President Donald Trump won the final debate against Democrat Joe Biden, but that’s not going to be enough to get him reelected, Republican pollster and strategist Frank Luntz told CNBC on Friday.
“You got to give Trump a minor victory because he’ll bring some [undecided] voters home, and it’ll close the race a little bit. But in the end, I think Joe Biden won the war,” Luntz said in a “Squawk Box” interview, predicting that Trump, with 11 days until the Nov. 3 election and more than 47 million votes already cast, does not have enough time to overcome Biden’s national and swing state polling leads.
Luntz said that even if the polls are wrong, as they were in 2016 when Trump pulled off an upset victory over Hillary Clinton, it’s “virtually impossible” for the president to win. Luntz, who predicted Clinton would win then, noted that polls four years ago were only off a few points but Biden’s lead in the 2020 race is wide enough to overcome any margin of error. Luntz also said that pollsters like himself have been much more cautious during this campaign cycle.
Luntz said the candidates’ answers to the final question — what they would say in their inaugural address to the Americans who didn’t vote for them — were indicative of why Biden looks to be unstoppable.
Trump went negative, arguing why Biden would be bad for the country rather than really answering the question. “If he gets in, you will have a depression the likes of which you’ve never seen. Your 401(k)s will go to hell, and it’ll be a very very sad day for this country,” the president said.
Biden went in the opposite direction, saying, “I’m an American president. I represent all of you. Whether you voted for me or against me, I’m going to make sure you’re represented. I’m going to give you hope.”
Luntz said Biden’s positive approach compared with Trump’s forceful but negative tone is the reason the former vice president’s message appears to be winning heart and minds of American voters. He also said he believes that America should know who won the presidency four days after Election Day.
The pollster said his focus group after the debate again voiced their dislike of Trump, as they did after the president’s and Biden’s dueling town halls last week. But Thursday night, they also continued to express concern over Biden’s policies. Luntz said Biden “made not effort to clarify” his proposals on things such as tax hikes and his positions on issues including the future for the Supreme Court.
Trump started off Thursday night’s debate calmer but appeared to grow more agitated as the exchange went on, Luntz said. Overall, the debate was nothing like their chaotic first affair. While the candidates did go after each, the debate was much more focused on the issues, including the coronavirus, climate change, their personal finances and health care.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the development, saying, “Today we announce another dramatic breakthrough for peace, another Arab country joining the peace circle, and this time normalization between Israel and Sudan.
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Though it appears there will be no COVID-19 relief bill before Election Day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still think it’s possible — but it’s up to President Donald Trump.
On Friday, Pelosi said a bill could be passed before Election Day if Trump “wants to” approve it.
“The biggest step forward… in the negotiations is, I think they’re about to embrace the science in a substantial way,” Pelosi told MSNBC. “We put pen to paper… we are writing the bill, and hopefully we will be able to resolve it… we could do that before the election if the president wants to.”
A deal before Nov. 3 would likely result in a new round of stimulus checks before the end of 2020 in addition to money for unemployment benefits, schools, and state and local governments.
During Thursday night’s debate, Trump blamed Pelosi for the fact no deal has been reached saying she doesn’t want to do anything that would help him.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s Republican leader, has told his fellow Republicans that he warned the White House against striking a trillion-dollar relief deal with Pelosi before the Nov. 3 election.
Biden raised his voice as he reminded viewers of Thursday’s presidential debate that the Democratic-controlled House passed a relief bill months ago. He asked Trump why he isn’t talking to his “Republican friends” about a deal.
While McConnell and Trump appear to be moving in different directions on a relief package, Pelosi continues to negotiate a deal with Trump’s emissary, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Mnuchin and Pelosi continue to signal progress even as Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said Pelosi is slow-walking.
“We haven’t seen a lot of action from Speaker Pelosi,” Meadows said. “Most of the progress we’ve made have been concessions that the president has made.”
At issue is a huge virus relief bill that would send another $1,200 direct payment to most Americans, restart bonus unemployment benefits, fund additional testing and vaccines, provide aid to schools and allocate money to states and local governments, a Democratic priority.
A $1.8 trillion rescue plan in March passed virtually unanimously. The Pelosi-pushed package today is even larger but has run into resolute opposition from Republicans. Taking care of the issue would clear the decks for a fresh start on the congressional agenda next year.
Senate Democrats blocked a Senate GOP plan that McConnell brought to a vote Wednesday. The measure contained more than $100 billion for schools, a $300 per week supplemental unemployment insurance benefit, and more subsidies for businesses especially hard hit by pandemic-related downturns and closures. It does not include the $1,200 direct payments that are so important to Trump.
The White House has said it’s gone as high as $1.9 trillion to meet Pelosi’s demand for a $2.2 trillion deal.
Trump says that if he wins reelection, aid will flow immediately. If he loses, it’s unclear whether his enthusiasm for delivering it will be as strong.
“I’m never very optimistic about the lame duck and I’ve never been surprised,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. “You don’t get near as much done as you think you’re going to get done.”
Those Republicans willing to speculate about a Trump loss in two weeks say not to expect much, either.
“I think Democrats would want to wait until the new president is sworn in and do it then and I think Republicans probably would say … the economy’s taking care of it,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
It’s possible that 85 million people could vote before Nov. 3, with 150 million voting in total. That would mean an eligible voter turnout rate of more than 62%.
So, how would that compare to eligible voter turnout rates for past presidential elections? The U.S. saw the highest eligible voter turnout rate, 82.6%, in 1876, when Republican Rutherford Hayes defeated Democrat Samuel Tilden. In 1860, when Abraham Lincoln defeated John Breckinridge, John Bell and Stephen Douglas, 81.8% of eligible voters turned out. The elections of 1868, 1880, 1888 and 1840 also saw rates above 80%.
Some context: Why such a high number? Experts say it’s partly because only white, male property owners could vote. Get an in-depth history lesson from USA TODAY’s Grace Hauck, who talked to election experts.
More news to keep in mind: USA TODAY is keeping track of what’s happening as voters around the country cast ballots. Keep refreshing this page for updates.
New election rules in New Jersey related to COVID were upheld Thursday. President Trump’s campaign had sued, citing purported fears of voter fraud.
Legal battles aren’t just limited to New Jersey: In the crucial state of North Carolina, Republicans have asked the Supreme Court to intervene over a rule that lets ballots come in up to 48 hours after Election Day.
