Reda Jean Steinacker (1935-2024)

Reda Jean Steinacker, 89, of Chippewa Township, formerly of Rochester, passed away on November 4th, 2024, in Celebration Villa of Chippewa. She was born on April 8th, 1935 in Rochester, the daughter of the late Charles V. and Helen Ripper Steinacker. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by one sister, Martha Jane Steinacker and cousins Lawrence “Joe” Moyer and Donna J. Moyer. Reda is survived by her beloved cousins, Paul, Sharon and Dalton Moyer, of Karns City, Pa., and numerous cousins and friends including special friends Harry and Karen Baker, Rochester Twp., and Mary LaFrance, Rochester. Reda was a retired employee of Horsehead Corporation, St. Joe Lead Company, in the accounting department. She was a member of Grace Evangelical Church of Rochester, where she was on the counting committee. She was also  a former volunteer with various church activities. She was a 1953 graduate of Rochester High School who loved to travel, read and needle crafting. She also loved Christmas and loved celebrating the season by fully decorating her entire house for the holiday season.
Friends will be received on Thursday, November 7th from 3-6 p.m. in the William Murphy Funeral Home, Inc., 349 Adams Street, Rochester. A service will also be held on Friday, November 8th at 11 a.m., in the Grace Evangelical Church, 393 Adams Street, Rochester, with Pastor Gregory Clagg officiating. Entombment will be at Sylvania Hills Mausoleum. Memorial contributions be made to the Rochester Library, 252 Adams Street, Rochester, or Grace Lutheran Church, 393 Adams Street, Rochester.

Eleanor Marie Vlasic (1943-2024)

Eleanor Marie Vlasic, 80, passed away surrounded by her three beloved children on November 2nd, 2024. She was born in Sewickley on November 4th, 1943, a daughter of the late Dominic and Anna Burzese. She is survived by her three children, Courtney, Christopher and Jonathan and five grandchildren: Lauren, Brendan, Vivian, Olivia and Vienna; son in-law Brian Markowski, and daughter in-laws Brandy and Michelle Vlasic.

In addition to her parents, Eleanor is preceded in death by sisters Evelyn Kuny and Norma Jean Dellemonache. She is survived by her sister Regina Slavik and numerous nieces and nephews.

Eleanor’s main focus in life was being the best mother she could but her early years were dedicated to hard work and education. Eleanor earned an Associate Degree from Robert Morris College and went on to lead a very successful career as an Administrative Assistant with both US Steel and American Bridge. Also, Eleanor and her parents of Italian descent, was the founding inspiration to Pittsburgh’s own restaurant of institutional status, Alla Famiglia.

Eleanor was giving to a fault, but was never afraid to say anything she thought someone needed to hear, especially if that someone was one of her children. Eleanor’s greatest joy in life was her family. Eleanor was the very best Grandma to her grand children and put them above all. She loved to always be surrounded by family, and never ran out of love to share, no matter how the family continued to grow. She truly was the glue that kept her beloved family together.

Eleanor’s memory will be cherished and kept alive by her children and their children, and many other family members. Eleanor will be truly missed and her legacy never forgotten.

Service information can be found on alvarezhahnfs.com. Arrangements have been entrusted to Alvarez Hahn Funeral Service and Cremation, LLC, 547 8th Street, Ambridge.

Shirley Ann Hartman (1934-2024)

Shirley Ann Hartman, 89, of Economy, passed away on November 4th, 2024, surrounded by her loving family. She was born on December 24th, 1934, the daughter of the late Tink and Gen Johnson. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 65 years, Allen Hartman Sr.

She is survived by her children: Allen Hartman Jr., Thomas (Kathryn) Hartman, Steven (Carole) Hartman, and Sharon (Gary) Swiderski; her sister, Linda Miller, her brother, Howard Johnson, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

A devoted member of Parkwood United Presbyterian Church in Allison Park, Shirley was an active participant in the church choir. She enjoyed card games, bowling, and was a true connoisseur of fine wine from Narcisi Winery. A passionate supporter of Pittsburgh sports teams, she brought joy and energy to everyone she met. Shirley will be deeply missed by her family and all who knew and loved her.

