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Russian state media flatters Trump, but Kremlin cool on him and Harris

MOSCOW — Russian officials from President Vladimir Putin down say it makes no difference to Moscow who wins the White House on November 5.

Yet anyone watching Kremlin-guided state media coverage of the U.S. election would conclude Donald Trump is strongly favored.

State TV’s main Channel One news program this month showed video of billionaire Elon Musk and TV host Tucker Carlson denigrating Democratic candidate Kamala Harris before zooming in on what it cast as a series of stumbling performances.

Harris’ tendency to burst into fits of laughter, something Putin himself spoke about sarcastically last month, has featured prominently in broadcasts and state TV has played compilations of her least eloquent statements during the campaign.

By contrast, the same Channel One report portrayed Trump and running mate JD Vance as sure-footed and imbued with common sense on everything from transgender politics to immigration, but facing sinister forces as evidenced by assassination plots.

The Kremlin says the choice of who becomes the next U.S. president is a matter exclusively for the American people to decide and that it will work with whoever is elected.

It has denied steering coverage, although some former state media employees have spoken publicly about weekly Kremlin meetings at which guidance on different issues is given.

The state media’s apparent preference for Trump may be no surprise.

Trump has been far less openly supportive of Ukraine in its war against Russia than incumbent President Joe Biden or Harris, raising fears in Kyiv that it could lose its most important ally if he wins.

Trump, who has repeatedly praised Putin over the years and boasted of having a good working relationship, last week blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for helping start the war.

This month he declined to confirm reports he had spoken to Putin on several occasions since leaving office in 2021 saying only: “If I did, it’s a smart thing.”

Harris by contrast has called Putin “a murderous dictator,” vowed to continue backing Ukraine, and said that opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s death in prison was “a further sign of Putin’s brutality.” The Kremlin has denied any hand in Navalny’s demise.

State TV has often showcased guest speakers on its prime time geopolitical talk shows who express a preference for Trump, even if their reasons sometimes vary.

Andrei Sidorov, a senior academic at Moscow State University, told a major state TV talk show in October that Trump would be better for Russia because he would stir division that could trigger a long-held fantasy of anti-Western Russian hawks – the disintegration of the United States during infighting between its constituent states.

“I am for Trump. I was always for Trump – he’s a destroyer. If he’s elected … then civil war will really be on the agenda,” Sidorov said, forecasting a Democratic win would see the same “crap” as now, continuing.

“(But) Trump could really lead to our geopolitical adversary collapsing without any missiles being fired.”

A 2017 U.S. intelligence report said Putin had directed a sophisticated influence campaign to denigrate Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and support Trump in the 2016 race for the White House. The Kremlin denied meddling and Trump denied any collusion with Russia during that campaign.

Despite the two current candidates’ different approaches to Moscow, some Russian officials – who are navigating the worst period in U.S.-Russia relations since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis – have expressed wariness of both.

Harris, they say, would mean a continuation of what Moscow sees as Biden’s proxy war with Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”

Trump, who raised hopes in Moscow of better ties before he took office in 2017, is remembered for imposing sanctions when in the White House despite warm words about Putin. In Moscow’s eyes, he appeared boxed in on Russia policy by the wider U.S. political establishment.

“I have no illusions. (When Trump was president) he had several conversations with President Vladimir Putin. He received me at the White House a couple of times. He was friendly,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recalled in September.

“But sanctions against the Russian Federation were imposed under President Trump on a regular basis. As a result, we concluded that we need to rely on ourselves. We will never in our history count on ‘a good guy’ getting into the White House.”

One senior Russian source said there were different views at top levels of the Kremlin about Trump, but confirmed some believed a Trump victory might not go well for Moscow.

“Look what happened last time he became president. Everyone said beforehand that U.S.-Russia relations would benefit, but they ended up even worse. Trump says a lot of things but doesn’t always do what he says,” said the source, who declined to be named given the matter’s sensitivity.

The same source questioned whether Trump’s purported reluctance to keep financing and arming Ukraine and his talk of being able to end the war swiftly would survive lobbying efforts from powerful U.S. factions who argue that Ukraine’s fate is existential for the West and that Kyiv must not lose.

A second senior source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Moscow was not expecting much from either candidate. Trump had been “pretty tough” on Moscow when in power, was worryingly impulsive and had tough views on Russia’s ally China, he said.

The source added that he did not expect to see big change in Moscow-Washington relations whoever was elected.

“Neither Trump nor Harris are going to change the relationship with Russia fundamentally. There is not going to be some great new friendship,” said the source.

“The West views Russia and China as bad and the West as good and it is hard to see any leader changing a belief that is now ingrained within the Washington elite.”
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Union endorsements play an outsized role in US presidential election

Across the country, about 14 million voters are members of unions – workers’ organizations formed to protect their rights. But even though union members make up a small part of the American electorate, presidential candidates eagerly seek their endorsement. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports from Nevada, where unions have a powerful voice in this year’s presidential election.
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Central Park 5 sue Trump for jogger case remarks at debate

The men formerly known as the Central Park Five before they were exonerated filed a defamation lawsuit Monday against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

With Election Day two weeks away, the group accused the former president of making “false and defamatory statements” about them during last month’s presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. The group is asking for a jury trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages.

“Defendant Trump falsely stated that plaintiffs killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime. These statements are demonstrably false,” the group wrote in the federal complaint.

The men are upset because Trump essentially “defamed them in front of 67 million people, which has caused them to seek to clear their names all over again,” co-lead counsel Shanin Specter told The Associated Press in an email.

Specter had no comment when asked if there were concerns some see the lawsuit as purely political because of the group’s support for Harris. “We are seeking redress in the courts,” Specter said.

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung decried the suit as “just another frivolous, election interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists, in an attempt to distract the American people from Kamala Harris’s dangerously liberal agenda and failing campaign.”

Trump campaign officials did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise were teenagers when they were accused of the 1989 rape and beating of a white woman jogger in New York City’s Central Park. The five, who are Black and Latino, said they confessed to the crimes under duress. They later recanted, pleading not guilty in court, and were later convicted after jury trials. Their convictions were vacated in 2002 after another person confessed to the crime.

After the crime, Trump purchased a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty. At the time, many in New York believed Trump’s ad was akin to calling for the teens to be executed. The jogger case was Trump’s first foray into tough-on-crime politics that preluded his full-throated populist political persona. Since then, dog whistles and overtly racist rhetoric have been fixtures of Trump’s public life.