Elsewhere, Russian hackers have been coming after various networks in the United States since September, the FBI has said.
This is a story you’ll want to share: Mabel Cook was just a baby when the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote was added to the U.S. Constitution. At her advanced age of 101 years old, Cook is living up to her maiden name – Duty – by doing her civic duty, voting and urging others to do the same.
Voters have already been casting ballots: Numbers compiled by @electproject show at least 50.3 million have voted. In other numbers, the Guardian reports that 17.3% of registered voters in swing states have had their mail-in ballots accepted.
Federal case over where Ohio drop boxes could be installed dismissed
Ohio Democrats and voting rights groups can claim one victory: Multiple courts found Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, could install multiple drop boxes for voters to deposit their ballots.
But he was not required to do so and in the end, LaRose didn’t allow off-site drop boxes this election. On Friday, the federal case disputing where drop boxes could be installed was dismissed, ending a several-month legal fight.
Earlier in the month, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked a ruling that would have allowed multiple collection sites for Ohioans’ ballots.
– Jessie Balmert, Cincinnati Enquirer
Trump to vote early in Florida, Pence votes in Indianapolis
President Donald Trump “plans to early vote on Saturday in West Palm Beach,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere said Thursday. It’s the first time an incumbent president will cast his vote in Florida. That is a departure for Trump, who cast absentee ballots in the March presidential primary and then in the Aug. 18 primary election.
Trump casting a vote in Palm Beach County will be part of a historic, blockbuster political weekend in Florida. Trump is scheduled to speak Friday in The Villages, a conservative community north of Orlando, and in Pensacola. Vice President Mike Pence will also stump in Florida. Then, on Saturday, former President Barack Obama will rally the Democratic faithful in Miami.
Voting machines help vision-impaired voters in several Florida counties
Advocates have long fought for better vote-by-mail accessibility for blind and vision-impaired Florida voters. Orange, Miami-Dade, Pinellas, Nassau and Volusia counties are among the five jurisdictions to try an Accessible Vote-By-Mail Pilot Program. By 2022, all counties will be required to implement the technology.
To help voters with diminished sight cast their ballots, special equipment to improve ballot visibility will be placed at polling places.
The equipment, attached to a traditional electronic voting machine, works like this: Voters feed their ballot into the machine, which magnifies the text to the viewer’s liking. By using a video game-like controller, voters can adjust the screen’s color and contrast. Headphones are also available to plug in and hear the ballot be read.
In Ohio, Democrats dominate early vote as GOP plans to pounce on Election Day
Ohioans can vote by mail up to the day before the election. Because absentee ballots postmarked by Nov. 2 can count if received up to 10 days after the polls close, the final results could take a final twist in the vital state of Ohio, with the tallying of provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots nearly two weeks after some try to call the race.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has given local election offices tighter deadlines to begin the official canvass, which includes votes that could not be counted on election night. Boards are to begin the process Nov. 14 and have everything reported to the state by 2 p.m. Nov. 18.
In North Carolina, Republicans want court to change long absentee deadline
President Donald Trump’s campaign and North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to return the state to a shorter deadline for accepting late-arriving absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day.
The legislative leaders argue in their appeal that the longer deadline, which was extended after early voting had begun, will result in unequal treatment of voters and dilute the value of ballots cast before the rule was changed.
They also say the board usurped legislators’ authority to set election rules by altering a deadline specified in state law. The Trump campaign’s separate but similar appeal also asks the high court to force the key battleground state to revert to stricter rules for fixing absentee ballot errors.
The high court is giving the other parties in the case until Saturday afternoon to file responses.
How to vote in 2020? This is the best way, according to experts and activists
The 2020 election is on track for record voter turnout as the nation battles the COVID-19 pandemic, a fight for racial equality and an economic recession. More than 35 million people have already voted. But voters, particularly people of color and the elderly, are concerned about the health risk of voting in person and their vote being fairly counted.
The FBI has posted an advisory saying state-sponsored Russian hackers have “conducted a campaign against a wide variety of U.S. targets” at least since September. The targets include government networks at various levels as well as aviation networks.
“There may be some risk to elections information housed on … government networks,” the advisory said, adding that there was “no evidence to date that integrity of elections data has been compromised.”
Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit over New Jersey election rules
The new election rules instituted by New Jersey in response to the pandemic were upheld Thursday by a federal judge, who said President Trump’s campaign had no standing to sue and that its purported fears of voter fraud are speculative.
The campaign said New Jersey’s new rules, which allow local election officials to begin counting ballots 10 days before Election Day and permit them to count non-postmarked ballots received up to 48 hours after polls close, would lead to voter fraud.
U.S. District Judge Michael Schipp dismissed the lawsuit and refused to bar New Jersey from implementing the rules put in place by Gov. Phil Murphy and the state Legislature.
— Terrence T. McDonald, The Bergen Record
Election problems: What to keep in mind
This cheat sheet from Columbia Journalism Review offers tips for media organizations reporting on election 2020. There’s a lot of good stuff to keep in mind:
Voting problems aren’t failures. They happen every year and, as CJR notes, hiccups such as voting machines not working or polling places opening late don’t mean anything is “rigged.”
Some problems, however, are significant. CJR recommends the media scrutinize areas that have a history of voter suppression or obstructing minority voters, calling out Georgia as a place to monitor.
Don’t expect a winner on Election Night. This year is different because mail-in ballots could be as high as 30%. Previously, that number was 3%-5%. It will take a while to tally.
Seriously, expect to wait. State vote certification deadlines differ and don’t have to be reported to the federal level until Dec. 8. Additionally, the Electoral College doesn’t meet until Dec. 14.
Iowa Supreme Court upholds new law complicating absentee ballot requests
The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld a new law making it harder for county auditors to process absentee ballot requests with missing or incomplete information, days before Iowa’s deadline to request a ballot for the 2020 election. The court issued a decision Wednesday evening upholding a Republican-supported law that prevents auditors from using the state’s voter registration database to fill in any missing information or correct errors when a voter requests an absentee ballot. The law instead requires the auditor’s office to contact the voter by telephone, email or physical mail.
“The overwhelming majority of Iowans have repeatedly said they support voter ID,” Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said. “It’s legal, constitutional and fair.”
– Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register
Headlines from elsewhere and resources on voting
From ProPublica: Their Electionland project goes deep on issues that can affect eligible voters’ ability to cast a ballot.
From Pew/Stateline: The Barriers to the Ballot Box project takes on how changes to polling places impact communities.
🗳️ USA TODAY’s Voter Guide has everything you need on registering to vote, when your state begins voting and what the candidates think about the issues.
Advocacy group: Trumpers intimidated New Mexico voters in some areas
New Mexico Common Cause says caravans of flag-waving supporters of President Donald Trump appeared to obstruct and intimidate voters at two polling sites in predominantly Latino neighborhoods in the Albuquerque area last weekend. Executive Director Heather Ferguson said the incidents took place on the first day of balloting at voter convenience centers in the South Valley and western reaches of Albuquerque on Central Avenue. Ferguson estimated that dozens of potential voters in each location left without voting immediately as a result of the incidents before authorities interceded.
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, told reporters on Capitol Hill he had no health concerns, after questions were raised about pictures showing severe bruising on his hands and some bruising around his mouth.
Asked on Thursday if “there anything going on we should know about?”, the Kentucky Republican said: “Of course not.” McConnell answered a follow-up question by saying he had no concerns, and did not answer a question about whether he was seeing a doctor.
No bruising was discernible on McConnell’s hands during his debate against Senate Democratic challenger Amy McGrath, in Lexington on 12 October.
McConnell, 78, is well-placed to beat McGrath, if in a tighter race than he would usually expect, for a seventh six-year term. By the end of it, he would be 84, going on 85. That would not be unusual in the Senate, a body where members often sit into their 80s and sometimes beyond.
The Republican has presided over the confirmation of huge numbers of federal judges nominated by Donald Trump, among them two supreme court justices and almost certainly a third, Amy Coney Barrett, who will receive a floor vote on Monday.
That he has done so after successfully stymying the Obama administration on judicial appointments – up to denying even a hearing to Merrick Garland, the supreme court nominee to replace the late justice Antonin Scalia, over 10 months in 2016 – makes McConnell something of a bogeyman to Democrats and progressives.
McConnell has brushed off questions about his health before, for instance earlier this month when other senators, members of the White House staff and Donald Trump himself tested positive for the coronavirus.
“Have I ever been tested? Yes,” the majority leader said then, about Covid-19. “But I’m not going to answer questions about when.”
Regarding McConnell’s hands, the factchecking website Snopes produced a short article which confirmed the photos were real.
“Why McConnell’s hands exhibit purplish bruises and bandages has prompted much speculation,” the article said, “with guesses ranging from claims that the senator has contracted Covid-19 to the possibility that he has a vascular disease and/or is undergoing dialysis and is taking blood thinners.
“As neither McConnell nor any of his representatives have publicly commented on his condition, a definitive answer is not yet available.”
The two blazes have the potential to merge, depending on conditions Friday and Saturday. So far, the East Troublesome Fire has forced the evacuations of Granby, Grand Lake and, to the east of Rocky Mountain National Park, the community of Estes Park. An unknown number of properties have been damaged or destroyed, and at least five people are missing.
A 19-year-old man who was arrested in North Carolina in May, after police discovered his van carrying five guns, explosives and more than $500,000 in cash, was planning to assassinate Joe Biden, court records show.
Alexander Hillel Treisman traveled to within four miles of the Democratic presidential nominee’s home in Delaware earlier in May, the records show.
That was within a month or so of Treisman buying an AR-15 rifle in New Hampshire, and writing a checklist note ending with the word “execute,” a federal magistrate judge said in a court order justifying Treisman’s detention without bail on child pornography charges.
“Should I kill joe biden?” Treisman posted on the meme-sharing platform iFunny on April 15, the court order said.
Triesman was indicted in late September in federal court in the Middle District of North Carolina on charges of possessing and transmitting child pornography.
His actions regarding Biden and other evidence against him were cited as reasons for his pretrial detention by the judge in an order signed Oct. 6.
“A timeline of internet searches conducted by Defendant between March and May 2020 seeking information about Joe Biden’s home address, state gun laws, rifle parts, and night vision goggles, along with actions taken by Defendant, including posting the above mentioned meme about killing Joe Biden, purchasing an AR-15 in New Hampshire, traveling to a Wendy’s within 4 miles of Joe Biden’s home, and writing a checklist note ending with execute,” the order said.
While Treisman has no prior criminal history, the judge concluded that “no combination of available release conditions would reasonably assure the safety of the community, and that a preponderance of evidence establishes that no conditions would ensure Defendant’s presence in court.”
A lawyer Treisman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The detention order cites testimony by an FBI agent explaining how Treisman came to be the subject of a criminal investigation that uncovered the information about Biden.
The agent said that on May 28, police in Kannapolis, North Carolina, responding to a report of an abandoned van in a bank parking lot, through the vehicle’s window saw an AR-15 style rifle, a box for a .380-caliber handgun, a canister “of the explosive material Tannerite,” and a box of 5.56-caliber ammunition, according to the order.
After the van was towed, a search of the vehicle found about “$509,000 in U.S. currency (believed to be [Treisman’s] inheritance), books (about survival, bomb making, improvised weapons and Islam), drawings of swastikas and planes crashing into buildings,” and a Sig Sauer AR Rifle, a 9 mm Luger, a Kel-Tec Sub-2000, a .22-caliber rifle, and a Russian Mosin Nagant M91/30 bolt-action rifle.
Treisman arrived at the bank later that day in a Honda Accord and asked about the towed van, according to court documents. Police went to the bank after employees contacted them and took Treisman into custody, the documents said.
A search of the Honda revealed two more handguns, a .380-caliber, and a 9 mm Luger “found concealed in a clothes hamper,” the order said.
Treisman was carrying driver’s licenses from three states, including one that bore the name Alexander S. Theiss, the order said.
Treisman was arrested for allegedly carrying a concealed weapon. In a recorded phone call with his mother from jail on May 29, a day after his arrest, his mother, Kimberly Treisman suggested that he “should ‘jump bail,’ ” the order said.
During interviews with police and investigators from the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Treisman “disclosed he has an interest in terrorist incidents and mass shootings,” and that he had been driving across the country buying firearms in different states, the order said.