Visitation will be held on Thursday, November 7, from 1–5 P.M. and 6–8 P.M. at Alvarez-Hahn Funeral Services and Cremation, LLC, 547 8th Street, Ambridge. Additional visitation will take place on Friday, November 8, from 10 A.M. until the time of the funeral service at 11 A.M. at Parkwood United Presbyterian Church, 4289 Mount Royal Boulevard, Allison Park. Burial will be private.

Steelers add depth at the trade deadline, acquiring WR Mike Williams and LB Preston Smith

New York Jets wide receiver Mike Williams (18) pulls in a pass against Pittsburgh Steelers safety DeShon Elliott (25) in the second half of an NFL football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
By WILL GRAVES AP Sports Writer

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Steelers might be in first place in the AFC North.
They’re hardly coasting.
Pittsburgh added wide receiver Mike Williams and outside linebacker Preston Smith at the trade deadline on Tuesday, giving the club veteran depth at two positions of need as the stretch run looms.
The Steelers sent a fifth-round pick to the New York Jets for Williams and a seventh-round selection to Green Bay for Smith.
Pittsburgh (6-2) is coming off its bye week atop the AFC North, but begins a difficult second half of the season on Sunday at surprising NFC East-leading Washington (7-2).
Acquiring Williams gives the Steelers a proven outside threat to put opposite George Pickens. Pittsburgh is talented but thin at outside linebacker. T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith are perhaps the best tandem in the league. But backup Nick Herbig has been slowed by a hamstring injury, though coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday there’s a chance Herbig could be available against the Commanders.
The Steelers have been searching for a big target to complement Pickens since trading Diontae Johnson to Carolina last spring. They flirted with but couldn’t land Brandon Aiyuk — who opted to re-sign with San Francisco — over the summer and watched Davante Adams (Jets) and DeAndre Hopkins (Chiefs) go elsewhere in the AFC.
Williams, who signed a one-year, $10 million contract with New York in the offseason as a free agent, had just 12 catches for 166 yards in nine games with the Jets. He had only a 6-yard reception on just two targets in his past two games.
The 6-foot-4 Williams spent his first seven NFL seasons with the Chargers, for whom he caught 309 passes for 4,806 yards and 31 touchdowns. He tore the ACL in his right knee in Week 3 last year and missed the rest of the season. The Jets brought Williams along slowly throughout the offseason and in training camp, but he never seemed to click with Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers when he got onto the field.
Williams comes to a team that has seen an uptick in the passing game since Russell Wilson returned from a calf injury that forced him to miss Pittsburgh’s first six games. While Van Jefferson and Calvin Austin III have had their moments since Wilson was reinserted into the lineup, Williams’ size gives the Steelers another big body to use in the red zone alongside the 6-3 Pickens and 6-5 tight end Pat Freiermuth.
Tomlin made it a point to praise the work of his wide receiver group as a whole shortly before adding Williams.
“I just feel like we have a group that’s hardworking and capable and can’t wait to show the football world those capabilities,” he said. “And every time we step into a stadium, they get an opportunity to do so. And you (have) seen some examples of it already.”
Just not enough for the Steelers to seek an upgrade as the franchise tries to end a playoff victory drought that stretches to the 2016 AFC championship game.
Pittsburgh has been uncharacteristically aggressive in trying to revamp its offense over the past year, jettisoning quarterbacks Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph while adding Wilson and Justin Fields.
The results have been solid if not always spectacular so far. The Steelers are a respectable 13th in scoring after finishing 28th a year ago.
Still, significant challenges remain. Pittsburgh will play all three of its AFC North rivals twice over the final nine weeks to go with games against Washington, Philadelphia and Kansas City.
Tomlin acknowledged the club was active in the trade market, calling it prudent for a team that wants to be a “world championship outfit.”
Pittsburgh’s defense is among the league’s best — the Steelers are second in points allowed and ninth in yards allowed — but the pass rush isn’t quite as disruptive as it has been in recent years, due in part to opponents making it a point to get the ball out quicker.
Watt has 6 1/2 of Pittsburgh’s 19 sacks, numbers that are a little off the pace for both in recent years, though Highsmith missed three games with a groin injury and Herbig hasn’t played since injuring his hamstring on Oct. 6 against Dallas.
Smith has seen a dip in playing time in his 10th season after the Packers switched to a 4-3 defense. The 31-year-old has 2 1/2 sacks and six tackles for Green Bay, and played just 36% of the snaps against Detroit on Sunday. Smith has been productive throughout his career with the Commanders and the Packers, getting 68 1/2 sacks in 155 games.
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AP Pro Football writer Dennis Waszak Jr. in New York and AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Under lock and key: How ballots get from Pennsylvania precincts to election offices

