Majority of 16k canceled Pa. mail-in ballots were from Dems
New state data shows that an election eve Pennsylvania court decision that said mail-in ballots without accurate handwritten dates on their exterior envelopes can’t count resulted in otherwise valid votes being canceled in the high-stakes November election.
Majority of 16k canceled Pa. mail-in ballots were from Dems
New data from Pennsylvania's elections agency shows an early November state court decision that barred mail-in ballots without accurate handwritten dates on their exterior envelopes resulted in otherwise valid votes being thrown out. The Department of State said this week more than 16,000 mail-in ballots were disqualified by county officials because they lacked secrecy envelopes or proper signatures or dates. Democratic voters, who are much more likely to vote by mail, made up more than two-thirds of the total canceled ballots.
news.yahoo.comIncoming Pa. governor taps GOP ex-official for election post
A former Philadelphia election official who has told of enduring death threats whipped up by Donald Trump for defending the city’s 2020 vote-counting against the former president’s lies will be nominated for the top election administration post in Pennsylvania by the incoming governor, Josh Shapiro.
Arab American voters are often ignored by political candidates, but not by Pennsylvania Governor-elect Josh Shapiro
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro (middle, right) joined Muslim and Arab American community members during Ramadan in April. The Muslim American community as a whole felt vulnerable. Shapiro has done what few other political candidates across Pennsylvania and the U.S. have done: engaged and built relationships with the Arab community. “But not Josh.”Why has the Arab community been ignored? It wasn’t until former Mayor Edward Rendell entered the picture that Philly politics started paying more positive attention to the Arab community, members said.
arabamericannews.comNon-religious voters wield clout, tilt heavily Democratic
“We don’t sit around at our meetings patting ourselves on the back for not believing in God together,” said David Brown, a founder from the Philadelphia suburb of Ardmore. The group, mostly consisting of atheists and agnostics, mobilizes to knock on doors and make phone calls on behalf of Democratic candidates “who are pro-science, pro-democracy, whether or not they are actually self-identified secular people,” he said. Voters with no religious affiliation supported Democratic candidates and abortion rights by staggering percentages in the 2022 midterm elections.
news.yahoo.comMastriano concedes to Shapiro, calls for election reform
Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) conceded to Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro (D) on Sunday in the state’s gubernatorial race, five days after news outlets called the race against him. “Difficult to accept as the results are, there is no right course but to concede, which I do, and I look to the challenges ahead. Josh…
news.yahoo.comBiden says of candidate Fetterman: 'John IS Pennsylvania'
An energized President Joe Biden returned Friday to the Keystone State, his 15th visit since he took office, this time to attend a fundraiser with Vice President Kamala Harris and other leaders to boost Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman.
Police: Campaign signs found booby-trapped with razor blades
Political signs in southeastern Pennsylvania have been found booby-trapped with razor blades, which resulted in sliced fingers for one resident, police said. Upper Makefield Township police said Sunday that a campaign sign for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro was placed without permission on someone's property, and while trying to remove it the resident found that razor blades had been “placed around the perimeter of the sign." Police said they inspected all campaign signs and found razor blades placed around the perimeter of signs for two other Democratic candidates, John Fetterman and Ashley Ehasz.
news.yahoo.comMore than half of Pennsylvania voters say they will likely vote for Shapiro: poll
More than half of Pennsylvania voters will either definitely or probably vote for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro, according to a new Monmouth University poll released Friday. Thirty-three percent of voters said that they will “definitely” vote for Shapiro, compared to 21 percent for his Republican opponent, Doug Mastriano, while 21 percent said they will…
news.yahoo.com7 more Republican leaders endorse Democrat Josh Shapiro for Pennsylvania governor, following news of GOP candidate Doug Mastriano wearing a Confederate military uniform
Republican party members are backing Democrat PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro over state Sen. Doug Mastriano in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race.