A search of online aliases for Treisman showed him making references to pedophilia “and executing those he hates,” the order said. One post by his alias expressed “a desire to perform a mass shooting,” it said.
Searches of Treisman’s cellphone and 15 other electronic devices seized form his vehicle turned up thousands of images an of child pornography and more than 1,200 child porn videos, the order said.
A note created on Oct. 15, 2019, on the phone described “a plan to perform a mass shooting at mall food court on Christmas or Black Friday,” the order said.
An April 8, 2020, internet post by one of Treisman’s aliases, “AlextheBodacious,” said he “was going to do a columbine for a while, [but] I think it would be better to put it towards something more memorable.”
A week later, he posted a meme on iFunny with the caption “should I kill Joe Biden,” accordingv to the court documents.
President Donald Trump won the final debate against Democrat Joe Biden, but that’s not going to be enough to get him reelected, Republican pollster and strategist Frank Luntz told CNBC on Friday.
“You got to give Trump a minor victory because he’ll bring some [undecided] voters home, and it’ll close the race a little bit. But in the end, I think Joe Biden won the war,” Luntz said in a “Squawk Box” interview, predicting that Trump, with 11 days until the Nov. 3 election and more than 47 million votes already cast, does not have enough time to overcome Biden’s national and swing state polling leads.
Luntz said that even if the polls are wrong, as they were in 2016 when Trump pulled off an upset victory over Hillary Clinton, it’s “virtually impossible” for the president to win. Luntz noted that polls four years ago were only off a few points but Biden’s lead in the 2020 race is wide enough to overcome any margin of error. Luntz also said that pollsters like himself have been much more cautious during this campaign cycle.
Luntz said the candidates’ answers to the final question — what they would say in their inaugural address to the Americans who didn’t vote for them — were indicative of why Biden looks to be unstoppable.
Trump went negative, arguing why Biden would be bad for the country rather than really answering the question. “If he gets in, you will have a depression the likes of which you’ve never seen. Your 401(k)s will go to hell, and it’ll be a very very sad day for this country,” the president said.
Biden went in the opposite direction, saying, “I’m an American president. I represent all of you. Whether you voted for me or against me, I’m going to make sure you’re represented. I’m going to give you hope.”
Luntz said Biden’s positive approach compared with Trump’s forceful but negative tone is the reason the former vice president’s message appears to be winning heart and minds of American voters.
The pollster said his focus group after the debate again voiced their dislike of Trump, as they did after the president’s and Biden’s dueling town halls last week. But Thursday night, they also continued to express concern over Biden’s policies. Luntz said Biden “made not effort to clarify” his proposals on things such as tax hikes and his positions on issues including the future for the Supreme Court.
Trump started off Thursday night’s debate calmer but appeared to grow more agitated as the exchange went on, Luntz said. Overall, the debate was nothing like their chaotic first affair. While the candidates did go after each, the debate was much more focused on the issues, including the coronavirus, climate change, their personal finances and health care.
It’s possible that 85 million people could vote before Nov. 3, with 150 million voting in total. That would mean an eligible voter turnout rate of more than 62%.
So, how would that compare to eligible voter turnout rates for past presidential elections? The U.S. saw the highest eligible voter turnout rate, 82.6%, in 1876, when Republican Rutherford Hayes defeated Democrat Samuel Tilden. In 1860, when Abraham Lincoln defeated John Breckinridge, John Bell and Stephen Douglas, 81.8% of eligible voters turned out. The elections of 1868, 1880, 1888 and 1840 also saw rates above 80%.
Some context: Why such a high number? Experts say it’s partly because only white, male property owners could vote. Get an in-depth history lesson from USA TODAY’s Grace Hauck, who talked to election experts.
More news to keep in mind: USA TODAY is keeping track of what’s happening as voters around the country cast ballots. Keep refreshing this page for updates.
New election rules in New Jersey related to COVID were upheld Thursday. President Trump’s campaign had sued, citing purported fears of voter fraud.
Legal battles aren’t just limited to New Jersey: In the crucial state of North Carolina, Republicans have asked the Supreme Court to intervene over a rule that lets ballots come in up to 48 hours after Election Day.
Elsewhere, Russian hackers have been coming after various networks in the United States since September, the FBI has said.
This is a story you’ll want to share: Mabel Cook was just a baby when the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote was added to the U.S. Constitution. At her advanced age of 101 years old, Cook is living up to her maiden name – Duty – by doing her civic duty, voting and urging others to do the same.
Voters have already been casting ballots: Numbers compiled by @electproject show at least 50.3 million have voted. In other numbers, the Guardian reports that 17.3% of registered voters in swing states have had their mail-in ballots accepted.
Trump to vote early in Florida, Pence votes in Indianapolis
President Donald Trump “plans to early vote on Saturday in West Palm Beach,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere said Thursday. It’s the first time an incumbent president will cast his vote in Florida. That is a departure for Trump, who cast absentee ballots in the March presidential primary and then in the Aug. 18 primary election.
Trump casting a vote in Palm Beach County will be part of a historic, blockbuster political weekend in Florida. Trump is scheduled to speak Friday in The Villages, a conservative community north of Orlando, and in Pensacola. Vice President Mike Pence will also stump in Florida. Then, on Saturday, former President Barack Obama will rally the Democratic faithful in Miami.
Voting machines help vision-impaired voters in several Florida counties
Advocates have long fought for better vote-by-mail accessibility for blind and vision-impaired Florida voters. Orange, Miami-Dade, Pinellas, Nassau and Volusia counties are among the five jurisdictions to try an Accessible Vote-By-Mail Pilot Program. By 2022, all counties will be required to implement the technology.
To help voters with diminished sight cast their ballots, special equipment to improve ballot visibility will be placed at polling places.
The equipment, attached to a traditional electronic voting machine, works like this: Voters feed their ballot into the machine, which magnifies the text to the viewer’s liking. By using a video game-like controller, voters can adjust the screen’s color and contrast. Headphones are also available to plug in and hear the ballot be read.
In Ohio, Democrats dominate early vote as GOP plans to pounce on Election Day
Ohioans can vote by mail up to the day before the election. Because absentee ballots postmarked by Nov. 2 can count if received up to 10 days after the polls close, the final results could take a final twist in the vital state of Ohio, with the tallying of provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots nearly two weeks after some try to call the race.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has given local election offices tighter deadlines to begin the official canvass, which includes votes that could not be counted on election night. Boards are to begin the process Nov. 14 and have everything reported to the state by 2 p.m. Nov. 18.
