Early voters cast record 92M ballots as Election Day nears

More than 92 million voters had already cast their ballots by Saturday, with just days three remaining before Election Day, according to reports.

The historic early-vote number was nearly 67% of the total votes cast in the 2016 presidential election, which totaled around 139 million, according to the nonpartisan U.S. Elections Project.  

More voters have submitted their ballots by mail or participated in early in-person voting this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Several states have amended laws to allow for expanded mail-in voting.

Around 58 million Americans have voted using mail-in ballots and another 33 million voters cast their ballots early in-person.

Texas voters have already surpassed their total number of votes from 2016, with 9.6 million ballots cast. In 2016, around 8.9 million people voted statewide. Most polls in the Lone Star State show President Trump leading a tight race against Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

In the 20 states that report party registration data, Democrats have an edge over Republicans in the early vote (20 million to 13 million), but polls show most Republicans plan to vote on Election Day.

Voters with no party affiliation make up 23% of the vote in those 20 states -- Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania and South Dakota -- according to the Elections Project.

Nearly 28% of the early vote was cast by those who didn’t vote four years ago, and Black and voters under 30 have turned out in large numbers, according to The Washington Post.

The country is now on pace for the highest voter turnout in 100 years, the Post reported.

Still, experts are cautioning against determining who’s winning based on early-vote totals.

“Democrats are already expanding their electorate,” said Tom Bonier of the Democratic data firm TargetSmart. “That would certainly appear to be favorable for Biden — to be taken with the caveat we’ve heard a million times before, that we don’t know how many other voters will come out on Election Day.”

Hillary Clinton also had an early-vote edge in 2016 that Trump surpassed on Election Day.

Nick Trainer, the Trump campaign’s director of battleground strategy, posited Republicans “will bring our own new voters into the electorate ourselves, and it will all come out in the washing machine.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

Federal judge orders USPS to take 'extraordinary measures' to deliver mail-in ballots on time

A federal judge in Washington state on Friday ordered the U.S. Postal Service to take “extraordinary measures” to deliver mail-in ballots in Wisconsin and Michigan in time for Election Day.

Court rulings in both states say that mail-in ballots received after Election Day won’t be counted regardless of the postmark date. Other states allow ballots to be counted as long as they’re mailed on time.

Chief U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima, Wash., ruled that starting Sunday through Nov. 10, the Postal Service must report to his court the prior day’s “all clear” status for each facility and processing center in the Detroit area and a district covering most of Wisconsin.

If any ballots are found during an “all clear” sweep, every effort must be made to get the ballot delivered by Election Day, including First Class and Priority Mail or any other “extraordinary measures” necessary.

Priority Mail Express is an overnight service that costs a minimum of $26.35 per envelope, according to the USPS.com website.

Delivery of ballots in the Postal Service's Detroit district, for example, has dipped as low as 57% over the past week while national on-time delivery is 93% or higher, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson's office said Saturday.

Both Michigan and Wisconsin are crucial battleground states for President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The president narrowly won both historically Democratic states in 2016.

Washington was among 14 states that brought an August lawsuit over changes that U.S. Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, a Trump donor, made when he took over last May. The other states bringing the suit are Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Earlier this month, the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General reported that changes DeJoy made have “negatively impacted the quality and timeliness of mail delivery nationally,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Following the ruling, Postal Service spokesman Dave Partenheimer said, “We take our legal obligations very seriously and (are) complying with all court orders. The Postal Service continues to implement extraordinary measures across the country to advance and expedite the delivery of the nation’s ballots."

He noted as of Friday, Postal Service employees were authorized to use the Express Mail network to fast-track completed ballots.

He added USPS will do extra pick-ups, extra deliveries, and collect mail on Sunday ahead of the election.

The lawsuit had challenged the Postal Service's so-called “leave behind” policy, in which trucks have been leaving postal facilities on time regardless of whether there is more mail to load. 

Bastian, an Obama appointee, noted after a previous hearing that Trump had repeatedly attacked mail-in voting by making unfounded claims that it is rife with fraud.

