Election category, Page 125
Ohio absentee ballot order halted to allow expedited appeal
COLUMBUS, Ohio — An appeals court halted a judge’s order directing Ohio’s elections chief to allow voters to apply for absentee ballots for the November presidential election by electronic means, something sought by Democrats in the pivotal swing state. The appeals court Friday halted the preliminary injunction issued earlier that...
Judges: Florida felons can’t vote until they pay fines, fees
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida felons must pay all fines, restitution and legal fees before they can regain their right to vote, a federal appellate court ruled Friday in a case that could have broad implications for the November elections. Reversing a lower court judge’s decision that gave Florida felons...
VP Mike Pence stops in Westmoreland, rallies pro-life voters at Murrysville church
Anti-abortion activists from across the region gathered Wednesday at Cornerstone Ministries in Murrysville as Vice President Mike Pence addressed the kick-off of the Susan B. Anthony List’s campaign to engage pro-life voters in Pennsylvania. The visit to the large, nondenominational church marked Pence’s third appearance with the group. Long a...
Westmoreland provisional ballots discovered after primary won’t be countedVideo
Seven provisional ballots submitted at a Unity poll during the June primary and discovered this summer won’t be counted. Westmoreland County officials rejected those ballots Wednesday after they were formally opened by a reconstituted provisional board. The ballots were found to have been improperly handled at the polls when they...
GOP targets Democratic-run California in election gamble
LOS ANGELES — Republican candidates eager for a turnaround in heavily Democratic California are spotlighting what they see as a dire threat to families and communities — their own state’s policies. GOP contenders from the U.S. House to city councils are looking to make the November election a referendum on...
Trump the environmentalist? President expands ban on new offshore drilling sites in Atlantic
JUPITER, Fla. — President Donald Trump sought to claim the mantle of environmental steward on Tuesday as he announced an expansion of a ban on offshore drilling and highlighted conservation projects in Florida. But his administration has overturned or weakened numerous regulations meant to protect air and water quality and...
Chipping in? Trump may put up his own cash on reelection
Washington — President Donald Trump is putting out the word that he is considering spending as much as $100 million of his own fortune on his reelection effort as campaign officials try to buck up key supporters and donors amid daunting polling numbers and other bad news. Trump said Tuesday...
In Labor Day blur, Harris meets Blake family; Trump steps up
MILWAUKEE — Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris met the family of a Wisconsin man shot by police last month to kick off her Labor Day visit to a critical swing state while President Donald Trump assailed the Democratic ticket and put the halting economic recovery under the best light....
Frustration grows as covid restrictions remain, political rallies go on
As thousands gathered Thursday night in Latrobe at a rally for President Trump, others across Western Pennsylvania stayed home — working remotely and unable to go to schools, restaurants or sporting events. They were, as they have over the past six months, following Gov. Tom Wolf’s guidance to stop the...
Voting in person Nov. 3? Expect drive-thrus, sports arenas
SALT LAKE CITY — Voting will look a little different this November. States are turning to stadiums, drive-thrus and possibly even movie theaters as safe options for in-person polling places amid the coronavirus pandemic and fears about mail-in ballots failing to arrive in time to count. The primary season brought...
Pence to campaign in Westmoreland and Beaver counties Sept. 9
Vice President Mike Pence will campaign in Western Pennsylvania on Wednesday, as President Trump’s reelection effort continues its focus on swing state voters. Pence is scheduled to appear at events in Murrysville and New Sewickley in Beaver County. The two stops, less than a week after Trump’s rally at the...
Court: Money owed can’t block voting rights for N.C. felons
A North Carolina court ruled Friday that outstanding restitution, fees or other court-imposed monetary obligations can’t prevent convicted felons from voting if they’ve completed all other portions of their sentence. The ruling, which may face appeals, could pave the way for an influx of thousands of felons to have their...
Georgia candidate’s post removed for inciting violence
ATLANTA — Facebook removed a photo illustration showing a Republican congressional candidate in Georgia posing with a rifle next to three Democratic House members, saying Friday that it violated the social media platform’s policy against inciting violence. The illustration, a montage of four photos, was posted Thursday by Marjorie Taylor...