In North Carolina, Republicans want court to change long absentee deadline
President Donald Trump’s campaign and North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to return the state to a shorter deadline for accepting late-arriving absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day.
The legislative leaders argue in their appeal that the longer deadline, which was extended after early voting had begun, will result in unequal treatment of voters and dilute the value of ballots cast before the rule was changed.
They also say the board usurped legislators’ authority to set election rules by altering a deadline specified in state law. The Trump campaign’s separate but similar appeal also asks the high court to force the key battleground state to revert to stricter rules for fixing absentee ballot errors.
The high court is giving the other parties in the case until Saturday afternoon to file responses.
How to vote in 2020? This is the best way, according to experts and activists
The 2020 election is on track for record voter turnout as the nation battles the COVID-19 pandemic, a fight for racial equality and an economic recession. More than 35 million people have already voted. But voters, particularly people of color and the elderly, are concerned about the health risk of voting in person and their vote being fairly counted.
The FBI has posted an advisory saying state-sponsored Russian hackers have “conducted a campaign against a wide variety of U.S. targets” at least since September. The targets include government networks at various levels as well as aviation networks.
“There may be some risk to elections information housed on … government networks,” the advisory said, adding that there was “no evidence to date that integrity of elections data has been compromised.”
Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit over New Jersey election rules
The new election rules instituted by New Jersey in response to the pandemic were upheld Thursday by a federal judge, who said President Trump’s campaign had no standing to sue and that its purported fears of voter fraud are speculative.
The campaign said New Jersey’s new rules, which allow local election officials to begin counting ballots 10 days before Election Day and permit them to count non-postmarked ballots received up to 48 hours after polls close, would lead to voter fraud.
U.S. District Judge Michael Schipp dismissed the lawsuit and refused to bar New Jersey from implementing the rules put in place by Gov. Phil Murphy and the state Legislature.
— Terrence T. McDonald, The Bergen Record
Election problems: What to keep in mind
This cheat sheet from Columbia Journalism Review offers tips for media organizations reporting on election 2020. There’s a lot of good stuff to keep in mind:
Voting problems aren’t failures. They happen every year and, as CJR notes, hiccups such as voting machines not working or polling places opening late don’t mean anything is “rigged.”
Some problems, however, are significant. CJR recommends the media scrutinize areas that have a history of voter suppression or obstructing minority voters, calling out Georgia as a place to monitor.
Don’t expect a winner on Election Night. This year is different because mail-in ballots could be as high as 30%. Previously, that number was 3%-5%. It will take a while to tally.
Seriously, expect to wait. State vote certification deadlines differ and don’t have to be reported to the federal level until Dec. 8. Additionally, the Electoral College doesn’t meet until Dec. 14.
Iowa Supreme Court upholds new law complicating absentee ballot requests
The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld a new law making it harder for county auditors to process absentee ballot requests with missing or incomplete information, days before Iowa’s deadline to request a ballot for the 2020 election. The court issued a decision Wednesday evening upholding a Republican-supported law that prevents auditors from using the state’s voter registration database to fill in any missing information or correct errors when a voter requests an absentee ballot. The law instead requires the auditor’s office to contact the voter by telephone, email or physical mail.
“The overwhelming majority of Iowans have repeatedly said they support voter ID,” Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said. “It’s legal, constitutional and fair.”
– Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register
Headlines from elsewhere and resources on voting
From ProPublica: Their Electionland project goes deep on issues that can affect eligible voters’ ability to cast a ballot.
From Pew/Stateline: The Barriers to the Ballot Box project takes on how changes to polling places impact communities.
🗳️ USA TODAY’s Voter Guide has everything you need on registering to vote, when your state begins voting and what the candidates think about the issues.
Advocacy group: Trumpers intimidated New Mexico voters in some areas
New Mexico Common Cause says caravans of flag-waving supporters of President Donald Trump appeared to obstruct and intimidate voters at two polling sites in predominantly Latino neighborhoods in the Albuquerque area last weekend. Executive Director Heather Ferguson said the incidents took place on the first day of balloting at voter convenience centers in the South Valley and western reaches of Albuquerque on Central Avenue. Ferguson estimated that dozens of potential voters in each location left without voting immediately as a result of the incidents before authorities interceded.
The 19-year-old searched online for Biden’s home address and for night-vision goggles, and purchased an AR-15 in New Hampshire, according to federal court documents first reported Thursday by WBTV. At one point in May, Treisman ended up at a Wendy’s within four miles of Biden’s home in Delaware. And when he was arrested later that month in North Carolina, police searching his van found four rifles, a 9mm handgun, explosive materials, books on bomb making, and $509,000 in cash that’s believed to be his inheritance.
A wildfire burning in Grand County, Colorado, has exploded from 19,000 acres to more than 125,000 on Thursday, forcing thousands of families to evacuate.
The so-called East Troublesome Fire raced through the town of Grand Lake and into the western portion of Rocky Mountain National Park, which closed to visitors Thursday, CBS Denver reported.
Thick smoke and flames were closing in on homes and terrifying residents. Security video even captured the scene as flames overtook a home. It was not immediately clear how much damage the fire caused in the Grand Lake community.
“We know that historic buildings and businesses are on people’s minds, and we just don’t have confirmed information at this time. Many of the buildings and the establishments, they are the heart and soul of our community. And as soon we know something definitive, we’ll share with those who are affected and the community,” Mayor Steve Kudron said late Thursday morning, according to the TV station.
Jessy Ellenberger took this photo from the deck of her home north of Granby, Colorado.
Jessy Ellenberger / AP
The flames are being driven by high winds and dead, dry timber.
“We plan for the worst. This is the worst of the worst of the worst,” said Grand County Sheriff Brett Schroetlin while referencing the fire’s 100,000-acre jump in mere hours.
Nearly 300 firefighters are battling the flames in dense wooded hills as the fire continues to spread into the national park. This wildfire could end up merging with the Cameron Peak Fire, which was reported to be burning just a few miles away, according to CBS Denver.