Mail-in ballots sit in a secure area of the the Allegheny County Elections Division warehouse, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
By JOSH KELETY The Associated Press
Pennsylvania election officials take a variety of measures to secure ballots when they are transported from polling places to county facilities. For instance, in Philadelphia, local police officers collect ballots from polling places after the polls close on Election Day. In Allegheny County, poll workers transport ballots to regional reporting centers. Poll workers and county election officials also utilize chain of custody forms to document the handoff of ballots.

Police escorts, sealed containers and chain of custody documentation: These are some of the measures that Pennsylvania counties take to secure ballots while they are transported from polling places to county facilities after polls close on Election Day.
The exact protocols vary by county. For instance, in Berks County, poll workers will transport ballots in sealed boxes back to the county elections office, where they will be locked in a secure room, according to Stephanie Nojiri, assistant director of elections for the county located east of Harrisburg.
In Philadelphia, local law enforcement plays a direct role in gathering ballots from polling places.
“Philadelphia police officers will travel to polling places across the city after the polls close and collect those ballots to be transported back to our headquarters at the end of the night,” said Philadelphia City Commissioner Seth Bluestein, who serves on the board that oversees elections in the city. “Each precinct is given a large canvas bag, and the containers that hold the ballots are placed into that bag and transported by the police.”
After polls close in Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, poll workers will transport ballots in locked, sealed bags to regional reporting centers, where the election results are recorded, said David Voye, division manager of the county’s elections division.
From there, county police escort the ballots to a warehouse where they are stored in locked cages that are on 24-hour surveillance.
Poll workers and county election officials also utilize chain of custody paperwork to document the transfer of ballots as they are moved from polling places to secure county facilities.
For instance, in Allegheny County, chain of custody forms are used to verify how many used and unused ballots poll workers are returning to county officials, Voye said. Officials also check the seals on the bags used to transport the ballots to confirm that they are still intact.
There are similar security procedures for counties that use ballot drop boxes to collect mail and absentee ballots. In Berks County, sheriff’s deputies monitor the county’s three drop boxes during the day, according to Nojiri. When county elections officials come to empty the drop boxes, which are secured by four locks, they unlock two of the locks, while the sheriff’s deputies unlock the other two.
Officials remove the ballots, count them, record the number of ballots on a custody sheet, and put the ballots in a sealed box before they transported back to the county’s processing center.
“There’s all kinds of different custody sheets and all that, again, is reconciled in the days after the election,” Nojiri said.
Philadelphia has 34 ballot drop boxes, which are emptied daily and twice on Election Day by election workers, according to Bluestein. The bags used for transporting ballots from drop boxes are also sealed, and workers who are returning these ballots complete and sign a chain of custody form.
“The transportation of ballots is done in a secure, controlled manner, and the public should have confidence in the integrity of that ballot collection process,” Bluestein said.
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This story is part of an explanatory series focused on Pennsylvania elections produced collaboratively by WITF in Harrisburg and The Associated Press.
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The AP receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here.

