TheNewsGuru

Tag: Republicans

  • U.S. Election: Republicans lose Pennsylvania voting case

    U.S. Election: Republicans lose Pennsylvania voting case

    The U.S. Supreme Court has handed Republicans a loss in a case concerning the rules for postal voting in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, just days ahead of the presidential election.

    The justices rejected a request not to count provisional ballots used in the state when a voter’s mail-in ballot is flagged as potentially defective.

    These provisional ballots are kept separately and counted only after verification.

    The Republicans had asked for these votes not be counted.

    This could have potentially invalidated thousands of absentee ballots, which often tend to favour Democratic voters.

    The court’s decision allows these votes to be counted for the time being, but the Supreme Court could still revisit the issue later.

    Further legal disputes are possible in the coming days.

    There are expectations that fights over the validity of votes will continue after the Nov. 5 election, especially in states where the margin between the winner and loser could be only thousands of votes.

    Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has already raised baseless allegations of vote manipulation after his election defeat in 2020 and is now casting doubt on the integrity of the upcoming election.

    The Supreme Court’s decision has particular significance in Pennsylvania, a critical battleground state in the election campaign.

    With its 19 electors, the most populous of the seven so-called swing states could be decisive for the outcome of the election.

  • US presidential poll: Republicans officially nominate Trump, Pence for second term

    US presidential poll: Republicans officially nominate Trump, Pence for second term

    U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were on Monday officially nominated for a second term at the Republican National Convention, during a scaled down roll call vote in Charlotte, North Carolina.

    States were limited to six delegates at the Charlotte Convention Center, 336 total for the live roll call, unlike the Democratic National Convention where the roll call was done virtually.

    Vice President Mike Pence made brief comments at the convention.

    The roll call is usually held on Tuesday but was moved up by the party’s updated schedule.

    The event, scheduled to run through Thursday, will be largely virtual. Some small, official business will still take place in Charlotte, N.C.

    After some last-minute wrangling to attempt to move the convention to Jacksonville, Fla., the GOP settled on keeping Charlotte as its base, but severely limiting the number of in-person events that take place there.

    North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper warned in June it was likely that safety measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 wouldn’t be lifted in time for Republicans to hold their full program of events with thousands of supporters, delegates and elected officials in attendance.

    Originally scheduled to be held at the Spectrum Center, the in-person events, including Monday’s roll call of delegates, took place at the Charlotte Convention Center. Most other events will be virtual, including Trump’s acceptance speech from the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday.–UPI

  • Midterm elections: Democrats retake US House as Republicans keep Senate

    Midterm elections: Democrats retake US House as Republicans keep Senate

    Democrats seized control of the lower house of Congress in midterm elections Tuesday, dealing a stern rebuke to Donald Trump almost two years into his polarizing, rollercoaster presidency.

    Fox and NBC television networks called the result in the US House of Representatives, while confirming expectations that Trump’s Republicans will retain control of the Senate.

    The result upends the balance of power in Washington, where Trump has enjoyed an easy ride from Republican dominance of both houses of Congress since his shock election in 2016.

    Democrats will now be able to block legislation and light a fire under Trump’s feet with investigations of his opaque finances and Russian interference in his 2016 election, and possibly push for impeachment.

    The verdicts in the House and Senate were based on incomplete results as vote counting continued across the country and some states were still voting in a congressional election cast as an unofficial referendum on Trump.

    Giddy predictions by Democrats of a so-called “blue wave” landslide in the House were still premature, even if a majority appeared guaranteed.

    Trump was watching the results roll in from the White House, where he spent the day holed up with friends and family.

     

  • Trump accuses Twitter of targeting Republicans, offers no evidence

    U.S. President Donald Trump accused Twitter on Thursday of restricting the visibility of prominent Republicans on its platform, and promised to investigate.

    Trump did not, however, provide any evidence to that effect.

    “Twitter ‘SHADOW BANNING’ prominent Republicans. Not good.

    “We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once!” the Republican president wrote in a Twitter post.

    On Wednesday, Republican party Chairperson Ronna McDaniel also condemned the practice saying that “the notion that social media companies would suppress certain political points of view should concern every American.”