Got to Category

Election category, Page 108

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Covid infection doesn’t halt Westmoreland County’s Election Day preparations
Westmoreland County’s Elections Bureau office remained opened Monday after officials determined there was no widespread exposure to the coronavirus a day after an employee tested positive. That diagnosis was just another obstacle ahead of Tuesday’s election as officials continue to work through challenges related to mail-in ballots and the pandemic...
VP Mike Pence cites jobs, energy policy in push for Trump votes at Unity airport 
Vice President Mike Pence cited job creation and support for law enforcement and the military among strengths of the current White House administration in a last-minute plea Monday for Westmoreland County voters to help elect him and President Trump to second terms. Pence stopped at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in...
On eve of election, Joe Biden delivers pro-labor message in Western Pa. 
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden delivered a pro-labor message Monday in three Western Pennsylvania campaign stops on the eve of Election Day. Beaver County “I will be the most pro-union president you have ever seen. I guarantee you a seat at the table,” Biden told a socially distanced, mask-wearing crowd...
Trump promises court fight over Pennsylvania absentee votes
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his reelection campaign are signaling they will pursue an aggressive legal strategy to try to prevent Pennsylvania from counting mailed ballots that are received in the three days after the election. The matter could find its way to the Supreme Court, especially if those...
Pa. Secretary of State: Election will not be called by Tuesday
The results of the election will not be called Tuesday night — and that’s no different from previous years, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar reiterated Monday morning. “It takes time for votes to be counted,” said Boockvar. “Elections are never called – they’re never finished on election night, and...
Legal armies ready if cloudy election outcome heads to court
WASHINGTON — Signature matches. Late-arriving absentee votes. Drop boxes. Secrecy envelopes. Democratic and Republican lawyers already have gone to court over these issues in the run-up to Tuesday’s election. But the legal fights could take on new urgency, not to mention added vitriol, if a narrow margin in a battleground...
6 key questions going into the 2020 presidential election
Election Day is finally upon us. Or at least what we still call Election Day, since more than 93 million Americans have already cast ballots in an election that has been reshaped by the worst pandemic in more than a century, its economic fallout and a long-simmering reckoning with systemic...
Aftermath of Trump rally in Butler was ‘nothing like Omaha’ owner of bus company says
The aftermath of a rally held Saturday evening by President Donald Trump in Butler has garnered local and national attention after some say supporters were left waiting in the cold for buses to take them back to their vehicles. The event, held at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport, was compared to...
Westmoreland County election employee tests positive for coronavirus
An employee of the Westmoreland County Election Bureau has tested positive for coronavirus, the county announced this weekend. The employee, who last worked in the election bureau office on Wednesday, is under quarantine, according to county officials. The county is using its emergency response plan to deal with the covid-19...
Joe Biden, Lady Gaga expected to visit Pittsburgh on election eve
Former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to visit the Pittsburgh metro area on Monday while other members of his campaign fan out across other parts of the state. Biden is expected to canvass in Beaver County and participate in drive-in events in Pittsburgh. The Biden campaign did not provide...
Beaver County’s role in presidential race attracts attention 
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 Pennsylvania 
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...
Trump nears end of campaign with boisterous rally near Butler
President Donald Trump doubled down on attacks on former Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday evening as he offered closing arguments for his 2020 reelection campaign to a pumped-up crowd of supporters at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport. “Joe Biden will shut down your economy, ship your jobs to China where...
Candidates for president, vice president, their surrogates swarming across Pennsylvania
All four presidential and vice presidential candidates will fan out across Pennsylvania, a decisive battleground state, to make public appearances Monday, the last day of campaigning before Tuesday’s general election. The nominees’ surrogates will be visiting the state, too. The Trump family is swarming Pennsylvania, with President Trump having held...
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,...
Black voters a focal point in election, but many feel campaigns haven’t done enough
Jojo Burgess has spent the past month or so reaching out to Black voters across Southwestern Pennsylvania. A common sentiment, according to Burgess, is: “Why vote? No one cares about us.” While a record 137.5 million Americans voted in the 2016 presidential election, Black voter turnout decreased by about 765,000...
Kim Ward says state Senate reelection is about helping people of Westmoreland County
Kim Ward feels like she’s fought this battle before. For the past eight months, the Republican state senator from Hempfield worked to push legislation that will help health care workers and the public during the coronavirus pandemic, efforts that mirror actions she took in the 1980s when the AIDS pandemic...
Tay Waltenbaugh bids to take his community action to Harrisburg as 39th District Senator
After 29 years at the helm of Westmoreland Community Action, Tay Waltenbaugh knew it was time for a change. Waltenbaugh, who spent most of his adult life dedicated to human services work in Westmoreland County, retired as executive director last year knowing he was not ready to stop working completely....
Western Pa. police ready for any election-related shenanigans, as report warns of possible militia violence
As law enforcement in the region plan how to respond to any potential Election Day issues or unrest, along with anything that may arise post-election, a global watchdog on armed conflict warns that Pennsylvania is a state at high risk for militia violence. Local authorities — mainly at the county...
Westmoreland County elections office extends hours, will remain open this weekend
With more than 22,000 mail-in ballots outstanding, Westmoreland County will keep its elections bureau office open until 8 p.m. each day through Nov. 3. The extended hours will start Fridayand continue through Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, including Saturday and Sunday. “Our concern is making sure every person who needs...
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...
Blue dot of Joe Biden supporters stand strong in red Somerset County 
There’s a pulsing blue dot in the middle of screaming red Trump Country these days. Just southeast of the Westmoreland County line where the Laurel Highlands soar, Somerset County was the reddest of Western Pennsylvania’s rural counties that pushed then-candidate Donald Trump to a narrow win in Pennsylvania in 2016...


Editor's Picks

Front Porch Theatricals’ musical ‘Baby’ is a labor of love

Washington townhouse on the market for $1,225,000
Folk legend Bruce Cockburn gives uplifting performance at City Winery
‘Champagne & Chapeaux’: Westmoreland Symphony’s annual soiree for a good cause
Jimmy Stewart’s P-51 Mustang stops in hometown for museum anniversary
More Editor's Picks >