Pennsylvania: Court hearing set to consider vote recount | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Green Party-backed push for a recount of Pennsylvania’s presidential election results will get its day in court. Commonwealth Court has scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m. Monday in Harrisburg to consider the recount effort pushed by former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, according to a court order Tuesday. Ms. Stein’s campaign helped coordinate a legal challenge this week seeking the statewide recount, contending the Nov. 8 election was illegal and its results inaccurate. It cited as evidence research by computer scientists pointing to potential hacking of electronic voting machines, as well as numerous news reports of hacking, possibly by foreign governments, into email accounts associated with the Democratic National Committee and the campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton. In scheduling Monday’s hearing, the court order said little about the proceeding. But it said “a conclusive decision” on the matter must be reached by Dec. 13, the deadline for Pennsylvania’s electors to declare who wins the state’s 20 electoral votes.

Pennsylvania: Jill Stein files petition seeking Pennsylvania presidential election recount | PennLive

An attorney for Green Party candidate Jill Stein filed a petition Monday in state Commonwealth Court asking for a recount of Pennsylvania’s 2016 presidential election. In the last week, Stein raised $6.2 million in order to launch recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all states that President-elect Donald Trump won by about 1 percentage point. In the Keystone State, the businessman received about 70,000 more votes than Clinton. Stein garnered less than 50,000 votes. One of the chief factors cited attorney Lawrence Otter’s petition include problems with the state’s electronic voting system that a computer scientist believes could make it vulnerable to hackers. Others include the computer hacking of the Democratic National Committee and “discontinuity” between pre-election public opinion polls and the final result.

Pennsylvania: Stein campaign files Pennsylvania recount suit | Philadelphia Inquirer

Stein’s camp filed a recount petition last week in Wisconsin, and is expected to do so this week Michigan. Clinton lost each of the state by fewer than 100,000 votes. She lost Pennsylvania by about 71,300 votes. As of Monday evening, Stein had raised nearly $6.4 million dollars, covering the costs of recounts in both Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and is close to her total goal of $7 million goal to cover recount costs in Michigan. But when it comes to the Keystone State, it turns out raising the money might have been the easiest step. As Stein points out herself in a video posted on Sunday, initiating a statewide recount of Pennsylvania’s vote is “especially complicated.” Unlike Wisconsin, Stein can’t simply file a direct request for a recount, leaving just two paths for a potential statewide audit.

Pennsylvania: Allegheny County holds off on certifying election results | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein launched a two-pronged bid to re-examine Pennsylvania’s presidential election results Monday. And while even some supporters of the effort say they don’t expect to overturn Donald J. Trump’s win in the state, the effort has already complicated the timeline for certifying the results in Allegheny County. On Monday afternoon, the Stein campaign filed a Commonwealth Court petition on behalf of more than 100 voters, expressing “grave concerns about the integrity of electronic voting machines used in their districts.” The petition, which calls the Nov. 8 election “illegal,” is part of a Green effort to recount ballots in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. “We must recount the votes so we can build trust in our election system,” said Ms. Stein in a statement Monday. Citing “accusations of irregularities and hacks” of Democratic Party emails and voter-registration databases, she said, “People of all political persuasions are asking if our election results are reliable.”

Pennsylvania: Voter registration through DMV fails some voters | Pocono Record

Michael Diaz went to vote at Our Lady of Victory Church Hall in Tannersville Election day morning. Like so many, he had registered to vote through the Department of Motor Vehicles when he applied for a driver’s license. Diaz was told he wasn’t registered at the sign-in desk, and wouldn’t be able to vote. Instead, he was directed to a second desk where he was able to register, but told he wouldn’t be able to vote until the next election. “They were telling me they’ve been having these problems all morning,” Diaz said of the poll workers he spoke with. His situation does not seem to be isolated. “I’ve received some calls from people who have registered through their driver’s renewals and it didn’t go through,” said Pennsylvania Department of State’s Sandy Dekyi, who was fielding complaints from voters. “They are aware of the situation in Harrisburg.”