Westmoreland County hiring poll workers to handle heavy expected voter turnout
Westmoreland County will hire as many as 1,800 poll workers for election day. Elections Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani said recruiting has been underway for the last several weeks to have each of the county’s 307 voting precincts fully staffed on Nov. 3. “We’re going to take as many poll workers...
Trump fires up enthusiastic crowd at campaign stop at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport near Latrobe
President Trump glided into a Trump Country crowd in Westmoreland County on Thursday evening to rave reviews. The crowd of several thousand at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport near Latrobe erupted into screams of U-S-A!, U-S-A!, U-S-A! as Trump exited Air Force One into the twilight evening, vowing that “61 days...
Heavy rains don’t dampen enthusiasm of Trump supporters ahead of Westmoreland rallyVideo
Frequent and sometimes heavy rains Thursday could not keep supporters of Donald Trump from flooding Arnold Palmer Regional Airport hours before the president’s scheduled campaign rally. Drenched crowds stood in line at the Unity airport waiting to board buses to take them to a fenced-in holding area in front of...
Dems blast Trump policies, ‘chaos’ ahead of president’s Westmoreland County rally
Westmoreland County Commissioner Gina Cerilli on Thursday issued a scathing rebuke of President Donald Trump ahead of his visit to Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity. “To put it simply, Donald Trump is simply not up for this job. Pennsylvanians have suffered at the hands of a weak and incompetent...
Biden meets Jacob Blake’s family to start Wisconsin trip
KENOSHA, Wis. — Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden began a visit to the battleground state of Wisconsin on Thursday by meeting with the family of Jacob Blake, the Black man whose shooting by a white police officer sparked days of sometimes violent protests. Biden spent more than an hour in...
Facebook moves to target misinformation before electionVideo
With just two months left until the U.S. presidential election, Facebook says it is taking more steps to encourage voting, minimize misinformation and reduce the likelihood of post-election “civil unrest.” The company said Thursday it will restrict new political ads in the week before the election and remove posts that...
Westmoreland outsources mailing of ballots, calibration of voting machines
Westmoreland County will spend an additional $350,000 to beef up its ability to hold an election and count votes this fall. Commissioners on Wednesday approved a contract with a private mailing company in Cleveland to send ballots to voters, and finalized a deal with the Nebraska-based firm to test touch-screen...
House OKs changes to mail-in voting law; Wolf threatens veto
HARRISBURG — In the shadow of an increasingly strident presidential campaign, Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives approved changes to the state’s fledgling mail-in voting law Wednesday, but in highly partisan fashion. The Republican-penned bill passed, 112-90, on a near party-line vote in the battleground state where President Trump’s campaign and the...
7 write-in primary ballots discovered uncounted from Unity polling place, to be counted next week
An unopened envelope containing seven provisional ballots cast at a Unity polling precinct in June was discovered among stored voting equipment more than a month after final results were certified, Westmoreland County officials revealed Wednesday. Those votes will be opened and counted next week. They could change the outcome of...
Pa. implements OmniBallot tool for blind voters in November election
Blind voters in Pennsylvania will be able to use a federally approved, cloud-based electronic platform to vote remotely in the November, and subsequent, elections. The Pennsylvania Department of State will implement Democracy Live’s OmniBallot tool in response to a state court’s ruling that the previous paper ballot system used in...
Super PACs turn to Western Pa. voters for testimonials in presidential contest
On the surface, Janie and Shawn share little beyond their small-town Western Pennsylvania roots. But now, they are sharing 15 minutes of fame, thanks to their testimonials in ads supporting Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Identified only as 82-year-old Janie from Westmoreland, the tiny, blue-eyed woman who sports a halo...
Trump lashes Biden, defies pandemic on White House stage
WASHINGTON — Facing a national moment fraught with racial turmoil and a deadly pandemic, President Donald Trump accepted his party’s renomination on a massive White House South Lawn stage Thursday night, boasting of helping African Americans and defying his own administration’s pandemic guidelines to address a tightly packed, largely maskless...