In the Sept. 10 debate, Trump misstated key facts of the case when Harris brought up the matter.

“They admitted, they said they pled guilty, and I said, ’well, if they pled guilty, they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately … And they pled guilty, then they pled not guilty,” Trump said.

He appeared to be confusing guilty pleas with confessions. Also, no victim died.

The now Exonerated Five, including Salaam, who is now a New York City councilman, have been campaigning for Harris. Some of them spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August, calling out Trump for never apologizing for the newspaper ad.

They have also joined civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton for a get-out-the-vote bus tour.

Prior defamation suits involving Trump have led to sizable amounts awarded to the plaintiffs. In January, a jury awarded $83.3 million to advice columnist E. Jean Carroll over Trump’s continued social media attacks against her claims he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store in 1996. In May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing her and issued a $5 million judgement.
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North Carolina: A key battleground state in 2024 US election

North Carolina has emerged as an important battleground state since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket in the 2024 election.
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‘Enemy within,’ ‘unhinged,’ Trump, Harris’ campaign rhetoric heats up

Recent comments by former President Donald Trump about the U.S. having an “enemy within” that needs to be “dealt with,” have sparked a new wave of criticism by his opponents. But the heated rhetoric that both the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees use on the campaign trail comes with a warning from analysts: it may hurt their chances to win the White House. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias, explains.
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Harris, Trump battle for 7 states in final election sprint

The U.S. presidential campaign is culminating in a final sprint to the official Election Day on November 5, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, focused almost exclusively on seven political battleground states that most likely will determine the outcome.

More than 14 million people have already cast early ballots, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab, and more will do so in the coming days as almost all the country’s 50 states open polling stations for early voting and to accept mail-in ballots.

National polls show the contest is among the closest in decades, with Harris holding a slight edge.

U.S. presidential elections are not decided by the national popular vote but rather through the Electoral College vote, which turns the election into 50 state-by-state contests, with 48 of the 50 states awarding all their electoral votes to the winner in their states, either Harris or Trump, while Nebraska and Maine allocate theirs by both state and congressional district vote counts.

The number of electoral votes in each state is based on population, so the biggest states hold the most sway in determining the overall national outcome, with the winner needing 270 of the 538 electoral votes to claim a new four-year term in the White House starting in January.

Polls show either Harris or Trump holds substantial or somewhat comfortable leads in 43 of the states. Barring an upset in one of those states, that leaves the outcome to the remaining seven states – a northern tier of three states (Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania), two states in the Southeast (North Carolina and Georgia) and two in the Southwest (Arizona and Nevada).

Polling in the seven states is easily within the margins of statistical error, leaving the outcome in doubt in all seven.

As a result, both Harris and Trump, and their respective vice-presidential running mates, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Ohio Senator JD Vance, are making few campaign stops in any place but the seven key states, a travel schedule that is likely to hold through the last two weeks of the campaign.

Harris celebrated her 60th birthday Sunday by speaking at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of the state’s major city, the Democratic stronghold of Atlanta. She told of her childhood experiences in a Black church, drawing a sharp contrast to the harsh and divisive rhetoric of the current political climate, although she did not mention Trump by name.

Then she headed to Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro, just south of Atlanta, where she encouraged worshippers to exercise their voting rights. Later, she planned to record an interview with civil rights leader Al Sharpton.

Meanwhile, Trump, donned an apron at a McDonald’s fast-food restaurant in Pennsylvania to work in the French fries part of the kitchen and handed orders to customers in the drive-through lane.

Harris has said she worked for spending money at a McDonald’s in California during her college days, but Trump has said he doesn’t believe her, although a friend of Harris’ told The New York Times that she recalled Harris working there.  

After his brief stint at the restaurant, Trump boasted that he’d “now worked for 15 minutes” longer than Harris had.

Later in the day, Trump scheduled a town hall gathering with voters in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Harris is campaigning Monday in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, while Trump heads to Greenville, North Carolina.
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Judges punishing Jan. 6 rioters fear more political violence as election nears

WASHINGTON — Over the past four years, judges at Washington’s federal courthouse have punished hundreds of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in an unprecedented assault on the nation’s democracy. On the cusp of the next presidential election, some of those judges fear another burst of political violence could be coming.

Before recently sentencing a rioter to prison, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said he prays Americans accept the outcome of next month’s election. But the veteran judge expressed concern that Donald Trump and his allies are spreading the same sort of conspiracy theories that fueled the mob’s January 6, 2021, riot.

“That sore loser is saying the same things he said before,” Walton said earlier this month without mentioning the Republican presidential nominee by name. “He’s riling up the troops again, so if he doesn’t get what he wants, it’s not inconceivable that we will experience that same situation again. And who knows? It could be worse.”

‘It scares me’

Walton, a nominee of President George W. Bush, is not alone. Other judges have said the political climate is ripe for another attack like the one that injured more than 100 police officers at the Capitol. As Election Day nears, judges are frequently stressing the need to send a message beyond their courtrooms that political violence can’t be tolerated.

“It scares me to think about what will happen if anyone on either side is not happy with the results of the election,” Judge Jia Cobb, a nominee of President Joe Biden, said during a sentencing hearing last month for four Capitol rioters.

Judge Rudolph Contreras lamented the potential for more politically motivated violence as he sentenced a Colorado man, Jeffrey Sabol, who helped other rioters drag a police officer into the mob. Sabol later told FBI agents that a “call to battle was announced” and that he had “answered the call because he was a patriot warrior.”

“It doesn’t take much imagination to imagine a similar call coming out in the coming months, and the court would be concerned that Mr. Sabol would answer that call in the same way,” Contreras, a President Barack Obama nominee, said in March before sentencing Sabol to more than five years in prison.

Trump’s distortion of the January 6 attack has been a cornerstone of his bid to reclaim the White House. The former president has denied any responsibility for the crimes of supporters who smashed windows, assaulted police officers and sent lawmakers running into hiding as they met to certify Biden’s 2020 victory.

‘Patriots’ and ‘hostages’

Trump has vowed to pardon rioters, whom he calls “patriots” and “hostages,” if he wins in November. And he said he would accept the results of the upcoming election only if it’s “free and fair,” casting doubts reminiscent of his baseless claims in 2020.

Judges have repeatedly used their platform on the bench to denounce those efforts to downplay the violence on January 6 and cast the rioters as political prisoners. And some have raised concerns about what such rhetoric means for the future of the country and its democracy.

