Politics Election category, Page 269
Incumbent state Sen. Joe Pittman overwhelms Democratic challenger Tony DeLoreto
State Sen. Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, collected three times as many votes as his Democratic challenger in his bid for reelection, according to unofficial returns Wednesday. To make matters worse for challenger Tony DeLoreto, the Indiana restaurateur was recently diagnosed with covid-19 and could not go to the polls or conduct...
How Facebook, Twitter plan to handle Election Day disinformationVideo
A man in the Atlanta suburbs was scrolling Facebook in late October when an ad popped up claiming his polling place had changed. At first glance, the change didn’t seem to align with official records. He suspected it was a lie — potentially a voter suppression tactic. He had already...
Postal Service ordered to speed swing-state ballots to make Election Day
WASHINGTON — A federal judge ordered the U.S. Postal Service to make every effort to deliver mail-in ballots in three crucial swing states by Election Day due to uncertainty over whether votes that arrive after that will be counted. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington on Sunday ordered the...
Judge rejects GOP effort to throw out 127,000 Houston votesVideo
HOUSTON — A federal judge on Monday rejected another last-ditch Republican effort to invalidate nearly 127,000 votes in Houston because the ballots were cast at drive-thru polling centers established during the pandemic. The lawsuit was brought by conservative Texas activists who have railed against expanded voting access in Harris County,...
Top Trump coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas apologizes for appearing on Russian state TV
Scott Atlas, the controversial Trump coronavirus adviser, apologized Sunday after appearing on Russian state TV. Atlas appeared on RT, formerly known as Russia Today, which the U.S. government designates as a propaganda outlet. “I recently did an interview with RT and was unaware they are a registered foreign agent,” Atlas...
Trump decries FBI probe of supporters surrounding Biden busVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Sunday suggested the FBI should stop investigating an incident in which his supporters were seen surrounding a Biden campaign bus in Texas, which led Democrats to cancel an event there. The president’s tweet came hours after the FBI confirmed that it was “aware of...
Texas high court denies GOP effort to reject Houston votesVideo
DALLAS — The Texas Supreme Court on Sunday denied a Republican-led petition to toss nearly 127,000 ballots cast at drive-thru voting places in the Houston area. The state’s all-Republican high court rejected the request from GOP activists and candidates without explaining its decision. The effort to have the Harris County...
Beaver County’s role in presidential race attracts attentionVideo
Beaver County’s role in the presidential election and the political transformation of the former Democratic stronghold are explored in a WPXI Now streaming special featuring Tribune-Review senior news editor Tom Fontaine. WPXI-TV investigative reporter Aaron Martin hosted the special, which also featured NBC News reporter Dasha Burns. “It’s hard to...
Women-powered grassroots efforts support Biden, Trump in Western PennsylvaniaVideo
Stasia Vernallis knew she was onto something when Facebook groups of frustrated female voters began cropping up across Pennsylvania just days after the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. “We counted 550 grassroots organizations from January to July,” Vernallis said. Like the suffragists who rallied for years in towns small and...
When will election results be known for Westmoreland, Allegheny, Pennsylvania?
Gov. Tom Wolf recalled that when he won office in 2014 and reelection four years later, media reports unofficially declared him the victor within minutes after polls closed at 8 p.m. “Ain’t happening this time,” Wolf said, acknowledging that Pennsylvania’s vote count is expected to take not minutes or hours...
How covid-19 did and didn’t affect the election in Pennsylvania
Daniel Stern said he was never planning to vote for President Trump, even if the pandemic hadn’t disrupted nearly every facet of American life. Stern, 75, of Blawnox voted by mail for former Vice President Joe Biden weeks ago. The decision, he said, was made “months and months ago.” Barbara...
17th District House race pits ‘rising star’ Conor Lamb against Trump-backed challenger Sean Parnell
Western Pennsylvania’s suburbs and working-class towns across much of the Alle-Kiski Valley and Allegheny, Beaver and Butler counties will have their say Tuesday in a nationally watched match-up — whether to re-elect “rising star” Democrat U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb. In the battle for the House’s 17th Congressional District, Lamb, 36,...