Pennsylvania: Democrats Lose Ruling Over Trump Poll Watchers | Bloomberg

A federal judge rejected arguments that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his political adviser Roger Stone are rallying supporters to intimidate minority voters on Election Day by acting as vigilante poll monitors and “ballot integrity” volunteers. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond in Philadelphia, on the eve of the general election, is a setback for Democrats who had sought a court order barring aggressive polling-place activity such as invasions of physical space, aggressive questioning and veiled or actual threats of physical violence that they claim could chill the turnout for Clinton.
The Democrats’ “belated, inflammatory allegations appear intended to generate only heat,” and don’t support claims that the Trump campaign threatened voting rights, Diamond said in a 16-page ruling. With Trump trailing in most polls, Pennsylvania is a battleground state in Tuesday’s election. A Trump win in the state, with its 20 electoral votes, would make the Republican Party nominee’s path easier toward the 270 electoral votes needed to secure the election. A win there by the Democratic Party’s nominee, Hillary Clinton, would likely seal the election for her.

Pennsylvania: Judge denies injunction to end strike, will revisit Monday | Philadelphia Inquirer

A judge ruled Friday there was no urgent need to issue an injunction to end Philadelphia’s four-day transit strike, but said she would take a second look at the request before Election Day. After a 2 1/2-hour hearing Friday night, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Linda Carpenter denied SEPTA’s request to immediately force 4,738 striking workers back on the job. She scheduled a second hearing for 9:30 a.m. Monday. “There’s enough evidence that an injunction might be appropriate,” Carpenter said. “There’s not enough evidence that injunction right now is necessary.” SEPTA had been threatening to go to court since the strike began at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, and filed the injunction paperwork at 3 p.m. Friday. The strike has brought the city’s subways, buses, and trolleys to a standstill and caused heavy traffic on the region’s streets, highways and regional rail. “This is about the riders,” said Pasquale Deon, SEPTA’s board chairman, “and it’s just a horrible situation to put the city of Philadelphia in.”

Pennsylvania: Montgomery County judge extends deadline for absentee ballots | Philadelphia Inquirer

With thousands of ballots outstanding and complaints pouring in, a Montgomery County judge on Thursday granted a petition to extend by four days the deadline for returning absentee ballots. “I guess we run the risk that 17,000 people could be disenfranchised unless there’s some extension,” Senior Judge Bernard A. Moore said at a hearing in Norristown. County officials acknowledged receiving “unprecedented demand” this year for absentee ballots and said they had mailed 29,541 absentee ballots. But with the 5 p.m. Friday deadline looming, voters continued to complain they had not yet received their ballots. By Thursday afternoon, only half the ballots had been returned, while other counties were seeing return rates closer to 80 percent, officials said. “It is totally unacceptable,” said Cheryl L. Austin, a county judge and election board member who said her daughter in California was among those still waiting for her absentee ballot.

Pennsylvania: GOP loses lawsuit to lift poll watcher restrictions | The Morning Call

A federal judge has denied the Pennsylvania Republican Party’s request to lift restrictions on poll watchers crossing county lines in the upcoming presidential election. Citing an unreasonable delay and a failure to persuade the court to bar enforcement of the state’s residency requirements for election monitors, U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert said he would not issue the temporary restraining order or injunction the GOP had requested. “There is good reason to avoid last-minute intervention in a state’s election process. Any intervention at this point risks practical concerns including disruption, confusion or other unforeseen deleterious effects,” Pappert wrote. The GOP and several former Republican candidates filed the suit as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump continued months of rhetoric suggesting that if he loses the election it is because it was rigged and urging supporters to go to polling places in “certain areas” to make sure “other people don’t come in and vote five times.”

Pennsylvania: Fraud Claims in Philadelphia? They Add Up to Zero | The New York Times

When Donald J. Trump asserts that the election will be rigged against him, he and his surrogates frequently single out one city for special scaremongering. “I just hear such reports about Philadelphia,” Mr. Trump has told voters outside the city. He’s heard “horror shows” about stolen votes there. “Everybody,” he’s added, “knows what I’m talking about.” Rudy Giuliani does: “I’d have to be a moron,” he said, to believe Philadelphia elections are fair. Newt Gingrich, too: To dismiss vote theft there, he said, is to deny reality. Philadelphia attracts attention for its place in a swing state. It was where a 2008 news story about two New Black Panthers patrolling a polling place gained mythic proportions. And the city — once home to a mighty Republican political machine — does have a history of corrupt elections dating to the 1970s-era mayor Frank Rizzo. But the most evocative evidence among conspiracy theorists about Philadelphia today turns on a single data point about the 2012 election. There were 59 voting divisions, or precincts, in the city where President Obama swept 100 percent of the vote. The Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, swayed not one soul in these places. A few conservative pundits have called the pattern statistically impossible. Mr. Trump himself has been incredulous: “I mean, like no votes.” There is another, more credible, explanation. “This is definitely more about math than fraud,” said Jeffrey Carroll, an assistant professor of political science at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia who has analyzed those 2012 results. It is math partly of the G.O.P.’s own making. In fact, there are predominantly black pockets in Philadelphia where no one wanted to vote for Mr. Romney. (Officials including the city’s Republican commissioner have looked at the data and today’s hard-to-rig voting machines and concluded the same).