Bernie Marcus, The Home Depot co-founder and billionaire philanthropist, dies at 95

FILE – Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus appears on “Cavuto: Coast to Coast,” with anchor Neil Cavuto, on the Fox Business Network, in New York, June 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bernard “Bernie” Marcus, the co-founder of The Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement chain, a billionaire philanthropist, and a big Republican donor, has died. He was 95. Marcus died Monday in Boca Raton, Florida, surrounded by family, according to a Home Depot spokesperson. Marcus was Home Depot’s CEO as it grew rapidly during its first two decades, and was chairman of the board until his retirement in 2002. In recent years, he became an outspoken supporter of former president Donald Trump, donating nearly $5 million to the Republican Party between 2016 and 2020.

This is how precincts in Pennsylvania handle unexpected issues on Election Day

Voters line up outside the Bucks County Administration Building during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Doylestown, Pa. (AP Photo/Michael Rubinkam)
By KATIE KNOL/WITF undefined

On Tuesday, millions of people in Pennsylvania will travel to their local polling place to cast a ballot.
Election officials want everything to go smoothly, but disruptions sometimes happen.
The most common disruptions at precincts are late openings, lack of staffing and voting machine issues, according to Jeff Greenburg, a 13-year election director veteran. He is now a senior advisor on election administration for The Committee of Seventy, a nonpartisan organization focusing on engagement and public policy advocacy.
Anyone can report a problem with the election process. They can call their county elections office, contact the Department of State, or reach out to a voter hotline run by nonprofits.
What if my polling place doesn’t open on time or is not fully staffed?
Sometimes workers arrive late or facility owners forget to unlock the doors on time, Greenburg said.
Polling places open on Tuesday at 7 a.m. and will remain open until 8 p.m. Anyone in line to vote when polls close will be allowed to cast a ballot.
Voters can find their local polling place online.
“County election offices will have contact information for both poll workers and facilities in the event doors are locked or poll workers don’t show up,” Greenburg said.
If there is a shortage of workers at a polling place, workers can be shifted from other locations or recruited, Greenburg said. Pennsylvania law allows workers to fill a vacancy with someone who has come in to vote if that person is willing to help.
What if there are voting machine issues?
There are multiple backups in place so voters can cast a ballot if there are issues with the voting machines.
Greenburg said counties typically have roving technicians respond if issues arise. He said they are dispatched as quickly as possible once the issue is reported.
Typically, reports go from the precinct to the county election office. If the issue cannot be resolved or if legal action is required, the county solicitor and Board of Elections will determine if any further steps are required.
“If there is a significant enough impact on the voting location, the BOE could petition the county courts to extend hours,” Greenburg said.
Each county election office has a process in place to disseminate important information on Election Day. This can be through the county’s website, social media accounts or through local news outlets.
“People should only rely on trusted sources for this information,” Greenburg said. “Whether it’s through the county’s web site or social media accounts, or through local media outlets.”
Counties also have emergency paper ballots if machines cannot be repaired or replaced on Election Day.
Eva Weyrich, Juniata County’s director of elections, said the county only uses paper ballots and each polling place has one machine tabulator.
Even if something goes wrong with the tabulator, voters will still be able to fill out their ballots while a technician travels to the precinct to fix the issue.
Weyrich said the county has never had a machine go down for the whole day.
Juniata County prefers the hand-marked paper ballot system, according to Weyrich.
“We can always go back and hand-count the ballots to verify that the machine was accurate,” Weyrich said.
Forty-seven counties have voters fill in ballots by hand. The other 27 have voting machines that print paper ballots with the voter’s selections that can also be audited after an election.
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This story is part of an explanatory series focused on Pennsylvania elections produced collaboratively by WITF, led by democracy reporter Jordan Wilkie, and The Associated Press.
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The AP receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here.