‘Hannity’ host breaks down the second and final presidential debate, held in Nashville, Tenn.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was “caught in lie after lie after lie” during the second and final presidential debate of the 2020 presidential campaign, Fox News host Sean Hannity claimed Thursday.
“Joe Biden actually left his basement bunker,” the “Hannity” host proclaimed. “He may come to regret it.”
Hannity added that Biden’s often-repeated campaign statement that “character is on the ballot” may “come back to bite him.”
According to “Hannity” Biden was caught in the lie of that he referred to President Trump’s China travel restrictions as “xenophobic” and “racist,” even though tweets from the former vice president himself prove otherwise.
Trump also raised the developing corruption scandal involving Joe Biden’s son Hunter and confronted the former vice president over the “horrible emails” first reported by the New York Post last week.
“[Trump] held Joe Biden – 47 years all talk, no action – accountable. Someone had to do it,” Hannity said. “The president likes to say the truth is a force of nature. And tonight, Joe Biden felt the full force of truth during the debate.”
Biden flatly denied any wrongdoing, stating: “I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life.” Hannity argued this, too, was a lie.
“His family made at least $10 million from sketchy foreign nationals while Joe was vice president,” he said. “And Joe lied all night. And we’re probably not even scratching the surface.”
Kristen Welker of NBC News will moderate the final presidential debate on Thursday evening in Nashville, Tennessee, just two weeks before Election Day. It will be the first time that President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden have faced off in person since Trump tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this month.
The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced in early September that Welker would be the final debate’s moderator. She will be the first Black woman to moderate a presidential debate since Carole Simpson of ABC News moderated a town hall–style presidential debate in 1992, according to NBC News.
Welker, a Harvard graduate from Philadelphia, is the co-anchor of NBC’s Weekend Today and has worked as a White House correspondent for the network since 2011. She was previously an NBC correspondent based in California before she began traveling across the U.S. and overseas to cover the White House for NBC News. Before joining the network, she worked at television stations in Philadelphia; Providence, Rhode Island; and Redding, California.
As a reporter who covered the Obama administration for years and also covered Hillary Clinton‘s presidential campaign during the 2016 election, Welker reported extensively on Biden’s time as a vice president, as well as Trump’s time in office. Though this is Welker’s first time moderating a CPD event, she co-moderated a debate held last November among the Democratic candidates for president.
As attention began to focus on Welker in the days leading up to the debate, Trump and some of his administration’s officials began raising questions about her objectivity, as they did with previous debate moderators.
Commenting Saturday on a tweet from his son Donald Trump Jr., about Welker’s alleged “deep Democratic ties,” Trump wrote, “She’s always been terrible & unfair, just like most of the Fake News reporters, but I’ll still play the game. The people know.” He added a reference to the C-SPAN reporter who was to host the second presidential debate before the CPD canceled it: “How’s Steve Scully doing?”
Trump’s comments about Welker were in stark contrast with the congratulations he offered her during a news briefing in January, shortly after she was named co-anchor of Weekend Today. “Congratulations on your show,” Trump said at the time. “They made a very wise decision.”
NBC News declined Newsweek‘s request for comment on Trump’s recent statements about Welker.
In recent days, Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, accused the CPD of choosing debate topics that he said could benefit Biden and requested that foreign policy be included as a topic for discussion. According to the CPD, the debate moderators pick the topics and come up with their own questions. While the debate topics are announced a week in advance, the questions are not shared with the candidates or commission officials before the debate, according to the CPD.
In a statement released Tuesday, the CPD reiterated those points and defended Welker as the final debate’s moderator.
“No debate in 2020 was ever designated by CPD as devoted to foreign or domestic policy,” the statement said. “The same was true in 2016, when President Trump participated in the CPD debates. The choice of topics is left entirely to the journalistic judgment of the moderators.”
The statement continued, “Kristen Welker announced her topics for 10/22 on 10/16. We agree with [Trump adviser] Jason Miller, who said on Fox that Kristen is ‘a journalist who’s very fair in her approach and I think that she’ll be a very good choice for this third debate.'”
Thursday’s debate will be the second and final one between Trump and Biden. Although the candidates were initially set to participate in three debates, the second one was thrown into question after Trump tested positive for the coronavirus just days after the first debate last month. The CPD initially said the second debate would be virtual but later canceled it after both Biden and Trump made plans to host separate town hall events.
Thursday’s event is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET and is expected to last 90 minutes. It will be held at Belmont University. The CPD announced last Friday that the debate’s topics will focus on COVID-19, American families, race in the U.S., climate change, national security and leadership.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and Joe Biden will face tens of millions of voters on the debate stage Thursday for the last time before Election Day, marking the last opportunity for both candidates to build momentum to catapult them into the final two weeks of the race.
Trump and Biden will face off at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., for just the second time after a bruising first debate last month that did little to answer pressing questions facing both candidates. The pair were scheduled for a town hall-style debate on Oct. 15 but it was scrapped after the president balked at the debates commission’s decision to move it to a virtual event out of concern of the president’s recent COVID-19 diagnosis. The president refused to participate and both campaigns scheduled separate town halls instead.
Thursday will be voters’ last chance to hear from Trump and Biden on a range of questions from the president’s tax records to the former vice president’s stance on expanding the Supreme Court. Here are seven outstanding questions the two will likely face heading into the debate:
Will Trump challenge the moderator?
Trump criticized the moderator of the first debate Sept. 29, Chris Wallace of Fox News, as “a total joke.”
Trump’s campaign spokesman, Tim Murtaugh, said after an NBC News town hall Oct. 15 that the president “soundly defeated NBC’s Savannah Guthrie in her role as debate opponent and Joe Biden surrogate.”
Trump renewed the criticism Monday after arriving in Arizona for two campaign rallies. He called Welker “a dyed-in-the-wool, radical-left Democrat.”
“It’s so unfair,” Trump told Fox and Friends on Tuesday. “It’s a stacked deck.”
Welker hasn’t commented. But a competitor on the White House beat, Kathryn Watson of CBS News, tweeted Saturday that “Kristen is one of the toughest, fairest reporters you’ll ever meet.”
Jake Tapper, a CNN anchor, tweeted Tuesday that “she’s not radical, she’s not a Democrat, she didn’t delete her entire account, she doesn’t scream her questions, and she’s a good journalist and a good person.”
Trump’s recent criticism came after the president complimented Welker while calling on her during a January news conference in Switzerland.
