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Court-appointed Republican poll inspectors are being forcibly removed from voting stations in some Philadelphia wards and replaced in some cases by Democratic inspectors and even members of the Black Panthers, according to GOP officials. Secrets just received this memo from GOP officials: The Philadelphia GOP is reporting that court appointed Minority (read GOP) Inspectors are being thrown out of polling locations in several Wards. These Inspectors are election officials - again, court appointed -- and are reportedly being thrown out by the Head Judges of Elections (these Judges are elected Democrats) and being replaced by Democrats. This has happened at...

Unreal: Obama mural inside polling place in Philly. No wonder they are kicking out GOP officials.

A new internal poll by the Pennsylvania Republican Party claims the GOP nominee Mitt Romney now trails President Barack Obama by a single point. The poll, conducted by Susquehanna Polling and Research, finds Obama drawing 48 percent of Pennsylvanians, while Romney garners 47 percent. The results will help state party leaders convince Romney campaign officials to ratchet up their efforts in the state and buy vital television ad time. The campaign has not been on the air in Pennsylvania since April. Though rare for party officials to discuss internal polls publicly, state GOP Chairman Rob Gleason is so excited by...

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) said Sunday that he doesn’t believe recent polls showing President Obama with a wide lead in his home state. “There are two polls out that show it’s 11 points. But I don’t believe those polls,” Rendell said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “…That’s what he won by in ’08. I don’t believe that. I believe it’s going to be closer. We’ve got a very serious problem with a bad voter ID law, if the courts don’t throw it out, that could cost us 100,000 votes. So this isn’t over in Pennsylvania. And if you’re...

When Mitt Romney's bus tour pulls into Pennsylvania on Saturday, it will be entering a state no Republican candidate has won since George H.W. Bush in 1988. John McCain lost the state to Barack Obama by more than 10 points in 2008, and with 1 million more voters registered Democrat than Republican, it should be enemy territory for the Romney team. But Romney will make three stops there on Saturday and this time the GOP thinks it can take the state and its 20 electoral votes. The presumptive nominee is sounding confident, telling a Philadelphia radio station this week, "We...

Pennsylvania voters favor President Barack Obama over Republican rival Mitt Romney by a 12-point margin, 48 percent to 36 percent, a June poll by Franklin & Marshall College shows. According to the poll, Obama is viewed favorably by 46 percent of voters to 27 percent for Romney. The poll is based on interviews with 412 state voters conducted by the Center for Opinion Research at the Lancaster college and has a margin of error of 4.8 percentage points. Among other findings in the poll: Almost six in 10 voters believe the state is moving in the wrong direction. Incumbent Democratic...

President Barack Obama now holds a double-digit lead over Republican Mitt Romney for Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes in the presidential election, a Franklin & Marshall College Poll released this morning shows. The Democratic incumbent, whose campaign has been forced to defend his handling of the economy, holds a 12-point lead over the former Massachusetts governor, the statewide poll found. Obama's sizable lead underscores a pair of critical problems for Romney — his inability to connect with voters or paint a clear picture of how he would handle the country's problems, F&M political analyst G. Terry Madonna said. "I think the...

The poll shows Smith at 35 percent, leading former state Rep. Sam Rohrer, who registers 16 percent in the poll. Businessman Steve Welch, who was endorsed by Gov. Tom Corbett and the state Republican Party is at just ten percent in the survey. Thirty-one percent remain undecided and two minor candidates register single-digit percentage support. Smith -- who has infused his campaign with millions of dollars in personal money and is outspending the competition -- led Rohrer 29 percent to 14 percent in the previous internal poll his campaign released. That survey was conducted from April 9-11. The primary election...

During a drive between the Mon Valley towns of McKeesport and Elizabeth, a man named Ray was overheard calling into a local radio station to talk about the subject of the hour: November's presidential election. The first thing he said is that he is a Democrat who voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Pressed by the talk-show host, he said he would not vote for Obama this time. The rest of Ray's answer was not unique or remarkable: Yes, he is a union member. Yes, he wanted Obama to succeed. And, yes, he is very disappointed after giving the president...

U.S. Rep. Todd Platts, R-York, announced this afternoon he will not seek a seventh term in office. During his time in office, Platts developed a reputation as a political moderate, who strongly supported the military and veterans. He routinely advocated more transparent government. In 2010, Esquire magazine named him one of the top-10 members of Congress. In the last year, Platts has drawn fire from the York 912 Patriots, a Tea Party group that criticized Platts for supporting the bank bailouts and the stimulus program. Platts, 49, is stepping away before a new district map for the state goes into...

Such a development would be disastrous for Obama. The president faces even longer odds of carrying the traditionally red states he won in 2008, including Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana. So Pennsylvania, with its 20 electoral votes, becomes all the more crucial in an election most analysts expect to be closely contested. Obama's ace in the hole is Vice President Biden, who was raised in a Catholic family in Scranton. Biden will be dispatched routinely during election season in hopes of shoring up the president's deficiencies with blue-collar voters, according to campaign officials. And Team Obama is also banking on...

HARRISBURG -- A generic or "nameless" Republican would beat President Obama in Pennsylvania, according to a statewide poll out today. The poll by Susquehanna Polling and Research shows that a Republican would defeat Obama 45 percent to 38 percent with 15 percent undecided and 3 percent saying they didn't know. The poll didn't further define "nameless Republican," nor did it match up the current GOP presidential candidates against Obama. Obama's job approval rating -- 41 percent approving and 54 percent disapproving -- shows little change from a June poll, said Jim Lee, president of the Harrisburg-based polling firm. What changed...

President Obama continues to have trouble in Pennsylvania and Ohio as a majority of voters in those battleground states said that he does not deserve to be reelected, according to two Quinnipiac University polls released on Wednesday. Obama carried both states in 2008, but the latest polls show that he would have a tough, though not impossible, time repeating in 2012. Still. it takes a candidate to beat a candidate, and in both states Obama is running very slightly ahead of either Texas Gov. Rick Perry or former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the top contestants in the race for the...

President Barack Obama is in deep trouble in the key swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, which combined with Florida will determine the outcome of the 2012 election. A pair of polls released by Quinnipiac University Wednesday show Obama in a statistical tie with Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in Ohio, with Obama holding a slight lead over Perry in Pennsylvania. Most strikingly, a majority of voters in both states do not believe Obama deserves another term — with majorities also disapproving of the president's job performance. In the race for the Republican nomination, Romney...

Voters in the key swing state of Pennsylvania have some troubling news for President Obama: A majority say he doesn't deserve another four years in the White House. According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday, 52 percent of registered Pennsylvania voters say the president does not deserve a second term while 42 percent support his re-election. The president’s job approval ratings are also underwater in the Keystone State, 43 percent to 54 percent. The majority of independent voters disapprove of the job Obama is doing, 56 percent to 40 percent. By a nine-point margin, 51 percent of this important...