Trump wants the presidential winner to be declared on election night. Why that’s unlikely

FILE – An election worker examines a ballot at the Clackamas County Elections office, May 19, 2022, in Oregon City, Ore. Problems with a ballot-sorting machine are delaying the vote count in a suburban Portland, Oregon county where issues with blurry bar codes on mail-in ballots delayed elections results in a key Congressional primary race for two weeks in 2022. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File)
By NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press

Former President Donald Trump is stepping up his demands that the winner of the presidential race be declared shortly after polls close Tuesday, well before all the votes are counted.
Trump set the pattern in 2020, when he declared that he had won during the early morning hours after Election Day. That led his allies to demand that officials “stop the count!” He and many other conservatives have spent the past four years falsely claiming that fraud cost him that election and bemoaning how long it takes to count ballots in the U.S.
But one of many reasons we are unlikely to know the winner quickly on election night is that Republican lawmakers in two key swing states have refused to change laws that delay the count. Another is that most indications are this will be a very close election, and it takes longer to determine who won close elections than blowouts.
In the end, election experts note, the priority in vote-counting is to make sure it’s an accurate and secure tally, not to end the suspense moments after polls close.
“There’s nothing nefarious about it,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “The time delay is to protect the integrity of the process.”
Trump’s demand also doesn’t seem to account for the six time zones from the East Coast to Hawaii.
David Becker, an elections expert and co-author of “The Big Truth,” debunking Trump’s 2020 election lies, said it’s not realistic for election officials in thousands of jurisdictions to “instantly snap their fingers and count 160 million multi-page ballots with dozens of races on them.”
Trump wants the race decided Tuesday night
During a Sunday rally in Pennsylvania, Trump demanded that the race be decided soon after some polls begin closing.
“They have to be decided by 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock on Tuesday night,” Trump said. “Bunch of crooked people. These are crooked people.”
It was not clear who he was targeting with the “crooked people” remark.
Timing is one example of why Trump’s demands don’t match the reality of conducting elections in the U.S. By 11 p.m. Eastern time, polls will just be closing in the two Western swing states of Arizona and Nevada.
Trump has led conservatives to bemoan that the U.S. doesn’t count elections as swiftly as France or Argentina, where results for recent races have been announced within hours of polls closing. But that’s because those countries tabulate only a single election at a time. The decentralized U.S. system prevents the federal government from controlling elections.
Instead, votes are counted in nearly 10,000 separate jurisdictions, each of which has its own races for the state legislature, city council, school boards and ballot measures to tabulate at the same time. That’s why it takes longer for the U.S. to count votes.
Declaring a winner can take time
The Associated Press calls races when there is no possibility that the trailing candidate can make up the gap. Sometimes, if one candidate is significantly behind, a winner can be called quickly. But if the margin is narrow, then every last vote could matter. It takes a while before every vote is counted even in the most efficient jurisdictions in the country.
In 2018, for example, Republican Rick Scott won the U.S. Senate race in Florida, a state conservatives regularly praise for its quick tally. But the AP didn’t call Scott’s victory until after the conclusion of a recount on Nov. 20 because Scott’s margin was so slim.
It also takes time to count every one of the millions of votes because election officials have to process disputed, or “provisional,” ballots, and to see if they were legitimately cast. Overseas ballots from military members or other U.S. citizens abroad can trickle in at the last minute. Mail ballots usually land early, but there’s a lengthy process to make sure they’re not cast fraudulently. If that process doesn’t start before Election Day, it can back up the count.
Some states, such as Arizona, also give voters whose mail ballots were rejected because the signatures didn’t match up to five days to prove they actually cast the ballot. That means final numbers simply cannot be available Tuesday night.
Election rules are to blame in some states
Some of the sluggishness is due to state-specific election rules. In Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, two of the most important swing states, election officials for years have pleaded with Republican lawmakers to change the law that prevents them from processing their mail ballots before Election Day. That means mail ballots get tallied late, and frequently the results don’t start to get reported until after Election Day.
Democrats have traditionally dominated mail voting, which has made it seem like Republicans are in the lead until the early hours of the next morning, when Democratic mail votes finally get added to the tally. Experts even have names for this from past elections — the “red mirage” or the “blue shift.” Trump exploited that dynamic in 2020 when he had his supporters demand an abrupt end to vote counts — the ballots that remained untallied were largely mail ones that were for Joe Biden. It’s not clear how that will play out this year, since Republicans have shifted and voted in big numbers during early voting.
Michigan used to have similar restrictions, but after Democrats won control of the state Legislature in 2022 they removed the prohibition on early processing of mail ballots. That state’s Democratic Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, said she hopes to have most results available by Wednesday.
“At the end of the day, chief election officials are the folks who have the ability to provide those accurate results. Americans should focus on what they say and not what any specific candidate or folks who are part of the campaign say,” said Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Trump allies urge him to declare victory swiftly
Some of Trump’s allies say he should be even more aggressive about declaring victory this time around.
Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon, who in 2020 predicted the then-president would declare victory before the race was called, advocated for a similar strategy during a recent press conference after he was released from federal prison, where he was serving time for a contempt of Congress conviction related to the investigation into Trump’s effort to overturn his loss in 2020.
“President Trump came up at 2:30 in the morning and talked,” Bannon said. “He should have done it at 11 o’clock in 2020.”
Other Trump supporters have taken a darker tone. His former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, suggested during a recent interview on the right-wing American Truth Project podcast that violence could erupt in states still counting ballots the day after Election Day because people “are just not going to put up with it.”
Trying to project a sense of inevitability about a Trump win, the former president and his supporters have been touting early vote data and favorable polls to contend the election is all but over. Republicans have returned to voting early after largely staying away at Trump’s direction in 2020 and 2022. In some swing states that track party registration, registered Republicans are outvoting Democrats in early voting.
But that doesn’t mean Republicans are ahead in any meaningful sense. Early voting data does not tell you who will win an election because it only records who voted, not how they voted.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has been explicitly targeting Republicans disillusioned by Trump. In each of those states where more Republicans have voted, there also are huge numbers of voters casting early ballots who are not registered with either of the two major political parties. If Harris won just a tiny fraction more of those votes than Trump, it would erase the small leads Republicans have.
There’s only one way to find out who won the presidential election: Wait until enough votes are tallied, whenever that is.