Pennsylvania: In battleground Pennsylvania, claims of a ‘rigged’ election may be impossible to disprove | ZDNet

In Wednesday’s third and final presidential debate, Donald Trump made history by becoming the first major party candidate to refuse to say whether he would honor the election’s outcome if he loses. A day later at a rally in Ohio, he told supporters he would accept “a clear election result” but would reserve his right “to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result.” Trump didn’t say what might qualify as a “questionable result.” But he’s made it clear that he already thinks the election is rigged against him. It’s almost universally agreed that is a virtual impossibility. Unfortunately, the electronic voting machine millions of Americans will use to cast their ballots can be rigged, and thanks to outdated technology it will be difficult to prove they weren’t if Trump or his supporter put forth such a claim. Verified Voting, a nonprofit group dedicated to providing information on elections, said eight out of ten Americans will cast their ballot this year on an electronic voting machine that produces some form of hard copy record of their vote. But that leaves over a dozen states in this election cycle using a direct recording electronic (DRE) machine — often a button-based or touchscreen device used for recording vote counts — which don’t support paper audit technology. In several key battleground states, electronic voting machines with paper audit trails are virtually non-existent.

Pennsylvania: Aging voting machines could be ‘nightmare scenario’ in the event of a disputed election | Los Angeles Times

On election day, voters in Pennsylvania will be touching the lighted buttons on electronic vote counters that were once seen as the solution to messy paper ballots. But in the event of a disputed election, this battleground state — one of the few that relies almost entirely on computerized voting, with no paper backup — could end up creating a far bigger mess. Stored in a locked warehouse near downtown Harrisburg, the 1980s-era voting machines used by Dauphin County look like discarded washing machines lined up in rows. When unfolded and powered up, the gray metal boxes become the familiar voting booth, complete with a curtain for privacy. Much may rest on the reliability and security of these aging machines after an unprecedentedly combative presidential campaign that is ending with Donald Trump warning repeatedly of a “rigged election” and his refusal at Wednesday’s debate to commit to accepting the results on Nov. 8. … But computer experts says the old electronic voting machines have a hidden flaw that worries them in the event of a very close election. The machines do not produce a paper ballot or receipt, leaving nothing to be recounted if the election outcome were in doubt, such as in 2000, when the nation awaited anxiously for Florida to reexamine those hanging chads.

Pennsylvania: Murrysville councilman claims online voting post was joke; officials not laughing | WPXI

A Republican councilman said he deleted an online posting about casting presidential votes via Facebook and Twitter because people didn’t realize he intended it as a joke, but state officials are taking the matter seriously. No state allows voters to cast ballots via social media, and Pennsylvania’s election oversight agency warned voters not to be misled by posts claiming otherwise. The governor’s office also issued a statement that said efforts to disrupt the election would be prosecuted. Joshua Lorenz, a Pittsburgh attorney and councilman in Murrysville, told The Associated Press the meme — which said, “Vote Hillary November 8th” and “You can vote at home comfortably online” — was meant as a joke for his friends. He said he took down the post within a couple hours Saturday because “the person who had questioned it, who I thought was a friend, had apparently misconstrued it.” In sharing the image, Lorenz wrote that it was “more proof that the election process is rigged.” GOP nominee Donald Trump has made similar claims.

Pennsylvania: ‘Rigged?’ Republican elected official circulates fake meme about online voting in Pennsylvania | BillyPenn

After weeks of Republican candidate Donald Trump warning that Pennsylvania’s — and the nation’s — election would be rigged, one Western Pennsylvania Republican official circulated an image claiming Pennsylvanians can vote online for Hillary Clinton. The official, according to a screenshot of a Facebook post, is Murrysville City Councilman Joshua Lorenz. Lorenz, a Republican, was most recently elected in 2015 and his term runs through 2019. He also works for the Meyer Unkovic Scott law firm in Pittsburgh and is the vice president of the Murrysville City Council. The image features an American flag with the phrase “You can vote at home comfortably online!” in big lettering. It then instructs voters to type “Hillary” with the hashtag #PresidentialElection to vote online on November 8. The bottom left corner features a similar but inaccurate logo resembling the Democrats’ election motto of “Change That Matters.” Big problem here: Pennsylvanians can’t vote online. For that matter, neither can voters in any state.