“We’re in a real difficult time in our country, and I hope we can survive it,” Walton said this month while sentencing a Tennessee nurse who used a pair of medical scissors to smash a glass door at the Capitol.

“I’ve got a young daughter, I’ve got a young grandson, and I would like for America to be available to them and be as good to them as it has been to me,” he said. “But I don’t know if we survive with the mentality that took place that day.”

More than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the January 6 siege, which disrupted the peaceful transfer of presidential power for the first time in the nation’s history. Over 1,000 rioters have been convicted and sentenced. Roughly 650 of them received prison time ranging from a few days to 22 years.

Justice Department prosecutors have argued in many cases that a prison sentence is necessary to deter convicted Capitol rioters from engaging in more politically motivated violence.

“With the 2024 presidential election approaching and many loud voices in the media and online continuing to sow discord and distrust, the potential for a repeat of January 6 looms ominously,” prosecutors have repeatedly warned in court filings.

‘I’d do it all over again’

Prosecutors argue that defendants who have shown little or no remorse for their actions on January 6 could break the law again. Some rioters even seem to be proud of their crimes.

The first rioter to enter the Capitol texted his mother, “I’ll go again given the opportunity.”

A man from Washington state who stormed the Capitol with fellow Proud Boys extremist group members told a judge, “You can give me 100 years, and I’d do it all over again.” A Kentucky nurse who joined the riot told a television interviewer that she would “do it again tomorrow.”

A Colorado woman known to her social media followers as the “J6 praying grandma” avoided a prison sentence in August when a magistrate judge sentenced her for disorderly conduct and trespassing on Capitol grounds. Rebecca Lavrenz told the judge that God, not Trump, led her to Washington on January 6.

“And she has all but promised to do it all over again,” said prosecutor Terence Parker.

Prosecutors had sought 10 months behind bars. After her April trial conviction, Lavrenz went on a “media blitz” to defend the mob, spread misinformation, undermine confidence in the courts and boost her celebrity in a community that believes January 6 “was a good day for this country,” Parker said.

Magistrate Zia Faruqui sentenced Lavrenz to six months of home confinement and fined her $103,000, stressing the need to “lower the volume” before the next election.

“These outside influences, the people that are tearing our country apart, they’re not going to help you,” Faruqui told her.
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Last US in-person vote will be cast in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — On a desolate slab of island tundra in western Alaska, a resident of Adak will again become the last American to cast an in-person ballot for president, continuing a 12-year tradition for the nation’s westernmost community.

The honor of having the last voter in the nation fell to Adak when they did away with absentee-only voting for the 2012 election and added in-person voting.

“People have a little bit of fun on that day because, I mean, realistically everybody knows the election’s decided way before we’re closed,” said city manager Layton Lockett. “But, you know, it’s still fun.”

When polls close in Adak, it will be 1 a.m. on the East Coast.

Adak Island, midway in the Aleutian Island chain and bordered by the Bering Sea to the north and the North Pacific Ocean to the south, is closer to Russia than mainland Alaska. The island best known as a former World War II military base and later naval station is 1,931 kilometers (1,200 miles) southwest of Anchorage and farther west than Hawaii, where polls close an hour earlier.

Mary Nelson said Republican Mitt Romney was likely conceding the 2012 race to President Barack Obama on election night when she became Adak’s first last voter in a presidential election, although she didn’t know Obama had been reelected until the next morning when she turned on her computer to read election results.

Nelson, who now lives in Washington state, recalled to The Associated Press by telephone that she was a poll worker in Adak at the time and had forgotten to vote until just before the 8 p.m. poll closing time.

“When I opened the [voting booth’s] curtain to come back out, the city manager took my picture and announced that I was the last person in Adak to vote,” she said.

That was also the end of the celebration since they still had work to do.

“We had votes to count, and they were waiting for us in Nome to call with our vote count,” she said.

There are U.S. territories farther west than Alaska, but there’s no process in the Electoral College to allow residents in Guam, the northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands to vote for president, according to the National Archives.

“I’ve been tickled pink and told people about it,” said Nelson, now 73. “I have the story I printed out about it and show some people who I think would think it’s a big deal, like my family,” she said.

Adak Island has historical significance for its role in World War II. The U.S. built facilities on the island after Japanese forces took islands farther west in the Aleutian chain.

Troops landed in August 1942, to begin building an Army base, and enemy planes dropped nine bombs on the island two months later, but in undeveloped areas, and riddled the landscape with machine gun fire. The Navy began building facilities in January 1943.

In May 1943, about 27,000 combat troops gathered on Adak as a staging point to retake nearby Attu Island from the Japanese.

Among famous Americans stationed at Adak were writers Dashiell Hammett and Gore Vidal. The island also played host to President Franklin Roosevelt, boxing champion Joe Lewis and several Hollywood stars, according to the Adak Historical Society.

In a lighter note, the Army attempted to start a forest on Adak Island between 1943 and 1945. A sign placed by residents in the 1960s outside the area of 33 trees noted: “You are now Entering and Leaving the Adak National Forest.”

After the war, the island was transferred to the Air Force and then the Navy in 1950. Nearly 32,000 hectares (80,000 acres) of the 73,000-hectare (180,000-acre) island were set aside for Navy use, and the rest of the island remained part of what eventually became the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

The base closed in 1997. The Navy retains about 2,300 hectares (5,600 acres) with the remainder either owned by the Aleut Corporation, the Alaska Native regional corporation for the area; the city of Adak; or the refuge.

Lockett said the city is facing tough times with a dwindling population and lack of an economic driver. The town’s fish processing plant has closed numerous times over the years.

When the base was active, there were about 6,000 residents on Adak Island. The 2020 Census counted 171 residents. Lockett says that’s probably now down to below 50 full-time residents.

In Alaska, a school must have 10 students to remain open. Mike Hanley, the Aleutian Region School District superintendent, said in an email that the school closed in 2023 after it started the year with six students. That shrank to one by November, and then that student left.

Hanley said by the time he notified the state education department, “there were literally no children on the island, not even younger pre-K students.”

When it comes to politics, Lockett said it’s pretty easy in a small town to know where your neighbors fall politically, but there seems to be one goal that unites everyone.

Whoever is in office, are they going to try to “encourage the military to come back to Adak in some way, shape or form?” he said.

“We’re kind of in that great midst of, what’s next for Adak, because we’re struggling,” he said.

For now, with the presidential election coming up, the city can focus on its unique place in America.