DeJoy insists mail-in ballots are the organization’s top priority and has consented to halt some controversial changes he implemented last summer like removing mailboxes and decommissioning mail sorting machines.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

Trump, Ernst take leads over Dem challengers in Iowa poll

Just days before Election Day, both President Trump and U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst have pulled ahead of their Democratic challengers in the assessment of Iowa voters, a new poll shows.

Trump now leads Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the Hawkeye State by 7 percentage points, 48%-41%, according to the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll, the newspaper reported Saturday.

In the previous poll in September, Trump and Biden were tied, each drawing support from 47% of voters, the report said.

The latest results followed a visit to Iowa by the president in mid-October, the Register reported, noting that Trump planned to return to the state Sunday with a campaign stop in Dubuque.

“Nobody’s going to do for Iowa what I did for Iowa,” the president told a rally crowd there last month, tailoring his message to the state’s corn growers, among others.

“I saved ethanol. Ethanol is safe,” Trump added, referring to the corn-based automotive fuel that helps drive the state’s economy.

Biden most recently appeared in Iowa on Friday, holding a drive-in rally in Des Moines.

“I'll work as hard for those who don't support me as those who do,” the former vice president told rally attendees. “In my administration, there will be no red states or blue states, just the United States of America.”

Trump supporters said his proposals on the U.S. economy and taxes were the key factor in their decision to support the president while Biden backers said they were drawn by what they viewed as the Democrat’s ability to restore what’s good about America, the Register reported.

In Iowa’s U.S. Senate race, the latest version of the poll showed incumbent Republican Ernst with a 46%-42% lead over Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield – a  turnaround from the September poll, when Greenfield led by 3 percentage points, 45%-42%.

It was the first time Ernst has led in the poll in all of 2020, the Register reported.

Ernst has been showing increasing popularity among male voters, suggesting that her support for President Trump has been helping her, J. Ann Selzer, president of polling firm Selzer & Co., told the Register.

“This is certainly the Trump core that's coming to her,” Selzer said.

As with Trump, Ernst’s supporters cited the economy as their No. 1 issue, while Greenfield’s backers named health care as their top concern, the results said.

The latest Iowa Poll was conducted Oct. 26-29 among 814 Iowans age 18 or older who said they will definitely vote or have already voted.

 

Vote for Biden's Dark Winter ? Cartoons

 

Michigan bars, restaurants will require diners' names, phone numbers starting Monday

Have the Nazis took over the Michigan State Government?

 

Diners in Michigan will be required to give their name and phone number to restaurants and bars starting Monday in an effort to contain a recent coronavirus surge, according to reports.

The new rule was put in place by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday and also includes limiting indoor gatherings without fixed seating -- like in restaurants -- to 50 people and individual tables to six people, The Detroit News reported.

The state set a record for new cases Thursday with 3,675, according to FOX 17 of Grand Rapids.

Restaurants in the state currently operate at 50% capacity and servers are struggling with customers who don’t like the current restrictions, Scott Ellis, executive director of the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association, told FOX 17. He worked with the state on the restrictions but said his association doesn't agree with the contact tracing mandate.

“Our frontline servers have already had trouble dealing with masks and mandates and mandating masks,” he said. “We did de-escalation training and all kinds of other things to help with that and now we’re taking to the next level. We have to gather someone’s personal information?”

He added, “I think when you’re going to sit down at a restaurant you just don’t expect someone to take your name and number because you’re coming to have a drink or a burger.”

Justin Winslow, president and CEO of the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association, said in a statement the contact tracing mandate doesn’t match “existing science and data” that shows
"minimal transmission” from dining at restaurants: only about 2% of cases the state is investigating, according to Winslow, FOX 17 reported. 

Establishments could be fined $1,000 for not following the order, according to FOX 17.

Robert Gordon, director of the Department of Health and Human Services, said the state is taking “targeted action” to areas that are “particularly severe sources of spread.”

“We are issuing guidance that is a very clear road map for what we need to do bring cases down,” he added, according to The Detroit News.

