State News

Bucks County, Pennsylvania, received nearly $5 million from the state for election integrity since 2023, but the county was successfully sued for violating election law as voters were turned away after waiting for hours in long lines during the 2024 election cycle. Democrat Bucks County Commissioner Robert Harvie blamed the long lines — which were the subject of successful litigation from the campaigns of President-elect Donald Trump and Senator-elect Dave McCormick — on budget restraints, despite Bucks County’s receipt of about $4.98 million from a Pennsylvania state program designed to shore up election administration and integrity. Bucks County is again in the news after Harvie and fellow Democrat Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia moved Thursday to count deficient ballots as defeated Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey holds out hope that he can win his race after a recount.

Wisconsin GOP Senate candidate Eric Hovde conceded his race to Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Monday, saying he did not want to “add to political strife through a contentious recount.” Hovde was down about about 29,000 votes from Baldwin, putting the margin at less than a percentage point, The Associated Press reported. The vote margin allowed him to request a recount that he would have had to pay for himself. Baldwin declared victory in the Senate race two days after Election Day.

Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday gave an update on the search for Sen. Marco Rubio's replacement in the Senate, now that the latter has been nominated for Secretary of State. President-elect Donald Trump tapped Rubio for the post last week as one of his first cabinet nominations for the former president's second term. Rubio, who is known for being a hawk on China and Iraq, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate next year, after he resigns his post in January.

The two Democratic members of the Bucks County Commission voted to count ballots the Pennsylvania Supreme Court determined are illegal in a previous ruling, with the county specifically giving election workers orders to count mail-in votes returned with an incomplete, incorrect, or missing date.

Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) said the Republican Party under President-elect Donald Trump successfully neutralized abortion as a major issue with an "effective" states rights argument that left Pennsylvania voters convinced they would not prioritize a nationwide abortion ban. Fetterman made the remarks about abortion to German-owned Politico in a wide-ranging interview published Thursday, when he suggested the U.S. Supreme Court's 2021 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade ultimately did not hurt Republicans on Election Day.

Democrat commissioners in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, voted on Thursday to allow undated and misdated ballots to be counted as defeated Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey gears up for a recount in the race he lost to Republican Senator-elect Dave McCormick. Bucks County Commissioners Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Robert Harvie moved to allow for undated or misdated ballots to be counted in the crucial swing county, despite a Nov. 1 state supreme court ruling that undated or misdated ballots cannot be counted. The commissioners voted to do so as the Casey-McCormick Senate race heads to a recount, with McCormick leading by about 25,000 votes, according to The Associated Press.

Eight candidates competed for the three open seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission - three were registered Republicans in the race, three were Democrats and two were affiliated with the Green Party. All three of those candidates endorsed by Arizona’s Republican party claimed the available seats with Rachel Walden receiving 17.89% of the votes, Rene Lopez receiving 17.37% and Incumbent Lea Marquez Peterson receiving 16.89% at 99% of precincts reporting.

Pressure from a Columbus-based policy group has forced five university-based Ohio law schools to stop race-based scholarship or internship programs. The Buckeye Institute announced law schools at Cleveland State, Ohio State, Akron, Cincinnati and Toledo stopped the programs after it announced an investigation.

A Minneapolis man is one of two Somali pirates convicted of kidnapping this week and sentenced to federal prison for 30 years. Abdi Yusuf Hassan, now 56, a naturalized U.S. citizen and prior resident of Minneapolis, along with Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed, now 43, of Mogadishu, Somalia, held American journalist Michael Scott Moore hostage for nearly three years in Somalia after kidnapping him in 2012.

Wisconsin’s new 3-cent per kilowatt hour state tax on electricity sales for electric vehicles starts Jan. 1. Any owner, operator, manager, or lessee of an EV charging station must now register with the Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s Online Business Tax Registration if the charging station is subject to the tax.

Six bills under consideration in the Michigan’s House Criminal Justice Committee would reform state law to limit judges from requiring bail as a condition of release for some accused criminals awaiting trial. Among other changes, House Bills 4655-4656 and 4658-4661 would stiffen the criteria for imposing detention conditions on a person accused of a low-level crime awaiting trial, denying judges the ability to factor in a defendant's criminal history, prior failures to appear in court, or potential danger to the community.

The deaths of at least four Georgia men with mental disabilities at the Fulton County Jail are "symptomatic of a pattern of dangerous and dehumanizing conditions," the U.S. Department of Justice said. The 97-page investigation also said inmates were not protected from harm by other inmates and the living conditions were "unsanitary and dangerous." The conditions violate the Eighth and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Justice Department said in a release.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced "Georgia Plan" for Congress to establish national election rules on Thursday, arguing the Peach State should serve as a model for to establish nationwide regulations that enhance election integrity. “Voters nationwide deserve to participate in elections that have both security and integrity, along with easy access for eligible voters and quick and accurate reporting of results,” said Raffensperger in a statement, after citing Georgia's successful early voting period for "a record turnout election that was safe, secure and accurate."

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was sued last week by a group of Arizona workers who claim the foreign company discriminated against United States citizens after the President Joe Biden successfully convinced the company to build multiple facilities near Phoenix with $6.6 billion in taxpayer funding and $5 billion in federal loans through the CHIPS Act of 2021. According to the lawsuit filed last Friday by 13 Arizonans, which was made public Thursday, TMSC failed to address the effects of a "hostile work environment" that affects "employees who are not of East Asian race or Taiwanese or Chinese national origin."

Florida officials say 34.6 million visitors spent time in the Sunshine State in the third quarter of this year, eclipsing the previous third quarter record by 1.7% and giving the state three consecutive quarters of record growth. That comes despite Hurricanes Debby and Helene making landfall in the quarter. Milton, in the just started fourth quarter, made it three hurricanes in 66 days.