“I’m not sure who the last voter will be this year,” said Adak City Clerk Jana Lekanoff. “Maybe it’ll be a bit of a competition?”
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Demographic changes shake up Arizona presidential politics

People in all 50 states will vote in this year’s U.S. presidential election. But it is outcomes from seven so-called swing states that will likely determine the winner. The Southwestern state of Arizona traditionally favored Republican candidates, but Democrat Joe Biden won the state in 2020, and its electoral votes are up for grabs again in 2024. From Arizona, VOA’s Dora Mekouar has our story. Videographer: Miguel Amaya
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Don’t count on recounts to flip US elections this fall — they rarely do

washington — With the American electorate so evenly divided, there will be elections in November close enough that officials will have to recount the votes. Just don’t expect those recounts to change the winner. They rarely do, even when the margins are tiny. 

“The (original) count is pretty accurate because the machines work — they work very well,” said Tammy Patrick, a former election official in Arizona who is now with the National Association of Election Officials. “We have recounts and we have audits to make sure we got it right.” 

There have been 36 recounts in statewide general elections since America’s most famous recount in 2000. That year, Republican George W. Bush maintained his lead over Democrat Al Gore in Florida — and won the presidency — after a recount was stopped by the Supreme Court. 

Since then, only three of those statewide recounts resulted in new winners, and all three were decided by hundreds of votes, not thousands. That’s according to an Associated Press review of statewide recounts using data from the AP vote count, state election offices and research by FairVote, a nonpartisan organization that researches elections and advocates for changes in the way they are conducted. 

Most states allow recounts when the results are within a certain margin; the most common figure is 0.5 percentage point. But there is no precedent for a recount changing the winner in a race decided by multiple thousands of votes, at least not since Congress made sweeping changes to U.S. election law in 2002. 

Minnesota race

The most recent statewide race overturned by a recount was in 2008 in Minnesota. Republican Senator Norm Coleman led Democrat Al Franken by 215 votes in the initial count, out of more than 2.9 million ballots cast. After a hand recount, Franken won by 225 votes, a shift of 0.02 percentage point. 

Among the 36 statewide recounts since 2000, the average change in the winning margin, whether it grew or shrank, was 0.03 percentage point. The biggest shift was 0.11 percentage point in a relatively low turnout race for Vermont auditor in 2006. In that race, incumbent Republican Randy Brock led Democrat Thomas Salmon by 137 votes after the initial count. A recount flipped the race and Salmon won by 102 votes. 

Recounts aren’t limited to general elections. They happen in primaries, too. 

Earlier this year, the Washington state primary for commissioner of public lands went to a recount after the initial tally had Democrat Dave Upthegrove leading Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson by 51 votes, out of more than 1.9 million votes counted, as they vied for second place. 

After the recount, Upthegrove’s lead shrank by just two votes. In Washington’s primary system, the top two candidates advance to the general election, regardless of their political party. 

There are even more recounts in downballot races that are sometimes decided by a handful of votes. But even in these lower-turnout elections, recounts rarely change the winners. 

“Recounts are shifting a very small number of votes,” said Deb Otis, director of research and policy at FairVote. “We’re going to see recounts in 2024 that are not going to change the outcome.” 

Different laws

States have a wide variety of laws on when and how recounts are conducted. Some states allow candidates to request recounts but require that they pay for them — unless the winner changes. 

Alaska, Montana, South Dakota and Texas mandate recounts only if there is an exact tie, though candidates in those states can request a recount. South Carolina has automatic recounts if the margin between the top two candidates is 1% or less of the total votes cast in the race. 

The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if the AP determines the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome. 

In Washington’s public lands primary, which was ultimately decided by 49 votes, the AP waited until after the recount to declare the winner because the margin was so close. But in cases where the number of votes separating the top candidates is larger – for example, in a statewide race where the candidates are separated by thousands or tens of thousands of votes – the AP may determine that it’s not possible for a recount to reverse the outcome. 

Statewide recounts almost always change the results by a few votes. 

Patrick said that’s usually because of human error – either by an election worker or by voters. For example, paper ballots are often rejected because voters didn’t fill them out correctly, but they might later get added to the count after a review. 

‘Very interesting things’

Paper ballots usually require voters to fill in little bubbles next to their chosen candidate, just like students taking standardized tests. Tabulation machines count the votes by looking for a mark on a very specific area of the ballot, Patrick said. If voters indicate their preference in some other way, like circling their chosen candidate, the machines won’t count the vote. 

In some states, bipartisan panels review rejected ballots to see if they can determine the intent of the voter. Some states do these reviews whether there is a recount or not. Other states do them only if there is a recount. Still others never do these reviews and the ballots are simply rejected. 

Patrick said she’s seen ballots marked many different ways that weren’t picked up by the tabulation machines, like voters using crayons or marking their choices with a highlighter. 

In the Minnesota recount, a voter filed in the dot for Franken but also wrote “Lizard People” in the box for write-in votes. The ballot was rejected. 

“Voters do a lot of very interesting things with their ballots,” Patrick said.
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Muslim candidates surge in local elections in US

WASHINGTON — As the United States prepares for a presidential election next month, the idyllic New York suburb of Teaneck, New Jersey, is gearing up for elections that reflect a broader trend in U.S. politics.

Two Muslim women are running for local office in Teaneck, a town of 41,000 residents with a significant Muslim population. They are among hundreds of Muslim candidates in local, state and federal elections around the country.

Teaneck once had a Muslim mayor but never a Muslim woman on its city council.

Reshma Khan, a longtime local activist of Indian origin and a council candidate, is aiming to change that.

“I don’t take that lightly,” Khan, 47, said in a recent phone interview from her makeshift canvassing base in Teaneck. “It’s one of great responsibility as a Muslim.”

Nadia Hussain, a Trinidadian American high school teacher, is the other Muslim candidate in Teaneck’s nonpartisan local elections. She is hoping to be the first Muslim woman elected to the local school board.

The two hijab-wearing, everyday working American moms represent a growing trend of Muslim Americans seeking office, reflecting a larger national pattern of more diverse candidates.

“There is a saying that we have: ‘If you’re not at the table, then you’re on the menu,’ so engagement is a must,” Hussain said in an interview with VOA.

Muslims’ political engagement surges

The U.S. has roughly 3.5 million Muslims from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Though most vote Democratic, a growing number have leaned Republican in recent elections.