The state said 12 outbreaks have been linked to bars and restaurants in Michigan. 

Democrat New Jersey's Gov. Murphy won't rule out another coronavirus lockdown as cases spike

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday that “all options are on the table,” including another lockdown, amid a spike in coronavirus cases in the state, according to reports.

“If we have to shut the whole place down we will,” Murphy told Yahoo Finance. “We were one of the first, if not the first state to do that in March. I just hope we can avoid it again this time.”

The governor had warned Thursday that a second wave of the virus has hit the state as cases and hospitalizations surged, according to NJ.com. 

Murphy said the state hadn’t seen daily cases numbers over 2,000 since May and urged residents to wear masks and social distance.

“We’re reporting 2,089 new positive cases, pushing our cumulative total to 236,523,” he tweeted Friday. “Everyone needs to take this seriously.”

He specifically mentioned the possibility of having to shut down indoor dining but said he was hopeful schools that have reopened won’t have to close again, NJ.com reported.  

Struggling restaurants in the state have opened up to 25% percent capacity, according to Yahoo, and another lockdown could be devastating for business.

“This is real. People are dying,” Murphy told Yahoo. “People are going to the hospital and we need everybody to band together and push back on that pandemic fatigue and push the numbers back down.”

 

Ivanka Trump says she is 'unapologetically' pro-life

Ivanka Trump this week said that she is “unapologetically” pro-life, adding that motherhood changed how she thinks about the abortion issue.

“I respect all sides of a very personal and sensitive discussion,” Trump, the president's daughter and White House senior adviser told Real Clear Politics just days ahead of the election, “but I am also a mother of three children, and parenthood affected me in a profound way in terms of how I think about these things. I am pro-life, and unapologetically so.”

A White House aide added while Ivanka Trump’s stance is personal it also reflects the liberal shift he said Democrats have made on the issue.

Trump, who turned 39 on Friday, previously stayed silent on where she personally stood on abortion and reports of a secret meeting with then-Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards in 2017 left some pro-lifers concerned at the time.

Ivanka Trump, daughter and adviser to President Donald Trump, removes her protective mask as she takes the stage before a campaign event Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020, in Sarasota, Fla. (Associated Press)

Trump also told Real Clear Politics she considers herself a pragmatist and a “Trump Republican.”

“I think a lot of these labels, to be quite honest, are really limiting in terms of what you call yourself or how you identify,” she said of Republicans and Democrats. 

President Trump has also evolved on abortion, coming out publicly as pro-life before the 2016 election after years of identifying as pro-choice.

Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court partially because of her pro-life background and his commitment to the pro-life movement has helped him keep the support of most Evangelicals.

 

The presidential election comes down to these 12 states

With three days to go until Election Day on Nov. 3, President Trump faces challenging poll numbers, but the president predicts he’ll pull out a victory

“We are going to win four more years in the White House,” President Trump told supporters at a rally in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday. “We’re winning. We are winning again.”

The numbers currently don’t appear to add up as well for the president. A new Fox News poll conducted Tuesday through Thursday, and released on Friday evening, showed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leading the president 52% to 44% among likely voters nationwide.

And an average of the Fox News poll and other latest national surveys indicate Trump trailing Biden by roughly 8 points. That’s a bigger deficit than he faced against 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton at this time in the presidential election four years ago.

At the time, with just days ahead of the 2016 election, Clinton’s sizeable lead from just a couple of weeks earlier had diminished to just a 1.5-point edge over Trump. On the eve of the election, Clinton held a 3.2-point advantage over Trump, according to an average compiled by Real Clear Politics. Clinton ended up winning the national popular vote by 2 points.

But it’s the states and their electoral votes that decide who wins the White House -- and thanks to victories in six key battleground states that he flipped from blue to red, Trump trounced Clinton in the Electoral College vote.

Fast-forward four years and Biden has the slight edge in many of the key battlegrounds, according to an average of the most recent public opinion surveys.

But Trump still has an avenue to victory.