As Trump faces uncertain future, so do his signature rallies
LITITZ, Pennsylvania — They began to arrive more than 40 hours before President Donald Trump took the stage in this stretch of rural Pennsylvania where horse-drawn buggies remain a common sight. By 10 p.m., a small group had set up an overnight camp on lawn chairs as a cold drizzle...
What you need to know about Trump threatening to withhold aid from Pa.
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 — In a precarious position in the polls and with his focus fixed on the swing state of Pennsylvania, President...
Basement democracy: Residents open homes as polling places in Westmoreland County
Democracy happens in Betty Tokarcik’s Wyano basement. Voting rights have been exercised in Kathleen Slomiany’s living room in Van Meter. The two women, who live about 8 miles apart in southwestern Westmoreland County, have opened the doors of their homes twice a year for decades to the voters in their...
As virus surges, Trump rallies keep packing in thousands
WASHINGTON — There are no crowds at Disneyland, still shut down by the coronavirus. Fewer fans attended the World Series this year than at any time in the past century. Big concerts are canceled. But it’s a different story in Trumpland. Thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters regularly cram together...
Trump doled out billions to drugmakers and hospitals with few strings attached
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has pumped billions of dollars into the health care industry during the covid-19 crisis, padding bottom lines at some of the country’s most profitable businesses even as millions of Americans have been left struggling with mounting medical bills. And although taxpayer money has poured into...
AP Explains: Trump pushes questions about Joe Biden’s son
WASHINGTON — Looking to undermine Democratic rival Joe Biden, President Donald Trump’s campaign is pushing a familiar line of attack: unverified allegations about Biden’s son and his foreign business ties. But reporting in the New York Post, and the emergence of a man who says he worked with Hunter Biden,...
Florida judge resigns from vote-counting board over bias concerns
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local judge in a north Florida county resigned Thursday from a vote-counting board after concerns were raised about his political partisanship. The Florida Times-Union reports that Senior County Judge Brent Shore resigned from the Duval County Canvassing Board after the newspaper reported he had donated $170...
Trump rule says health plans must disclose costs up front
WASHINGTON — Trying to pull back the veil on health care costs to encourage competition, the Trump administration on Thursday finalized a requirement for insurers to tell consumers up front the actual prices for common tests and procedures. A major health insurance industry group said the regulation would have the...
Potentially thousands of requested mail ballots lost in Butler County, official says
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 — Potentially thousands of mail ballots requested by Butler County voters appear to be lost, a county official said Wednesday,...
Wisconsin Republican Party says hackers stole $2.3 million
MADISON, Wis. — Hackers have stolen $2.3 million from the Wisconsin Republican Party’s account that was being used to help reelect President Donald Trump in the key battleground state, the party’s chairman told The Associated Press on Thursday. The party noticed the suspicious activity on Oct. 22 and contacted the...
Westmoreland elections officials: ‘Number of residents’ have not received mail-in, absentee ballots
While nearly 50,000 mail-in ballots from Westmoreland voters have been returned to the county’s Election Bureau, a number of residents have not received the mail-in or absentee ballot they requested. County officials said as of Wednesday, 71,852 of 74,648 ballots had been delivered to the U.S. Postal Service to be...
Biden lead holds steady at 6 points in latest Franklin & Marshall College Poll
Former vice president Joe Biden continued to hold a six-point lead among likely voters in Pennsylvania last week as the number of undecided voters declined, a poll Franklin & Marshall College Poll found. The poll of 558 likely Pennsylvania voters, which was conducted from Oct. 19-25, contained a margin of...
Postal Service ordered to increase late trips for election mail
WASHINGTON — Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was ordered to immediately begin expanding mail delivery with extra trips and later deliveries after the U.S. Postal Service failed to improve performance less than a week before the election. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan late Tuesday in Washington granted an emergency request to...