Muslim elected officials, once a rarity, have become increasingly common in recent years. This surge in political engagement is driven by a mix of factors, from a concern about Islamophobia to a desire for political representation, experts say.

“If voter turnout of American Muslims is any indication of further political participation, Muslims running for office seems to parallel that trend,” said Nura Sediqe, an assistant professor of political science at Michigan State University.

Some experts trace the surge of Muslim political engagement to 2018, when Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib shattered glass ceilings by becoming the first Muslim women elected to Congress. Their success, coupled with that of numerous local candidates, ignited a wave of Muslim political activism.

The ripple effects have continued in the years since. In 2021, Boston and New York City elected their first Muslim council members. The following year, Dearborn, Michigan, a city with a substantial Arab and Muslim population, inaugurated its first Muslim mayor. Meanwhile, state legislatures from Maine to Texas have welcomed about 50 Muslim members into their ranks.

“Every cycle we’re seeing an increase in the number of people running,” said Basim Elkarra, executive director of CAIR Action, himself a school board president near the Sacramento, California, area. “You’re seeing more local races, more school board races and more city council races where folks are running in.”

Last year, CAIR, a civil rights group promoting American-Islamic relations, tallied 235 Muslim elected officials, including nearly 50 in New Jersey, home to the largest Muslim population per capita in the country. This year, the group expects the total number to surpass 250, a record.

Local races, like school board and city council elections, account for most of the recent growth. A city council member may not wield the power of a member of Congress, but in a country where “all politics is local,” these races can have a huge impact on local communities.

Recounting her talking points to voters, Khan said, “We say, yes, the presidential election is important, but more important is local elections.”

A consummate activist, Khan views a future role on the city council as an extension of her activism rather than a political position. Her goal, she said, is to inspire future generations of Muslim women.

“I’m not doing this for myself,” Khan said. “I am doing this for the Fatimas and the Muhammads and the Ahmads who are going to come 50 years from now.”

Candidate aims to challenge stereotypes

Khan wasn’t always a hijabi woman. Born in Chennai, India, she attended a Catholic school. After earning an master’s degree in business administration from an Indian university, she moved to the U.S. in early 2001 to take a marketing job in New Jersey.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, changed her outlook. To challenge stereotypes about Muslims, she began wearing a hijab.

“I wanted to show that there are peaceful Muslims,” she said.

Nearly 20 years ago, Khan and her husband, Arif, moved to Teaneck, where she immersed herself in community activism: attending city council meetings, serving on the council’s community relations board and leading a school Parent Teacher Association.

Then in 2021, she was thrust into the spotlight after helping lead a ballot initiative to move local elections from May to November when turnout is higher. She credits her marketing skills for the success of the “One Town, One Vote” campaign.

“At this point, I had become such an icon in Teaneck, because even though the movement was not started by me, I brought my marketing skills,” she said.

The following year, she considered running for town council but decided to wait while she was raising three young daughters. This year, though, she took the plunge, inspired by the success of other Muslim women in New Jersey and a sense the council wasn’t listening to her community.

“I felt that I should be the leader for my community, so my community finds a voice in American politics,” she said.

Teaneck is an ethnically and religiously diverse town, with about 40% of the population Jewish, more than 25% Muslim, and the rest mostly Blacks and Latinos.

The war in Gaza, ignited by Hamas’ terror attack on Israel last October, sparked tensions after the council passed a resolution in support of Israel but not one “designed to speak for Palestinian voices,” Khan said.

Teaneck’s Muslims, Khan said, “feel let down by the local leadership because the local leadership has only spoken for one community.”

Teaneck Mayor Mike Pagan did not respond to repeated requests from VOA for comment.

A self-described “bridge builder,” Khan said she has formed a broad coalition of supporters from Teaneck’s major communities, using young canvassers to go door to door.

Whether that’s enough to win remains to be seen. With local elections now held in November, winning a council seat requires substantially more votes. But whether she wins or not, Khan said she wants to be remembered “as a woman in her hijab who’s a Muslim and has galvanized support from every community in the town, not because she is a Muslim person but because she is someone who stands for equity.”
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Trump breaks his silence on Sinwar as Harris seizes opportunity in his death  

washington — Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday reiterated her call to end the bloodshed in Gaza, underscoring that the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar creates an opportunity “to end this war and bring the hostages home.”

She spoke between campaign events in Michigan, a state home to the largest percentage of Arab Americans in the country, many of whom are outraged over the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s targeting of Hamas militants, which has caused tens of thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths.

A day earlier, in a carefully choreographed move between the White House and her campaign, the Democratic nominee delivered presidential-style remarks on Israel’s killing of Sinwar, declaring that “justice has been served.”

“It is time for the day after to begin without Hamas in power,” said Harris, speaking between campaign events in Wisconsin, minutes after the White House released a statement on Sinwar’s death from President Joe Biden, who was at the time aboard Air Force One en route to Berlin for Ukraine-focused meetings with leaders.

The speed with which Harris made her statement stood in stark contrast to her Republican rival Donald Trump, who often weighs in on foreign policy issues but stayed quiet on Sinwar until late Friday afternoon when he was asked by a reporter. The former president was also in Michigan, courting Arab American votes.

Sinwar “was not a good person,” Trump said, saying that his death would make achieving peace “easier.” He praised Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while attacking the Biden administration. 

“He’s called me. I haven’t spoken to him. I’m going to speak to him probably now,” Trump said of the Israeli leader.

“Biden is trying to hold him back,” Trump said, without saying whether he was referring to Israel’s operation in Gaza, Lebanon or both. “And he probably should be doing the opposite, actually.”

Polls suggest most Americans would like to see the conflict in Gaza resolved. The candidates’ noticeably distinct responses highlight the complicated politics at play ahead of the U.S. November election.

Harris addressing vulnerability

In her remarks on Sinwar’s death, Harris employed tough language, vowing to bring to justice terrorists who threaten American interests, underscoring support for Israel’s right to defend itself, and the need to eliminate Hamas.

But as pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside her campaign event, Harris also highlighted her goal for Palestinians to “realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”

In doing so, Harris is seeking to present a strong image as a commander in chief and address her campaign’s main foreign policy vulnerability, the crisis in the Middle East, said Thomas Schwartz, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University.

U.S. support for Israel’s military campaign has threatened Harris’ standing with key groups who traditionally vote Democratic – young, progressive voters, Arab and Muslim Americans.