“They made a very wise decision,” Trump said.
What will Trump say about his tax returns?
A bombshell New York Times investigation into the president’s personal taxes showed he paid just $750 for the years 2016 and 2017 and nothing for several other years. The report showed that he is personally responsible for $400 million in loans that will come due within the next four years, raising questions about who he owes money to and whether it will conflict with his presidential duties.
During last week’s town hall the president dismissed the report, saying “the numbers are all wrong” without offering specific details about what he found to be incorrect.
Trump, however, confirmed that he does owe $400 million but argued that it was a fraction of what he owns in property around the world.
“The amount of money – $400 million, is a peanut,” Trump said, arguing that his company is underleveraged. “What I’m saying is that it’s a tiny percentage of my net worth.”
The president has declined to release his tax returns, breaking with decades of tradition for presidential candidates. He cited an ongoing IRS review of his taxes as the reason, but there is no rule that prohibits him from doing so during an IRS investigation. He instead points to less detailed annual financial summaries required by law.
Trump has made more than $200 million from his myriad business interests in foreign countries since 2016, according to his two most recent personal financial disclosures on file with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics that were analyzed by OpenSecrets, a Washington, D.C. group that researches the influence of money in politics.
Given that the president’s various businesses have continued to operate normally while he has been in office this is not necessarily evidence of wrongdoing. However, reporting from the New York Times on Trump’s taxes as well as from The Washington Post on the millions Trump has made from licensing his name to foreign real estate projects, suggests Trump has extensive ties to foreign business dealings unprecedented for a serving U.S. president.
OpenSecrets says Trump’s personal financial disclosures along with his refusal to release his tax returns raises questions, including ethical ones, about whether Trump’s foreign business empire has, directly and indirectly, profited from his White House role.
What will Biden say about son Hunter?
A story Oct. 14 in the New York Post accused Biden’s son, Hunter, of corruption based on his work as an adviser to the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
But the story – based on material from a laptop that Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, discovered – has come under fire for relying on questionable sources and documents.
A central point of the article refers to an email from Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to Burisma, who thanked Hunter Biden for “giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent (sic) some time together.” If true, the claim would undercut Joe Biden’s repeated claims that he never spoke to his son about business dealings in Ukraine.
But the Biden campaign categorically denied a meeting ever happened. “They never had a meeting,” Andrew Bates, a campaign spokesman, told USA TODAY. “I’ve literally never heard of this guy in my life,” Amos Hochstein, a former Biden staffer, told Politico.
“This whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the head of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN. “Giuliani is doing the president’s bidding.”
Two Republican-led Senate committees unveiled a report in September that found no evidence of wrongdoing or corrupt actions by the former vice president in connection with Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine.
But Trump called for Attorney General William Barr to appoint someone to investigate. “We’ve got to get the attorney general to act,” Trump told Fox and Friends on Tuesday.
Trump taunted Biden repeatedly about the laptop and the potential consequences for the campaign. “Joe Biden is a corrupt politician, and everybody knows it,” Trump said Sunday. “Laptop is devastating!” Trump said Monday.
Biden told reporters Friday he had no response to the New York Post story.
“I have no response,” Biden said. “Another smear campaign. Right up your alley.”
At the first presidential debate on Fox News, Trump charged that Hunter Biden was thrown out of the military for cocaine use and later paid millions in Ukraine and China without working. But Biden said his son wasn’t dishonorably discharged and that accusations against him had been debunked.
“My son like a lot of people at home had a drug problem,” Joe Biden said. “He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him. I’m proud of my son.”
Will Biden expand Supreme Court?
Trump moved quickly to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the Sept. 18 death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Senate is expected to vote before the election on Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination.
While Democrats have argued that whoever is elected Nov. 3 should choose the next justice, Republicans have accused Democrats of wanting to expand the nine-member court to dilute the influence of conservatives.
“They’re going to pack the Supreme Court,” Trump told a rally in Fort Myers, Fla., on Friday. “How important is it? Because he’s going to put on radical-left, crazy judges that will destroy your lives.”
Biden has refused to answer questions on the subject. He argued that his position would become the headline to distract from how Republicans are filling the seat.
At an ABC News town hall Oct. 15, Biden said he wasn’t a fan of expanding the court, but that he wanted to see how the process played out. He said he would announce his position before the Nov. 3 election.
“I’m not a fan,” Biden said. “I’m open to considering what happens from that point on.”
Republicans have seized on the refusal to answer the question from both Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California.
“If you haven’t figured it out yet, the straight answer is, they are going to pack the Supreme Court,” Pence said.
Will Trump commit to a peaceful transfer of power?
After repeatedly refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, Trump conceded to NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that he would do so if it was an “honest election.”
But the president has continued to sow doubt on the election process as he trails Biden in polling nationally and in key battleground states, raising speculation that he would refuse to accept the results should he lose in November.
“The answer is yes, I will. But I want it to be an honest election, and so does everybody else,” Trump said before pointing to unsubstantiated claims that ballots were thrown out.
Trump has repeatedly argued both in interviews and at rallies that the results will likely be sullied by an expected surge of absentee ballots that he claims – without evidence – could lead to widespread voter fraud.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said his agency has not seen evidence of widespread voting fraud while election experts have pushed back on the president’s unfounded claims and misleading statements about mail-in voting.
The president dismissed claims that he’s laying the groundwork to question the election results, telling Guthrie that he “absolutely” wants a peaceful transfer of power but that he wants the results to be “clean.”
“But ideally, I don’t want to transfer because I want to win,” he said.
Amanda Renteria, the former political director for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016, said the debate is a chance for the president to offer guidance on what to do if he loses.
“You’re beginning to see him shift into this narrative about what’s going to happen if this doesn’t go his way, and from an American standpoint, that’s a little bit scary that he’ll use this debate to tell them what to do post-Election Day,” she said.
The question also extends to Biden and whether he will accept the results if he loses or what his leadership would look like in trying to unite a highly polarized country should he win in November, Renteria added.
Will Biden settle the debate on fracking?
Hydraulic fracking, a technique in which water, sand or chemicals are injected into the earth to fracture formations and loosen up oil, has been a sore spot for Biden throughout his campaign.
Trump continues to insist that Biden has proposed to abolish fracking – a politically sensitive topic in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania – even as the former vice president has repeatedly pledged not to do so.
