoreland County in 2016 to pick up endorsements from two unions that represent 950,000 working people. Fresh from the spectacle of Tuesday...
12 Democratic governors vow that all votes will be counted
LANSING, Mich. — Twelve Democratic governors issued a joint statement on Wednesday defending American democracy, vowing that every valid ballot will be counted in the election after President Donald Trump sowed distrust during the first presidential debate. Trump claimed without evidence Tuesday night that mail voting — surging in popularity...
Jill Biden meets with small business leaders at Rizzo’s Malabar Inn in CrabtreeVideo
During a campaign stop Wednesday in Crabtree, Jill Biden told a small group of local Democrats and business leaders that areas such as Westmoreland County are an important part of her husband’s quest to win the presidency. As she and former Vice President Joe Biden traveled by train from Cleveland...
Debate commission will make changes after 1st meeting between Trump, Biden
NEW YORK — The presidential debate commission says it will soon adopt changes to its format to avoid a repeat of the disjointed first meeting between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden. The commission said Wednesday the debate “made clear that additional structure should be added to the format...
Joe Biden Express rolls into Western Pennsylvania for whistle-stop train tourVideo
An Amtrak passenger train carrying Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his campaign contingent rolled into Western Pennsylvania from Ohio on Wednesday, a day after a contentious televised debate with President Donald Trump. Campaign organizers said the “Build Back Better” train tour will highlight Biden’s plans to rebuild the economy...
Trump campaign threatens to sue over Philly election offices
HARRISBURG — President Donald Trump’s campaign has threatened a lawsuit by Wednesday afternoon if it does not gain access soon for its campaign officials to observe activity inside newly opened satellite election offices in Philadelphia, where people can register to vote, apply for mail-in ballots and fill them out. A...
5 takeaways from the presidential debate
So what did we learn from Tuesday night’s televised presidential debate? Not a whole lot. In a debate that figures to be remembered mostly for how much President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden insulted and talked over each other, what the candidates didn’t say and the opportunities...
Presidential campaign whistle-stop train tours punctuate Pennsylvania, U.S. political history
It’s back to Pennsylvania. Joe Biden on Wednesday begins his post-debate campaign with a whistle-stop foray into Pennsylvania. The former vice president chose Pittsburgh to kick off his campaign in April 2019, with an event at the Teamsters Local 249 banquet hall in Lawrenceville. While train travel has fallen by...