news.yahoo.comRepublican Panic Grows After Mastriano Wins
The aftershocks of Tuesday’s big primaries are still rumbling across Pennsylvania, but one impact is already clear: Republican voters’ choice of Doug Mastriano in the governor’s race is giving the GOP fits. Conversations with Republican strategists, donors and lobbyists in and outside of Pennsylvania in recent days reveal a party seething with anxiety, dissension and score-settling over Mastriano’s nomination. In the run-up to Tuesday night, Republicans openly used words and phrases such as “sui
news.yahoo.comGOP fears far-right candidate will be PA governor nominee
With six days until Pennsylvania's primary, Republicans are openly worrying that a leading candidate in the crowded GOP field for governor is unelectable in the fall general election and will fumble away an opportunity for the party to take over the battleground state's executive suite. Doug Mastriano, 58, a state senator since 2019 and a retired U.S. Army colonel, is running to the right of the nine-person Republican field and against the party's establishment in a state still roiled by former President Donald Trump's baseless conspiracy theories that Democrats stole the 2020 election there. Mastriano is a prominent peddler of the unsubstantiated claims that widespread fraud marred the 2020 election and that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf was responsible for thousands of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.
news.yahoo.comPennsylvania's Fetterman makes 2022 US Senate run official
Fetterman will run for U.S. Senate, making the announcement Monday, Feb. 8, 2021 after kicking off an exploratory fundraising campaign last month that raised over $1 million. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania’s larger-than-life lieutenant governor, the 6-foot-8, bald and tattooed John Fetterman, will run for U.S. Senate, making the announcement Monday after kicking off an exploratory fundraising campaign last month that raised over $1 million. Another possibility is Jeff Bartos, a suburban Philadelphia real estate investor who started running for U.S. Senate before switching horses to become Fetterman's opponent for lieutenant governor in 2018. AdThe Senate seat in the presidential battleground is being left open after two-term Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey announced in October that he would not run again. Considering that kind of disgrace to the Senate, his style “should be the last of our concerns," Fetterman said.
US judge orders stop to Postal Service cuts, echoing others
PHILADELPHIA – A federal judge in Philadelphia joined others Monday in ordering a halt to recent Postal Service cuts that critics say are causing mail delays and threatening the integrity of the presidential election. Postal Service itself that shows “a pronounced increase in mail delays across the country” since July, the judge found. The Postal Service, in response, called election mail the agency's “number one priority." Shapiro was joined in the Philadelphia case by attorneys general in California, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina and the District of Columbia. In the Washington case, which involved several presidential election battleground states, U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian said state officials had made a “strong showing” that the Trump administration was using the Postal Service “as a tool in partisan politics.”
US Catholic bishops: clergy sex abuse claims tripled in 2019
In the latest annual report on clerical sex abuse, dioceses and other Catholic entities reported paying out $281.6 million during the year for costs related to allegations, including payments for cases reported in previous years. There has been a huge overall surge in allegations over the past three years as dioceses faced unprecedented pressure to address the decades-old problem of clergy sex abuse. It is the 17th abuse report issued since 2002, when the U.S. bishops established and adopted a comprehensive set of procedures to address sex abuse allegations. Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which advocates for survivors of clergy sex abuse, expressed concern about a section of the report indicating that only 60% of parishes nationwide were performing safety audits on their own. Every single sitting attorney general should be investigating cases of clergy abuse in their state, identifying enablers and removing them from power, and ensuring that hidden abusers are made known to their communities.
Purdue Pharma, opioid cases have preliminary proposed settlement
Copyright 2019 CNN(CNN) - Purdue Pharma has reached a preliminary proposed settlement with multiple state, local and tribal governments that accuse the company of helping to drive the opioid crisis, officials said. It allows the Sackler family to walk away billionaires and admit no wrongdoing," Shapiro said in a statement obtained by CNN. Sackler family wants a 'global resolution'The Sackler family issued a short statement Wednesday, but did not address the proposed settlement. Attorneys general in Connecticut and Massachusetts told CNN they have not made any settlement agreement with Purdue Pharma at this time. The attorneys general from Tennessee and North Carolina also wrote they expected Purdue Pharma to file for bankruptcy protection "imminently."