The president, looking to shore up support in the Keystone State as well as Texas, went as far as to play a video that distorted Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris’ stance on fracking. The video, which Trump showed at a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, spliced together clips of Biden and Harris discussing fracking during the Democratic primary race.
“This is an original Donald Trump Broadway play,” Trump said before playing the video. “First time I have ever pulled it out. I had it done specifically for the people of Erie because you guys like energy. You like being energy independent.”
Biden has proposed banning new gas and oil permits only on federal lands. The majority of oil and gas does not come from federal lands.
During his town hall with ABC News last week, Biden again vowed not to ban fracking but said “it has to be managed very, very well.” He added the country would eventually have to wean itself off fossil fuels in part by ending billions in federal subsidies on oil and gas operations.
Instead, he pitched the virtues of renewable energy, such as wind, solar and electric cars and the millions of jobs he believes it would create. And he criticized Trump for his embrace of fossil fuels and repeated claims that human-caused climate change is a “hoax.”
Vice President Mike Pence also pushed Harris on the issue during the vice presidential debate by pointing out that she pledged to abolish fracking during her presidential bid.
“Joe Biden will not end fracking, he has been very clear about that,” Harris said.
Will Trump address the recent spike in COVID-19?
In recent rallies and interviews, President Donald Trump has continued to claim the nation is “rounding the corner” in its battle with COVID-19. The president often points to his own speedy recovery from the virus as a sign the pandemic is waning and he has pressed states where he campaigns to relax social distancing mandates and reopen schools.
But Trump has not directly addressed a spike in infections slamming vast swaths of the USA since his three-night stay at Walter Reed National Medical Center this month. The latest surge in cases, which coincides with cooler weather, has hit parts of the west particularly hard. A USA TODAY analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University shows 15 states set records for new COVID-19 cases over the past week while two states – Montana and South Dakota – set a record for number of deaths in a week.
Hospitals are again reaching capacity in states like Indiana, Utah and Wisconsin.
NBC’s Savannah Guthrie questioned Trump at length during an Oct. 15 televised town hall about his own fight with coronavirus, his personal mask-wearing and whether he was tested on the day of the last debate with Biden – another question Trump has been fuzzy on (“I probably did,” he told Guthrie). But Trump has not directly addressed the latest increase in cases or how he squares that increase with his assertion that “you can’t let this continue to go on with the lockdowns.”
“We are heading into a phase of exponential, explosive spread. We know this because we’ve been there before,” said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University who was previously Baltimore’s Health Commissioner. “It’s a very reasonable question to be asking the president: Why are you saying that we’re rounding the corner…it’s this irresponsible?”
Wen said she would have questions for Biden as well, including how he would bring the country together – and bring governors on board – with maintaining mask requirements and other efforts to slow the spread of the pandemic when the nation is so polarized over basic public health science.
When Mr. Trump is asked about climate change, he invariably responds that he has ensured the United States has the “cleanest air” and “cleanest water.” That is not true — air pollution is rising under the Trump administration — but it is also not the same as climate change, caused by human activity like burning fossil fuels.
Mr. Trump has called climate change a hoax and called those who care about the issue “prophets of doom.” He also has occasionally conceded that humans play some role in the planet’s warming. (Scientists have established that man-made emissions account for all of the climate change over the last 50 years, the period when the vast majority of changes have occurred.)
Many of his moves have been met with praise by officials in the oil, gas and coal sectors who felt regulations under the Obama administration were onerous.
Mr. Biden has attacked Mr. Trump as a “climate arsonist,” criticized the president’s dismissiveness of science and championed a $2 trillion plan to develop clean energy while driving down emissions. He has called climate change one of four “historic crises” facing the United States, alongside the pandemic, the ensuing economic crisis and racial injustice.
But he also has been on the defensive about some of his positions on climate change, particularly around the Green New Deal, a climate plan embraced by progressive groups and criticized by Republicans. In his first debate with Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden said he did not support the Green New Deal, but his website calls it a “crucial framework” for action.
Another area where Mr. Biden is likely to come under attack from Mr. Trump is fracking, the process of extracting oil and gas from shale rock. Mr. Biden has pledged a ban on new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters but has assured union leaders that he will protect existing fracking jobs while pursuing a clean energy transition. Mr. Trump has accused him, falsely, of wanting to ban fracking altogether.
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Colorado’s Secretary of State’s office announced that more than 1.2 million voters have already cast their ballot with two weeks remaining until the Nov. 3 election.
Of Colorado’s 4.16 million registered voters, only 3.72 million are expected to actively vote, which means just over a third of all voters have already cast their vote.
Democrats are leading in the numbers of voters who have submitted their ballots during early voting by nearly 200,000 votes, as more than 508,000 Democrats have voted along with nearly 318,000 Republicans.
Unaffiliated voters make up a large chunk of the number of Coloradan’s that have cast their vote as more than 443,000 unaffiliated votes have already been returned.
While Democrats are expected to lead in the number of ballots cast by mail, in-person voting — which started Monday in the Centennial State – is expected to have a larger Republican turnout.
Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold has applauded the unprecedented turnout and she said the number of ballots returned to the state has far outstripped the number of ballots cast by this time during the 2016 General Election.
“As of last night over 1.2 MILLION Coloradans have voted, which is 220% of the votes cast at this point in 2016,” Griswold said in a tweet. “Let’s keep this up Colorado, and make our voices heard!”
While mailed-in ballots were expected to increase across the country this presidential cycle due to the coronavirus, Colorado has exercised large scale mail-in voting since 2013.
Colorado has seen a drastic increase in the number of ballots submitted through the mail this year.
In 2016, 93 percent of voters relied on voting by mail, while only 7 percent of voters headed to the polls in person.
During the 2020 primaries, 99.3 percent of voters submitted their vote through the mail, and just .7 percent of Coloradans appeared to vote in-person, an official from the Secretary of State’s office told Fox News.
A similar trend appears to be occurring during the General Election, as of the 1,283,187 votes received so far, 1,230,313 of those votes were received through the mail, and only 7,579 have been cast in-person, according to the U.S. Elections Project.
Mail in voting has been open in Colorado since Oct. 9, while in-person polling centers opened up on Monday – meaning there will likely be some increase in the number of voters who turnout to vote in-person.
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