While the national polls were relatively close to the mark in 2016, surveys in many of the key battlegrounds appeared to under-sample Trump supporters, and Trump narrowly won three states -- Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin -- where an average of the final polls indicated Clinton on top. And he outperformed the polls in a couple of other battlegrounds.

The question now is whether the current surveys are counting the broad swath of voters they missed four years ago. And separate from the polls, Republican voter registration is up in several key states, including Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

The president and the Trump campaign have repeatedly discounted public opinion surveys and say that their internal numbers paint a different picture.

Biden, campaigning Monday in Pennsylvania, emphasized that he’s “not overconfident about anything. I want to make sure that we turn out every vote possible.”

Biden -- who was born and spent his first decade in Scranton, Pa. -- said that “with the grace of God and goodwill, I’m going to win Pennsylvania. It matters a great deal to me, personally and politically.”

“I think we’re going to win Michigan, I think we’re going to win Wisconsin, I think we’re going to win Minnesota. I think we have a fighting chance in Ohio, I think we have fighting chance in North Carolina, a fighting chance in Georgia, a fighting chance in Iowa,” he added.

Here's a look at the 12 states that will likely decide who wins the presidential election

Florida

With 29 electoral votes up for grabs, Florida is the largest of the traditional battlegrounds.

Twenty years ago, it was the state that decided the presidential election between then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore. President Bush won the state by five points in his 2004 reelection.

President Barack Obama carried the state by razor-thin margins in both 2008 and 2012. But four years ago, Trump narrowly edged out 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by 1.2 points to flip the state from blue to red.

An average of the most recent polling in the state shows Biden holding a slight lower-single-digit edge over the president.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a drive-in rally at the Florida State Fairgrounds, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Biden and Trump held dueling rallies in the Sunshine State on Thursday. Many political analysts and pundits say that Florida’s a must-win state for the president.

Biden told his supporters in the state that “you hold the key. If Florida goes blue, it’s over, it’s over.”

Arizona

Arizona has long backed Republicans in presidential elections.

President Bill Clinton in 1996 was the only Democratic candidate to win the state since 1952. But Trump carried the state by just 3 points four years ago.  An average of the most recent public opinion polls in Arizona indicates Biden and the president basically tied in the battle for the state’s 11 electoral votes.

President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally at Phoenix Goodyear Airport, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020, in Goodyear, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

As with Florida, the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic appears to be doing him no favors with the state’s crucial senior voters.

North Carolina

North Carolina’s seeing plenty of candidate traffic, and its airwaves are being flooded with ads.

Then-Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama carried the state in 2008 by a razor-thin margin over Sen. John McCain. Four years later, GOP nominee Mitt Romney won the state’s 15 electoral votes by roughly 2 percentage points over President Obama.

Polls on the eve of the 2016 presidential election indicated Trump with a 0.8% edge over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump ended up winning the state by 3.6 points.

Fast forward four years and Biden currently has a razor-thin edge over the president in an average of the most recent polls.

Pennsylvania

Four years ago Trump became the first Republican presidential nominee to win Pennsylvania since George H.W. Bush in 1988. Trump carried the state by less than 1 percent over Clinton, to capture Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes.

But the Biden campaign has heavily concentrated on Pennsylvania, which is the former vice president’s native state. And during his nearly four decades in the Senate representing Delaware, Biden was known as Pennsylvania’s third senator.

An average of the most recent public opinion polls in Pennsylvania indicates Biden with a mid-single-digit advantage over the president.

Trump returns to the Keystone State on Saturday and Monday, with Biden stopping there on Sunday and the former vice president, running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, and their spouses fanning out across the state all day on the eve of the election.

Wisconsin

Like Pennsylvania, Trump in 2016 broke the Democrats' quarter-century winning streak in Wisconsin with a narrow victory over Clinton.

But as is the case in Pennsylvania, Trump is underperforming with key constituencies, including suburban voters. Also working against the president – the coronavirus – which has hit Wisconsin particularly hard.

