Hearing set Monday on polling place access

A federal judge will hold a hearing Monday on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s lawsuit seeking access for reporters to polling places.

A closed-door conference in the chambers of U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer on Friday failed to yield a final settlement of the case, filed in July.

On Thursday, the PostGazette and the Allegheny County Board of Elections proposed a settlement that would allow media members to enter polling places “to observe members of the electorate as the voter signs in to vote at the polling place” but bar them from recording or interfering with the casting of ballots. An attorney for the other defendant, Secretary of the Commonwealth Carol Aichele, would not say