voters

The outcome of the 2016 presidential election took many people by surprise. I’ve spent a fair amount of time listening to experts analyze the election results over the past week. There are almost as many explanations as there are pundits . . . the rural vote came out in droves for President-elect Trump; Secretary Clinton didn’t turn out the “Obama Coalition”; votes to third-party candidates swung states one way or the other. All of those analyses are valid to a certain extent, but one thing that hasn’t been talked about is the largest swath of voters (the 50-plus) and how they broke heavily for Donald Trump.

In this homestretch to the Nov. 8 elections, expect a hard push from scammers posing as pollsters, political party staffers or PAC officials in tongue-twisting ploys to pilfer your money and identity.

En español |  I will never forget attending my first political debate. It was in Philadelphia, way back in the 1980s, and the two major candidates for vice president were squaring off. I was a college Republican attending Penn State University and was lucky to get a seat.

At Take a Stand, we call the tactic “bird-dogging.” And I believe it’s a major reason Social Security is going to become a much bigger issue in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Whether you’re a hard-core political junkie or just an ordinary citizen who’s interested in the outcome, there are a wealth of ways to follow the midterm elections on your laptop, tablet or smartphone. Here are some suggestions:

My mom was born in the same year that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution — giving women the right to vote — was ratified. She was a daughter of immigrant parents, who came to America in pursuit of freedom and opportunity. And my mom relished her right to vote. I have very early memories of walking with my mom, pop, brother and sister blocks to our polling place located at Outwater Park. It was a family tradition. I remember my pop telling family friends with a chuckle, “Every year, I cast my ballot for candidates, and my wife casts hers. We cancel each other out!” My parents didn’t have much in common when it came to political party loyalty — which made for some very interesting family dinner conversations, especially when it came to how the candidates would address important issues — but what they shared was a passion about exercising their right to vote.

While several states continue legal wrangling over how voters must prove their identity at the polls, a new bill in Congress aims to make it easier for millions of eligible voters to at least register.

A three-judge federal appeals court panel has unanimously upheld Wisconsin’s controversial voter ID law, which had been the focus of earlier conflicting federal and state court rulings.

News, discoveries and ... fun

While a new Gallup Poll finds that voters 65 and older have moved from "a reliably Democratic to a reliably Republican group" over the past two decades, voters in the next-oldest age bracket - 50 to 64 - haven't followed suit and still show an outright preference for the Democratic Party.