President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

An average of the most recent public opinion polls in Wisconsin indicates Biden with a mid-single-digit lead over the president in the battle for the state’s 10 electoral votes.

Ohio

Ohio has long played a crucial role in presidential elections. It was the state that famously put President George W. Bush over the top in 2004, as he won a second term in the White House.

Obama narrowly carried the state in 2008 and 2012. Four years ago, it appeared it would be another close contest, with an average of the polls on the eve of the election indicating Trump narrowly ahead of Clinton. But Trump ended up swamping Clinton by eight points, flipping the state from blue to red and winning Ohio’s 18 electoral votes.

Trump’s margin of victory was the largest by any presidential candidate in nearly three decades. Fast forward four years and Ohio – at the beginning of this presidential cycle  -- wasn’t expected to be a battleground.

But the race has tightened and both campaigns are heavily investing in the Buckeye State. An average of the latest polls indicates the race is basically all tied up in Ohio.

Iowa

Obama carried Iowa by six points in the 2012 election, but Trump flipped the Hawkeye State four years ago, topping Clinton by nine points, even though the final surveys suggested a much closer margin.

As with Ohio, it wasn't on the battleground radar a year ago.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. Biden is holding rallies today in Des Moines, Iowa, Saint Paul, Minn., and Milwaukee, Wis. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

But Iowa's very much in the spotlight now, with an average of the latest public opinion surveys in the state indicating Biden with a razor-thin edge over the present.

Georgia

Southerner Bill Clinton in 1992 was the last Democrat to carry Georgia in a presidential election.

Long a red state, Georgia tightened in the 2016 election when Trump captured the state’s 16 electoral votes by just 5 points. The president, apparently playing some defense, recently campaigned in the state and returns on Sunday. Biden made his first general election trip to the state this week.

An average of the last public opinion surveys in Georgia suggests Biden with a razor-thin edge over Trump.

Michigan

Democrats carried Michigan for a quarter-century in presidential elections until Trump won the state by a tight margin four years ago.

But the president's support among White working-class voters doesn't appear to be matching the 2016 levels and Black turnout, which was down four years ago, appears to be re-energized.

An average of the most recent public opinion polls in Michigan indicates Biden with an upper-single-digit lead over the president in the battle for the state's 16 electoral votes.

Biden teams up in-person with his one-time boss, former President Obama, for two stops in Michigan on Saturday.

On Election Eve in 2016, the president’s last rally was past midnight in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In what appears to be a hope to repeat history, the Trump campaign says that the president’s last stop on Election 2020 will once again be Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Nevada

President George W. Bush in 2004 was the last GOP standard-bearer to win Nevada. But Clinton narrowly edged Trump by just 2 points four years ago and Trump’s been eyeing to flip the Silver State from blue to red.

Both campaigns have invested time, money and resources in the state in the battle for its 6 electoral votes. An average of the latest polls indicates Biden holding a mid-single-digit advantage.

Minnesota

President Richard Nixon was the last Republican to win the state – during his 1972 landslide re-election.

But four years ago Trump narrowly lost Minnesota and its 10 electoral votes to Clinton, and for over a year the president and his re-election campaign have been eyeing the state in hopes of breaking the losing streak and flipping it from blue to red.

An average of the latest public opinion polls in the state indicate the former vice president with a mid-single-digit advantage over Trump, but the surveys suggest that Trump’s gained ground over the past month.

The presidential nominees held dueling rallies in Minnesota on Friday.

Texas

It’s been nearly half a century since a Democrat won Texas in a presidential election — you’ve got to go back to then-former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter in 1976.

But the longtime ruby-red state has become more competitive in recent years.

Trump won Texas and its whopping 38 electoral votes by nine points in the 2016 election, down from Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s 16-point win over President Obama in the state in 2012.

The Cook Report, a leading nonpartisan political handicapper, this week changed its rating of the state from Lean Republican to Toss Up. The most recent polls indicate Trump with a slight edge over Biden that's within the margin of error.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris made three stops in the Lone Star State on Friday.