Casey and McCormick square off in Pennsylvania race that could determine Senate control

FILE – Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., speaks during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

By MARC LEVY Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race between three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger David McCormick will help determine control of the chamber Tuesday in a battleground state contest that is one of the nation’s most expensive this year.
Casey, perhaps Pennsylvania’s best-known politician and the son of a former two-term governor, is seeking a fourth term after facing what he has called his toughest reelection challenge yet. Casey, 64, is a stalwart of the state’s Democratic Party, having won six statewide elections going back to 1996, including serving as the state’s auditor general and treasurer.
McCormick, 59, is making his second run for the Senate after losing narrowly to Dr. Mehmet Oz in 2022’s Republican primary. He left his job as CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund to run after serving at the highest levels of former President George W. Bush’s administration and sitting on Trump’s Defense Advisory Board.
The race ran on national themes, from abortion rights to inflation. But it also turned on local ones, too, such as Casey’s accusation that McCormick is a rich carpetbagger from Connecticut’s ritzy ” Gold Coast ” — a caricature McCormick helped bring to life by mispronouncing the name of one of Pennsylvania’s local beers — trying to buy Pennsylvania’s Senate seat.
Casey also attacked McCormick’s hedge fund days, accusing him of getting rich at America’s expense by investing in Chinese companies that make fentanyl and built Beijing’s military.
McCormick, in turn, stressed his seventh-generation roots in Pennsylvania, talked up his high school days wrestling in towns across northern Pennsylvania — a sport that took him to the U.S. military academy at West Point — and his time running online auction house FreeMarkets Inc., which had its name on a skyscraper in Pittsburgh during the tech boom.
Casey, a staunch ally of labor unions and President Joe Biden, has campaigned on preserving the middle class, abortion rights, labor rights and voting rights, calling McCormick and former President Donald Trump a threat to all those.
McCormick, in turn, accused Casey of rubber-stamping Biden administration policies on the border, the economy, energy and national security that he blames for inflation, domestic turmoil and war. He has attacked Casey as a weak, out-of-touch career politician and a sure bet to fall in line with Vice President Kamala Harris if she becomes president.
Democrats currently hold a Senate majority by the narrowest of margins.
Both Casey and McCormick were uncontested for their party’s nominations in the primary election.
Also on the Nov. 5 Senate ballot are John Thomas of the Libertarian Party, Leila Hazou of the Green Party and Marty Selker of the Constitution Party.
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Follow Marc Levy at https://x.com/timelywriter.

Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes can proceed, a Pennsylvania judge says

FILE – Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, attends the opening of the Tesla factory Berlin Brandenburg in Gruenheide, Germany, March 22, 2022. The intrigue surrounding Musk’s Twitter investment took a new twist Tuesday, April 12, 2022, with the filing of a lawsuit alleging the colorful billionaire illegally delayed disclosing his big stake in the social media company so he could buy more shares at lower prices. (Patrick Pleul/Pool Photo via AP, File)
By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes that Elon Musk ‘s political action committee is hosting in swing states can continue through Tuesday’s presidential election, a Pennsylvania judge ruled Monday.
Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta — ruling after Musk’s lawyers said the winners are paid spokespeople and not chosen by chance — did not immediately explain his reasoning.
District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, had called the process a scam “designed to actually influence a national election” and asked that it be shut down.
Musk lawyer Chris Gober said the final two recipients before Tuesday’s presidential election will be in Arizona on Monday and Michigan on Tuesday.
“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,” Gober said Monday. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”
Chris Young, the director and treasurer of America PAC, testified that the recipients are vetted ahead of time, to “feel out their personality, (and) make sure they were someone whose values aligned” with the group.
Musk’s lawyers, defending the effort, called it “core political speech” given that participants sign a petition endorsing the U.S. Constitution. They also said Krasner’s bid to shut it down under Pennsylvania law was moot because there would be no more Pennsylvania winners before the program ends Tuesday.
Krasner believes the giveaways violates state election law and contradict what Musk promised when he announced them during an appearance with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump ‘s campaign in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 19: “We’re going to be awarding a million dollars randomly to people who have signed the petition every day from now until the election,” Musk vowed.
Young also acknowledged that the PAC made the recipients sign nondisclosure agreements.
“They couldn’t really reveal the truth about how they got the money, right?” Krasner lawyer John Summers asked.
“Sounds right,” Young said.
In an Oct. 20 social media post shown in court, Musk said anyone signing the petition had “a daily chance of winning $1M!”
Summers grilled him on Musk’s use of both the words “chance” and “randomly,” prompting Young to concede the latter was not “the word I would have selected.”
Young said the winners knew they would be called on stage but not specifically that they would win the money.
Musk did not attend the hearing. He has committed more than $70 million to the super PAC to help Trump and other Republicans win in November.
“This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” Krasner testified Monday. “That’s what it is. A grift.”
Lawyers for Musk and the PAC said they do not plan to extend the lottery beyond Tuesday. Krasner said the first three winners, starting on Oct. 19, came from Pennsylvania in the days leading up to the state’s Oct. 21 voter registration deadline.
Other winners came from the battleground states of Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan. It’s not clear if anyone has yet received the money. The PAC pledged they would get it by Nov. 30, according to an exhibit shown in court.
More than 1 million people from the seven states have registered for the sweepstakes by signing a petition saying they support the right to free speech and to bear arms, the first two amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Krasner questioned how the PAC might use their data, which it will have on hand well past the election.
“They were scammed for their information,” Krasner said. “It has almost unlimited use.”
Krasner’s team called Musk “the heartbeat of America PAC,” and the person announcing the winners and presenting the checks.
“He was the one who presented the checks, albeit large cardboard checks. We don’t really know if there are any real checks,” Summers said.
Foglietta presided over the case at Philadelphia City Hall after Musk and the PAC lost an effort to move it to federal court.
Krasner has said he could still consider criminal charges, as he’s tasked with protecting both lotteries and the integrity of elections.
Pennsylvania remains a key battleground state with 19 electoral votes and both Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris have repeatedly visited the state, including stops planned Monday in the final hours of the campaign.
Krasner — who noted that he has long driven a Tesla — said he could also seek civil damages for the Pennsylvania registrants. Musk is the CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla. He also owns the social media platform X, where America PAC has published posts on the sweepstakes, and the rocket ship maker SpaceX.