The Pittsburgh Press (November 6, 1944)
The shouting ends –
It’s nearly over, all but voting
How state will go is BIG question
By Kermit McFarland
Tomorrow: The Decision.
And the way it turns, judging by a virtually unanimous estimate of the public opinion polls and the political experts, will hinge on how Pennsylvania goes.
How Pennsylvania will go is a sheer guess, on which both the polls and the experts are extraordinarily uncertain.
From the political camps, outside the usual boasts of confidence, a divergence of opinion is apparent over whether President Roosevelt or Governor Thomas E. Dewey will capture the state’s important 35 electoral votes. But both camps, whatever their forecasts, concede that the result in Pennsylvania may be extremely close – possibly so close it will not be decided until the soldier vote is counted late this month.
Today most of the tumult and the shouting of one of the nation’s bitterest political campaigns was washed up and all activity centered, on producing the biggest possible turnout of voters tomorrow.
The voters will ballot from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. EWT.
Fair weather forecast
Weather predictions for tomorrow indicated a day favorable to a heavy voter turnout. The forecast for the day was “fair and warmer.”
In expectation of a heavy, and possibly a record turnout, the rival political organizations were set to make a special effort to “get ‘em out early.”
Republican County Chairman James F. Malone issued a last-minute statement in which he said that “believers” in the Dewey-Bricker ticket “dare not fail” to go to the polls tomorrow.
He said:
Every vote counts tomorrow. It’s up to the supporters of the Dewey-Bricker ticket to defend in Allegheny County the Republic which our fighters have saved on foreign soil.
State posts open, too
In addition to voting on the presidential ticket, the voters of Pennsylvania will ballot on a U.S. Senator for a six-year term, a Supreme Court Judge for a 21-year term, two Superior Court judges for 10-year terms, an Auditor General and State Treasurer for four-year terms, 33 Congressmen for two-year terms, 25 State Senators for four-year terms and 208 members of the State House of Representatives for two-year terms.
Allegheny County will elect five Congressmen, two State Senators and 21 members of the State House.
Upwards of four million voters are expected at the more than 8,200 polling places in Pennsylvania, while in Allegheny County alone a turnout approaching 700,000 is anticipated at the 1,024 polling places.
Big service vote
More than 200,000 members of the armed forces and auxiliary services already have cast their ballots in Pennsylvania and more thousands of military ballots are expected before the Nov. 22 deadline.
Men and women in the Army, Navy, Marines, Merchant Marine, Red Cross, WASPS, Society of Friends or USO service who are home on furlough must vote tomorrow at the polling places in their home districts. Military ballots may be obtained and marked | today at the County Elections Department, but the department is barred by law from issuing military ballots on Election Day.
While presidential elections usually produce a greater volume of straight party voting than other elections, split tickets may be cast tomorrow in somewhat higher proportion than in the normal national election.
Race for Senate
In Pennsylvania, a matter of headline interest centered on the contest between U.S. Senator James J. Davis, Republican candidate for a third full term, and Congressman Francis J. Myers of Philadelphia, the Democratic nominee for the Senate.
Both candidates have conducted intensive campaigns, 42-year-old Mr. Myers basing his bid for election chiefly on what he charges as Senator Davis’ “isolationist” voting record in pre-Pearl Harbor years. The 70-year-old Senator Davis, making his fifth bid for election at the hands of Pennsylvania Voters, has waged his fight primarily on attacks against the New Deal in general and his own reputation as a “friend of labor.”
It is considered possible that either presidential candidate might carry the state while the senatorial candidate of the same party was losing.
Scanlon vs. Corbett
In Allegheny County, the principal congressional contest is the battle between Congressman Thomas E. Scanlon, Democrat seeking a third term, and Sheriff Robert J. Corbett, Republican nominee, whom Mr. Scanlon defeated in 1940.
The revision of the Congressional districts last year favors Mr. Corbett, but the district, which takes in all the boroughs and townships north of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers and four North Side wards, is expected to produce an unusual number of split ballots.
In the new 29th district, taking in six East End wards and some of the boroughs and townships between the rivers east of the city, the Republican candidate, Howard E. Campbell, is heavily favored, while in two other districts, Congressman Herman P. Eberharter and Samuel A. Weiss (Democrats) are expected to win handily. In the 31st district, mostly South Hills, a fairly close result may develop between Democrat Congressman James A. Wright and his Republican challenger, Dormont attorney James G. Fulton, now a lieutenant in the Navy.