With less than three weeks until the U.S. election, a winding down of the war could boost Harris’ electoral prospects, Schwartz told VOA. Whether it could save her in states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, where many voters are concerned about Gaza, is unclear, he added, but “it would help.”

In a recent interview with Fox News, Harris insisted her administration “will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency.” However, she has resisted pressure to break from Biden’s backing of Netanyahu.

She has sought to balance her loyalty to Biden with her own worldview, offering slight divergence from his positions in her public statements without committing that her administration would bring major changes in U.S. policies toward Israel.

“The work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles,” she said in a recent “60 Minutes” interview.

The vice president is frequently vocal in her empathy toward Palestinian suffering, calling out Israel via social media Sunday to “urgently do more to facilitate the flow of aid to those in need,” implying the country is not respecting international humanitarian law as it restricts food supply in northern Gaza.

On the same day as Harris’ tweet, the Biden administration sent a letter to Israel seeking to improve Palestinians’ access to food and other necessities, warning the lack of humanitarian aid could lead to restrictions in U.S. military assistance.

In the same week, Washington announced it is deploying 100 American troops to Israel to operate a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery, a $1 billion weapon to defend Israel against missiles from Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Human rights activists have accused the administration of a double standard – pushing Israel to take more steps to protect civilians while supplying them with arms.

‘Most pro-Israel American president’

Trump often boasts he is the most “pro-Israel American president” and has sought to erode Jewish American voters’ support for his rival by claiming that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel.”

On the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel, Trump said the American presidential election will be the most important day not only in the history of the U.S. but also Israel.

“The anti-Jewish has returned even here in America in our streets, our media and our college campuses and within the ranks of the Democrat Party in particular,” he said.

Polls show the majority of American Jews are Democrats and tend to vote for Democratic candidates.

Analysts find Trump’s relative quiet on Sinwar perplexing. Trump has said in the past he encouraged Netanyahu to “get your victory and get it over with.”

“He doesn’t seem to want to get deeply enmeshed right now,” Schwartz said. “I think he recognizes that the Middle East is more of a problem for the Harris-Walz ticket than it is for him.”

With his “America First” doctrine, Trump also must consider many of his supporters who are against American entanglements in foreign wars, said Khaled Elgindy, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

Trump realizes that it’s a dual-edged sword, Elgindy told VOA. “He can tout his pro-Israel credentials, but beyond that, talking about wars and counterterrorism is a kind of much stickier situation and a slippery slope perhaps for his electoral base.”

What happens next

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sinwar was one of the main obstacles to securing a cease-fire in Gaza and his killing could accelerate diplomatic talks.

“That’s something we’re going to have to talk about with our Israeli counterparts,” he said Thursday.

It’s unclear whether there is a viable replacement in Hamas’ leadership who can negotiate a cease-fire, or whether Israel sees the urgency to return to talks.

“The focus for Israel right now is not Gaza, it is Lebanon, and it is Iran,” said Jonathan Rynhold, professor of politics at Bar-Ilan University. He told VOA that Israel sees an opportunity to weaken Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, a goal shared by American allies in the region.

Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, a left-leaning think tank, warned U.S. policymakers not to succumb to hawkish voices pushing to allow Israel to “reshuffle the regional security deck” following Sinwar’s death and the weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“We’ve seen these kinds of blunders before,” he told VOA, “through hubris and through overreach.”
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Gun violence victims, gun owners assess Harris, Trump election promises

Gun violence victims and gun owners are expressing very different views on how the next occupant of the White House should tackle gun violence in the United States. The Democratic and Republican presidential nominees have made their stances clear on the matter, and voters will soon have their say at the ballot box. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
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Hurricanes Helene, Milton might affect 2024 voting. Here’s how

The U.S. states of Florida, North Carolina and Georgia are dealing with the aftermath of two major hurricanes that killed hundreds of people and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage. With the presidential election less than a month away and the race extremely close, White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara looks at how the storms might affect voting in these states.
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Battleground state starts early in-person voting while recovering from Helene

ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA — Early in-person voting began statewide Thursday in the presidential battleground of North Carolina, including in mountainous areas where thousands of potential voters still lack power and clean running water after Hurricane Helene’s epic flooding.

More than 400 locations in all 100 counties were slated to open for the 17-day early vote period, said State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell. Only four of 80 sites in the 25 western counties hardest hit by the storm weren’t going to open.

Helene’s arrival three weeks ago in the U.S. Southeast decimated remote towns throughout Appalachia and killed at least 246 people, with a little over half of the storm-related deaths in North Carolina. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Katrina in 2005.

At the South Buncombe Library in Asheville, a city devastated by the storm, about 60 people — most bundled up in jackets, hats and gloves for the chilly weather — lined up around the building before the polls opened at 9 a.m.

They included 77-year-old Joyce Rich, who said Helene made early voting more urgent for her. Rich said while her house was largely spared by the storm, she and her husband still need to do some work on it. Meanwhile, family members who don’t have power or water access are coming over to take showers.

“We decided, let’s just get it finished,” Rich said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”

Another voter at the library, 33-year-old Jarred Teague, said it was important to show up to vote early, in part because “democracy itself seems to be on the line” during this election.

Early in-person voting, which continues through November 2, is very popular in North Carolina. More than 3.6 million ballots — 65% of all cast ballots — were cast this way in the 2020 general election. In the 2016 election, 62% of all cast ballots were cast during early in-person voting.

Absentee voting in North Carolina began a few weeks ago, with over 67,000 completed ballots turned in so far, election officials said. People displaced by Helene are being allowed to drop off their absentee ballot at any early voting site in the state.

The importance of early voting wasn’t lost upon the presidential campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

On Thursday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz was expected to campaign in Winston-Salem and Durham, where he was to be joined by former President Bill Clinton.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley were expected to appear on the “Team Trump Bus Tour” when it resumes Thursday in Rutherford County, which was among the hardest-hit areas.

The North Carolina ballot also includes races for governor, attorney general and several other statewide positions. All U.S. House of Representatives and state General Assembly seats are up for reelection.

County election boards have received flexibility to modify early voting sites, including locations and their daily hours. In Buncombe County, 10 of the 14 planned early voting sites will be open.

In Watauga County, home to Boone and Appalachian State University, the board adjusted early voting hours to avoid evening travel for voters and poll workers. They also expanded weekend voting options.

Watauga elections Director Matt Snyder said Wednesday having all six sites ready for Thursday was a feat his office didn’t expect in Helene’s immediate aftermath. But election officials have been working weekends to get prepared.