Pennsylvania: As GOP warns of voter fraud, Democrats quietly register more poll watchers in ‘fraud-filled’ Philadelphia | PennLive

It’s been the secret and sometimes not-so-secret front of this election: Behind the scenes, efforts are underway on both sides of the aisle to amass armies of eagle-eyed volunteers to be dispatched to the polls on Nov. 8 to watch for signs of voter fraud. But in Philadelphia, a Democratic stronghold where Republican Donald Trump has warned the possibility of voter fraud is particularly acute, officials say it is the Democrats who lead in registering poll watchers, despite more oft-invoked Republican concerns about the integrity of the city’s electoral process. “Out of 66 wards, approximately 33 wards have applied on the Democratic side [to have lists of poll watching volunteers vetted and approved],” Joe Lynch, an assistant administrator of election activities with the city, told PennLive on Tuesday. By comparison, Republicans have only submitted such lists for 8 wards, Lynch added.

Pennsylvania: No sign yet of Trump’s Pennsylvania ‘poll watchers,’ and why it’s unlikely anyway | BillyPenn

Donald Trump wants legions of his supporters to leave their hometowns on Election Day and set up shop in Pennsylvania’s cities. He wants to them to watch the polls closely and challenge voter registration. The unspoken directive is to wreak havoc. Make sure Democrats aren’t stacking the voting machines in favor of Hillary Clinton or allowing liberal voters to cast their ballots twice. “I hope you people can… not just vote on the 8th, [but] go around and look and watch other polling places and make sure that it’s 100-percent fine,” Trump said at an August rally in Altoona. “We’re going to watch Pennsylvania — go down to certain areas and watch… The only way we can lose, in my opinion — and I really mean this, Pennsylvania — is if cheating goes on.” When Trump talks about poll watching in “certain areas,” his supporters know where he’s referring to. He’s talking about Philadelphia and, to some degree, Pittsburgh — the state’s Democratic strongholds, and places where conservative media (“Call Sean Hannity!” etc.) say voter fraud has happened.

Pennsylvania: Voting machines could be susceptible to hackers | The Ledger

Ever since Pennsylvania began using computerized voting machines a decade ago, critics have worried that hackers could throw an election by shifting votes from one column to another. But that’s far from the only fear in 2016, a year when Illinois’ voter registration database has been hacked and Democratic Party emails were purportedly raided by Russian hackers. “People have talked about Russia supporting Donald Trump,” said University of Iowa computer science professor Douglas Jones, who co-authored a 2012 book about election security. “But I think it would be to their advantage just to have a chaotic election, one that would weaken whoever won. … And if you wanted to cook an election, you don’t have to do anything massive.”

Pennsylvania: How Hostile Poll-Watchers Could Hand Pennsylvania to Trump | Politico

In 2004, hundreds of University of Pittsburgh students waited for hours to vote in the presidential election. The local Democratic Party, alarmed at the bottleneck, handed out pizza and water to encourage the students to stay. Pittsburgh Steelers Hall-of-Famer Franco Harris worked the line, armed with a giant bag of Dunkin Donuts, and Liz Berlin of the Pittsburgh band Rusted Root performed on guitar. The stalled line wasn’t because of the high turnout. It was what was happening at the check-in desk. “The attorneys for the Republican Party were challenging the credentials of pretty much every young voter who showed up,” recalls Pat Clark, a Pittsburgh activist and registered Democrat who was working for an election-protection group that day. The GOP attorneys were acting as poll watchers. A common practice in many states, partisan poll watching helps parties get out the vote and keep an eye out for irregularities. But in Pennsylvania, laws governing how observers can challenge voters are unusually broad, and that makes them susceptible to abuse.

