Democrat Mark Kelly flips Republican Senate seat in Arizona
PHOENIX — Democrat Mark Kelly won the Arizona Senate seat once held by John McCain, riding Arizona’s changing electorate to flip a Republican Senate seat in a state long dominated by the GOP. Arizona will send two Democrats to the Senate for the first time in nearly 70 years when...
There’s no winner in the presidential race. That’s OK
WASHINGTON — America woke up Wednesday morning without a winner of the presidential election. That’s OK. Critical battleground states including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania remained without declared winners, leaving both President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden short of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House....
China vows ‘proper’ response to U.S. arms sale to Taiwan
BEIJING — China vowed Wednesday that it will make a “proper and necessary response” if the U.S. proceeds with its latest planned arms sale to Taiwan. Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the sale of $600 million in armed drones to the island “brutally interferes in China’s internal affairs and...
Democrats head toward House control, but lose incumbents to GOPVideo
WASHINGTON — Democrats drove Wednesday toward extending their control of the House for two more years but with a potentially shrunken majority as they lost at least six incumbents and failed to oust any Republican lawmakers in initial returns. By 3 a.m., Democrats’ only gains were two North Carolina seats...
Trump’s false victory claim risks touching off turmoilVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s claim of victory from the White House early Wednesday carries no official weight yet risks touching off turmoil and a protracted legal fight over the election outcome. Democrat Joe Biden hasn’t conceded. The Associated Press, the unofficial but respected interpreter of election results, hasn’t called...
Networks preach patience as election stretches past midnightVideo
For weeks, media outlets warned a frazzled nation that it would have to be patient waiting for a decision in the bitter campaign between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden. That’s one prediction that turned out to be true. As midnight passed on the East Coast and the will of...
Push to relax drug laws gains big victories on state ballots
A nationwide push to relax drug laws took a significant step forward Tuesday as more states legalized marijuana for adults and voters made Oregon the first state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of street drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. The drug measures were among 120 proposed...
These Pa. counties won’t start counting mail ballots until Wednesday
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. This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. Officials in Pennsylvania...
Gov. Tom Wolf urges patience as vote count continues
Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said Tuesday night that there were only isolated problems at the polls and no significant issues reported during Tuesday election. They also reiterated people to be patient as the votes are tallied. “I encourage all of us to take a deep...
Authorities: Man bites off mother’s nose during attack
FAIRVIEW, Ohio — A Fairview man who bit off his mother’s nose and beat her with a tea kettle during an argument in their home has been charged with felonious assault, authorities said. Sean Ohman, 36, of Fairview, reported the attack around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said. Responding officers found...
State row office elections may hang on mail-in ballot count
Early returns suggested two incumbent Democratic state row officers — Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and state Treasurer Joe Torsella — could be in trouble in their reelection bids. With about 32% of the vote tallied Tuesday evening, Shapiro was lagging Allegheny County Republican challenger Heather Heidelbaugh by 45% to...
GOP’s Tommy Tuberville defeats U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, flips Alabama seat
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Former college football coach Tommy Tuberville has recaptured a U.S. Senate seat for Republicans by defeating Sen. Doug Jones in Alabama. Jones had widely been considered the Senate’s most endangered Democrat. Republicans had made recapturing the once reliably conservative seat a priority in 2020. Tuberville, who has...
Democrats losing paths to Senate control as GOP hangs onVideo
WASHINGTON — Hopes fading for Senate control, Democrats had a disappointing election night as Republicans swatted down an onslaught of challengers and fought to retain their fragile majority. Several races remained undecided into Wednesday and at least one headed to a runoff in January. It was a jarring outcome for...
Pennsylvania vote goes smoothly, but tallying may take timeVideo
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania voters turned out in large numbers Tuesday for an election that produced few of the glitches some had feared, leaving in their wake a mountain of ballots that will have to be counted in the coming days amid intense national scrutiny. The battleground state’s decision to greatly...
Georgia Republican who supports QAnon wins U.S. House seat
ATLANTA — Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories in a series of online videos, has won a U.S. House seat representing northwest Georgia. Her candidacy was bolstered by President Donald Trump, who has called her a “future Republican Star.” Greene was heavily...
Pennsylvania emerges as online misinformation hotspot on election day
A single voting machine jammed for just minutes Tuesday morning at a precinct in Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton — but misleading posts on Facebook and Twitter claimed multiple machines there were down for hours. Pennsylvania emerged as a hotspot for online misinformation on Election Day. Facebook and Twitter scrambled...
News outlets preach caution as election results arrive
Media outlets preached patience as the first Election Day results in the hard-fought campaign between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden came in, even as it ran counter to their instincts. A stressed populace and flood of early voting had many observers worried about a chaotic counting process, leading...
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wins reelection, but control of Senate at stake
WASHINGTON — Republicans fought to keep control of the Senate on Tuesday in a razor-close contest against a surge of Democrats challenging President Donald Trump’s allies across a vast political map. Polls started closing in key states where some of the nation’s most well-known senators were on the ballot. In...
2020 election results from across Western Pennsylvania
All that’s left is the counting. And it could take a little while. Polls in Pennsylvania closed at 8 p.m. on what was a mostly orderly election day. Voters were greeted by long lines well before the polls opened at 7 a.m., and there reportedly was steady turnout across Western...
Election updates: After win in Pa., Biden captures Nevada as wellVideo
This is the latest on the presidential election between incumbent Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden: 12:13 p.m. Biden has won Nevada, adding to his Electoral College victory over Trump. Biden clinched Nevada on Saturday afternoon, shortly after he won the presidency by taking Pennsylvania. Trump had made a strong...
George Floyd’s brother rallies voters on Election Day in New York
NEW YORK — The murmurs spread quickly among the poll workers late Tuesday morning at a Brooklyn neighborhood station: George Floyd’s brother was present. A few came up to Terrence Floyd, whose brother George died in the custody of Minneapolis police, sparking protests for racial justice across the nation. “Keep...
Florida teen accidentally shoots, kills friend while ‘simulating a rap video,’ cops say
MIAMI — An 18-year-old is facing a manslaughter charge after he accidentally shot and killed his friend as the two “were simulating a rap video” in Hialeah, police say. Authorities have arrested Jonathan Batista, 18, on a charge of manslaughter with a deadly weapon for the death of Brian Shakur...
Future voting rights, marijuana laws at stake in states
The growing push to legalize marijuana was being put to another test Tuesday in both left- and right-leaning states as voters also decided a variety of state ballot measures affecting their own voting rights in future elections. A total of 120 proposed state laws and constitutional amendments were on the...
‘Vote and get home,’ anxious voters say on Election Day
She carefully planned a five-hour drive to the polling place in her Tennessee hometown to vote on Election Day. She considered the traffic, the weather, the surging coronavirus pandemic and — something she never imagined having to contemplate — the possibility of civil unrest in the aftermath of an American...
FBI investigates robocalls warning voters to ‘stay home’
TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan — Voters across the U.S. received anonymous robocalls in the days and weeks before Election Day urging them to “stay safe and stay home” — an ominous warning that election experts said could be an effort to scare voters into sitting out the election. The FBI is...