“It’s exhausting,” Snyder said. “It’s 16-hour days … but everybody seems to pitch in.”

Officials in the 25 counties affected by the storm were still evaluating Election Day polling locations, with the “vast majority” expected to be available to voters, Brinson Bell said.

This is the first presidential general election for which North Carolina voters must show photo identification. Someone who has lost their ID because of the storm can fill out an exception form.
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Georgia judge blocks elections rules backed by pro-Trump Republicans

A judge has overturned changes to Georgia election rules made in August by a Republican-controlled state board, in a case brought by a conservative group that argued the changes would disrupt voting rights ahead of the November 5 U.S. presidential election. 

Judge Thomas Cox handed down the decision Wednesday. The case closely mirrored a separate lawsuit brought by the Democratic Party challenging the State Election Board’s actions, which Democrats portrayed as a ploy to impede certification of voting results in a state that could be crucial to the election outcome. 

Georgia is one of seven closely contested states that are expected to determine the winner of the presidential race between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. U.S. presidential elections are decided through state-by-state results, not by a majority in the national popular vote. 

The board empowered county election board members to investigate discrepancies between the number of ballots cast and voters in each precinct and examine a trove of election-related documents before certifying their results. The board’s 3-2 vote was powered by three allies of Trump, who lost to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia in the 2020 election and made false claims of widespread voting fraud. Some senior Republicans continue to refuse to say that Biden was fairly elected in 2020. 

The board’s moves drew bipartisan criticism. The conservative group that brought the case on September 11, Eternal Vigilance Action, argued the Georgia board had exceeded its legal authority in making the changes. 

Republican Brad Raffensperger, who as secretary of state is Georgia’s top election official, has said that the election board’s “11th-hour” changes would damage voter confidence and burden election workers. 

States must certify their voting results – confirming the accurate tabulation of the votes cast – as part of the process of determining a presidential election’s outcome. 

In its separate case, the Democratic National Committee said in a court filing that Georgia’s election board had sought to turn the act of certification into “a broad license” for officials at the county level “to delay certification or block it altogether in a hunt for purported election irregularities.” 

The Democrats noted that certification of election results is mandatory under state law, and that other avenues exist to contest disputed results. 

The board’s majority has said the various new rules are intended to make the election more secure and transparent. Trump, seeking a return to the presidency, has praised his three allies on the board as “pit bulls.” 

Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 in a failed bid to prevent Congress from certifying the voting results from November 2020 election. Democrats now are accusing Republicans in various states of seeking to delay or prevent certification of voting results unfavorable to Trump. 

Another contentious rule passed by Georgia’s board, which would have required poll workers to hand count ballots, was blocked by a judge on Tuesday. Democrats similarly had portrayed that move as a bid by Trump allies to thwart certification of voting results.
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Former US president Jimmy Carter, 100, casts vote

washington — Fifteen days after turning 100, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter cast his ballot in the U.S. election on Wednesday, fulfilling an earlier declared wish to live long enough to vote for Kamala Harris.

The former Democratic leader “voted by mail,” according to the Carter Center, the nonprofit he founded after he left the White House in 1981 to pursue his vision of world diplomacy.

The centenarian — who left office under a cloud of unpopularity, but has seen his star rise ever since — took advantage of early voting in his home state of Georgia, where he is receiving hospice care.

Carter had told his family earlier this year that living long enough to vote for Harris and help defeat her Republican rival, Donald Trump, was more important to him than his centennial, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.

He reached both milestones.

More than 420,000 people have cast their ballot since early voting began Tuesday in Georgia, according to Gabriel Sterling, a state election official who posted the figures at midday.

Election Day is November 5.

Carter, a one-term president, has been receiving end-of-life care in his hometown of Plains in Georgia since February last year.

He is the first former U.S. president to reach the century mark, another extraordinary milestone for the one-time peanut farmer who worked his way to the White House.
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Growing number of young women say abortion rights top election issue

Since the U.S. Supreme Court sent the issue of abortion back to the states in 2022, Democrats have mobilized to protect abortion rights while Republicans have worked to restrict the procedure on religious and moral grounds. The issue is motivating voters to go to the polls this election year. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Nevada. Videographer: Mary Cieslak
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Nebraska’s high court says people with felony records can register to vote

OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska’s top election official had no authority to declare unconstitutional a state law that restored the voting rights of those who have been convicted of a felony, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a decision with implications for the approaching election.

In July, Secretary of State Bob Evnen ordered county election officials to reject the voter registrations of those with felony convictions, citing an opinion issued by Attorney General Mike Hilgers. That opinion, which Evnen had requested, deemed as unconstitutional a law passed this year by the Legislature immediately restoring the voting rights of people who have completed the terms of their felony sentences.

Evnen’s order could have kept 7,000 or more Nebraska residents from voting in the upcoming election, the American Civil Liberties Union said. Many of them reside in Nebraska’s Omaha-centered 2nd Congressional District, where both the race for president and Congress could be in play.

In an otherwise reliably Republican state that, unlike most others, splits its electoral votes, the district has twice awarded an electoral vote to Democratic presidential candidates — once to Barack Obama in 2008 and again to Joe Biden in 2020. In a presidential race shown by polling to be a dead heat, a single electoral vote could determine who wins.

Given the Omaha district’s history, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Democratic groups have spent millions in the district in the hopes of securing the electoral vote — far more than former President Donald Trump and Republican groups.

The last day to register to vote for the 2024 general election in Nebraska is Oct. 25 and must be done in person at a voter’s county election commission office. Election Day is Nov. 5.

Hilgers’ opinion had said the new law violates the state constitution’s separation of powers, saying only the state Board of Pardons under the control of the executive branch can restore voting rights through pardons.

Pardons are exceedingly rare in Nebraska. Evnen, Hilgers and Gov. Jim Pillen make up the three-member Board of Pardons. All three are Republicans.

The opinion also found unconstitutional a 2005 state law that restored the voting rights of people with felony convictions two years after they complete the terms of their sentences. 

The ACLU is representing advocacy group Civic Nebraska and two Nebraska residents, a Republican and an independent, who would be denied the right to vote under Evnen’s directive. Because Evnen’s move came only weeks ahead of the November election, the ACLU asked to take the lawsuit directly to the Nebraska Supreme Court, and the high court agreed. 