Pennsylvania: Cybersecurity expert: Pennsylvania most vulnerable to voting system hacks | CBS

The battleground state of Pennsylvania might as well have a target on its back as Election Day nears, the cybersecurity company Carbon Black warned in a new report released Thursday. “If I was a 400-pound hacker, I would target Pennsylvania,” Carbon Black chief security strategist Ben Johnson told CBS News, a reference to Donald Trump’s comment in Monday’s debate that the hacker behind the Democratic National Committee email leak could be someone “sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.” U.S. intelligence officials actually believe Russia was behind that breach and a number of recent intrusions into state voter databases. Across the state, most Pennsylvania counties use particularly high-risk electronic voting machines that leave behind zero paper trails, which could be useful to audit the integrity of votes cast. In addition, many of these machines — called “direct-recording electronic” machines — are running on severely outdated operating systems like Windows XP, which has not been patched by Microsoft since 2014, Carbon Black said in its report. In general, these complex machines are a headache compared to so-called fixed-function devices that perform just one task and are thus harder to hack.

Pennsylvania: Wolf’s administration increases voter registration options | York Dispatch

When Gov. Tom Wolf took office, Pennsylvania was already behind many states in allowing online voter registration, but the state is now an early adopter of a texting service designed to increase registration awareness. Wolf often cited a need for more accessible voter registration during his campaign for office, and about seven months into his first term as governor, Pennsylvania became the 23rd state to allow online registration, according to Secretary of State Pedro Cortes. Cortes said he had been pushing for online voter registration when he served under previous Gov. Ed Rendell because it’s “more convenient and accessible.” Last week, online voter registration services surpassed 500,000 users in the state, he said.

Pennsylvania: GOP makes 11th-hour push to relax rules for poll-watchers | Tribune Democrat

Republican lawmakers are poised to pass a bill allowing election monitors to be bused around the state to watch, and potentially challenge, voters at the polls. It’s an effort that echoes themes raised by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. In an Aug. 12 campaign visit in Altoona, Trump suggested that people “go down to certain areas and watch and study, and make sure other people don’t come in and vote five times.” But Democrats argue those poll-watchers could be intimidating voters – instead of preventing intimidation. That’s not so far-fetched, said Adam Gitlin, counsel for the Democracy Program of New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice. “There’s actually a risk that, in a more disorganized way, people are going to be showing up to the polls, they won’t know the law, and they’ll be engaging in discriminatory challenges,” Gitlin told the news site ProPublica for a Sept. 14 story.

Pennsylvania: In wake of lawsuit, voter registrations up at Pennsylvania’s county assistance sites | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Since 2012, when a lawsuit was settled over voter registration issues, county assistance offices have submitted voter registration applications or change of address updates for more than 160,000 Pennsylvanians, according to a tally of statistics from the state. The lawsuit alleged that spot-checks and interviews with those who sought benefits at county assistance offices and through the Women, Infants & Children nutrition program showed that the state was not properly offering clients voter registration applications. Additionally, the state’s own statistics showed that it was failing to do what the law required, the complaint said. From 1995 to 1996, the state’s public assistance offices registered 59,462 voters, but during 2009 and 2010, only 4,179 voters were registered. The state settled the lawsuit shortly after it was filed.

Pennsylvania: Advocates Say Electronic Voting Machines Should Print Paper Ballots | WESA

Allegheny County has been held as a model for its handling of electronic voting testing and inspection. It’s the only county in Pennsylvania to conduct parallel testing, meaning an independent organization randomly selects machines on Election Day and simulates usage. Despite testing, some local groups aren’t convinced the machines are secure. Vote Allegheny Treasurer Secretary Audrey Glickman said the county needs to upgrade its system to one that prints a paper ballot. “Then we can have a statistically significant audit and have some means of recounting what the vote was,” Glickman said. “Right now we can’t recount the vote.”

Pennsylvania: Aging voting machines prompt concern about election security | CNHI

Decade-old voting machines in much of the state are creating concern as they age, with lawmakers now urging a review of the systems. This comes as Pennsylvania’s widespread use of touch-screen voting is viewed with suspicion by supporters of Donald Trump. Many already feel the Republican presidential nominee is campaigning up-stream, and Trump has suggested that if he loses, it will be because voting systems in Pennsylvania and elsewhere are rigged. “I think paper ballots that the voter fills in circles with ink that are read by optical scanners would be a good way to go,” said Rep. Brad Roae, R-Crawford County, a member of the House State Government Committee. Roae attended Trump’s Erie rally on Friday and has said he supports the nominee.

Pennsylvania: Lawmakers examine election codes, voting machine legislation | WITF

State lawmakers Tuesday held a rare summer meeting to discuss updating guidelines on voting machine technology. Meanwhile, some elections officials took the opportunity to try and convince the legislators to make broader changes to the commonwealth’s election codes. Wes Perry, assistant director of Elections in Washington County, spoke at Tuesday’s meeting. He said most of the state’s voting machines were bought with a federal grant about a decade ago, and are due to be replaced soon.

Pennsylvania: Aging voting machines pose a future cause for concern in some counties | PennLive

People often complain about long lines when they go to cast their vote on Election Day, particularly in presidential election years, but imagine how much worse it would be if large numbers of the state’s aging voting machines broke down and parts to fix them were hard to come by. It’s that type of scenario that Sen. Elder Vogel, R-Beaver County, hopes to avoid. He authored a resolution calling for a study on aging voting machines in the state that the Senate adopted last month. It directs the Joint State Government Commission to complete the study within the next 18 months and issue its findings and recommendations. County election officials are already “scavenging parts” when problems arise, he said. He wants to be proactive “before it becomes a crisis.” Barry Kauffman, a senior adviser to Common Cause Pennsylvania, agrees this is an issue that needs to be dealt with – and soon. “We know these machines are aging out … some of the software isn’t even serviced anymore,” Kauffman said. “There is a serious need to protect the integrity of our elections.” Along with that, he would like to see more voting machines that are user-friendly and ensure votes are counted correctly. “In the end, we need timely, accurate results,” he said.

Pennsylvania: Lackawanna County’s old voting machines dropped off at recycling center | The Times-Tribune

Lackawanna County’s 525 touchscreen voting machines only tallied results for three elections before the state decertified them in 2007. Now, parts of them will find new life in other machines. The county dropped off the defunct voting machines at Lackawanna County Recycling Center on Wednesday, taking advantage of the operation’s free electronics recycling that runs through the end of the month. “I had hoped to find a buyer over the years, but I was unsuccessful,” Director of Elections Marion Medalis told commissioners before they approved disposing of the system.

Pennsylvania: Common Cause/PA Opposes Electronic Overseas Ballot Measure | CBS

A prominent good-government group says it’s strongly opposed to legislation that would allow military and overseas voters to send their ballots electronically in Pennsylvania elections. Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause/PA, says the current state of the Internet does not make online voting practical. “Every credible Internet and computer security expert says don’t do this,” Kauffman said, “you cannot make a system secure for voting.” But the sponsor of the bill, Fayette County Senate Republican Patrick Stefano, says his measure is not an online voting bill. He says it merely allows overseas voters to submit their paper ballots electronically, by converting them to PDF files and sending them via email.

Pennsylvania: Voter party switching sows primary intrigue in Pennsylvania | Associated Press

Voters are switching party affiliation in Pennsylvania at a rate not seen in years, if ever, as their chance to cast ballots in a competitive presidential primary election approaches. The latest statistics this week from Pennsylvania’s elections bureau show about 245,000 registered voters have switched this year, or 3 percent of the state’s 8.2 million registered voters. This is the first year voter registration in the state can be done online, making it easier than getting the paperwork, filling it out and submitting it. But many of those switching parties reported wanting to vote in Pennsylvania’s April 26 primary, and the switching accelerated in the weeks before Monday’s deadline to register to vote or change registration. In Pennsylvania, closed primaries are open only to the party’s registered voters and, historically, races tend to be settled by the time the state’s relatively late primary election date arrives. This year, contested primaries, particularly the closely contested Republican race, are driving up voter interest.

Pennsylvania: Kasich’s ballot challenge withdrawn; clears way to primary | Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

John Kasich will appear on April’s Republican primary ballot in Pennsylvania, next door to his home state of Ohio where he whipped front-runner Donald J. Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Tuesday. Kasich’s opportunity to continue the fight for the nomination here was in question after representatives of Marco Rubio’s campaign challenged Kasich’s petitions, claiming the Ohio governor did not submit enough valid signatures to appear on the ballot. On Wednesday, a day after the Florida senator suspended his campaign, Rubio student operative Nathaniel Rome dropped the Commonwealth Court filing he initiated, said Chris Bravacos, CEO of the Bravo Group and brother to the attorney representing Rome. Bravacos said Rome asked to withdraw his objection to the Kasich nominating petition. He did not elaborate.