Restoring the voting rights of former felons has drawn national attention in recent years. In Florida, lawmakers weakened a 2018 voter-approved constitutional amendment to restore the voting rights of most convicted felons. Following that, an election police unit championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis arrested 20 former felons. Several of them said they were confused by the arrests because they had been allowed to register to vote. 

In Tennessee, lawmakers killed a bipartisan bill this year that would have let residents convicted of felonies apply to vote again without also restoring their gun rights. 

Dozens of states allow people living with felony convictions to vote, either for those not currently in prison or upon completion of their sentences. Two states, Maine and Vermont, allow everyone, even those in prison, to vote. But despite a recent trend toward restoration of rights, felony disenfranchisement laws prevent around 5.85 million people across the country from voting, according to the ACLU. 

Felony disenfranchisement laws date to the Jim Crow era and mainly targeted Black people, according to experts. Black registered voters have an overwhelmingly positive view of Harris, according to a recent poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
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Georgia judge blocks ballot counting rule and says county officials must certify election results

ATLANTA — A judge has blocked a new rule that requires Georgia Election Day ballots to be counted by hand after the close of voting. The ruling came a day after the same judge ruled that county election officials must certify election results by the deadline set in law.

The State Election Board last month passed the rule requiring that three poll workers each count the paper ballots — not votes — by hand after the polls close.

The county election board in Cobb County, in Atlanta’s suburbs, had filed a lawsuit seeking to have a judge declare that rule and five others recently passed by the state board invalid, saying they exceed the state board’s authority, weren’t adopted in compliance with the law and are unreasonable.

In a ruling late Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote, that the so-called hand count rule “is too much, too late” and blocked its enforcement while he considers the merits of the case.

McBurney on Monday had ruled in a separate case that “no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.” While they are entitled to inspect the conduct of an election and to review related documents, he wrote, “any delay in receiving such information is not a basis for refusing to certify the election results or abstaining from doing so.”

Georgia law says county election superintendents — generally multimember boards — “shall” certify election results by 5 p.m. on the Monday after an election, or the Tuesday if Monday is a holiday as it is this year.

The two rulings came as early in-person voting began Tuesday in Georgia.

They are victories for Democrats, liberal voting rights groups and some legal experts who have raised concerns that Donald Trump’s allies could refuse to certify the results if the former president loses to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in next month’s presidential election. They have also argued that new rules enacted by the Trump-endorsed majority on the State Election Board could be used to stop or delay certification and to undermine public confidence in the results.

In blocking the hand count rule, McBurney noted that there are no guidelines or training tools for its implementation and that the secretary of state had said the rule was passed too late for his office to provide meaningful training or support. The judge also wrote that no allowances have been made in county election budgets to provide for additional personnel or expenses associated with the rule.

“The administrative chaos that will — not may — ensue is entirely inconsistent with the obligations of our boards of elections (and the SEB) to ensure that our elections are fair legal, and orderly,” he wrote.

The state board may be right that the rule is smart policy, McBurney wrote, but the timing of its passage makes implementing it now “quite wrong.” He invoked the memory of the riot at the U.S. Capitol by people seeking to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory on Jan. 6, 2021, writing, “Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public.”

During a hearing earlier Tuesday, Robert Thomas, a lawyer for the State Election Board, argued that the process isn’t complicated and that estimates show that it would take extra minutes, not hours, to complete. He also said memory cards from the scanners, which are used to tally the votes, could be sent to the tabulation center while the hand count is happening so reporting of results wouldn’t be delayed.

State and national Democratic groups that had joined the suit on the side of the Cobb election board, along with the Harris campaign, celebrated McBurney’s ruling in a joint statement: “From the beginning, this rule was an effort to delay election results to sow doubt in the outcome, and our democracy is stronger thanks to this decision to block it.”

The certification ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Julie Adams, a Republican member of the election board in Fulton County, which includes most of the city of Atlanta and is a Democratic stronghold. Adams sought a declaration that her duties as an election board member were discretionary and that she is entitled to “full access” to “election materials.”

Long an administrative task that attracted little attention, certification of election results has become politicized since Trump tried to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 general election. Republicans in several swing states, including Adams, refused to certify results earlier this year and some have sued to keep from being forced to sign off on election results.

Adams’ suit, backed by the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, argued county election board members have the discretion to reject certification. In court earlier this month, her lawyers also argued county election officials could certify results without including certain ballots if they suspect problems.

Judge McBurney wrote that nothing in Georgia law gives county election officials the authority to determine that fraud has occurred or what should be done about it. Instead, he wrote, state law says a county election official’s “concerns about fraud or systemic error are to be noted and shared with the appropriate authorities but they are not a basis for a superintendent to decline to certify.”

The Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party of Georgia had joined the lawsuit as defendants with the support of Harris’ campaign. The campaign called the ruling a “major legal win.”

Adams said in a statement that McBurney’s ruling has made it clear that she and other county election officials “cannot be barred from access to elections in their counties.”

A flurry of election rules passed by the State Election Board since August has generated a crush of lawsuits. McBurney earlier this month heard a challenge to two rules having to do with certification brought by the state and national Democratic parties. Another Fulton County judge is set to hear arguments in two challenges to rules tomorrow — one brought by the Democratic groups and another filed by a group headed by a former Republican lawmaker. And separate challenges are also pending in at least two other counties.

 
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Voting rights groups seek investigation into Wisconsin text messages

madison, wisconsin — Voting rights advocates on Tuesday asked state and federal authorities to investigate anonymous text messages apparently targeting young Wisconsin voters, warning them not to vote in a state where they are ineligible.

Free Speech for People, on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, made the request to the U.S. Department of Justice as well as the Wisconsin Department of Justice. The letter says that “thousands of young voters across Wisconsin” received the text message last week, including staff members at the League of Women Voters and students at the University of Wisconsin.

The text in question cites Wisconsin state law prohibiting voting in more than one place and says that violating the law can result in fines of up to $10,000 and 3.5 years in prison.

“Don’t vote in a state where you’re not eligible,” the text said.

Wisconsin is known for having razor-thin presidential elections. Four of the last six were decided by less than a percentage point. President Joe Biden won in 2020 by less than 21,000 votes.

At least one person who received the text posted it on the social media platform X.

The League of Women Voters, in its request for investigation, said that without prompt action “the sender may continue its efforts to frighten eligible young voters into not voting.”

Students attending college in Wisconsin can register to vote either at their home address or their one at school.

“But now, many students and other young voters are fearful that they will face criminal prosecution if they register and exercise their right to vote — because of a malicious, inaccurate text sent by an anonymous party,” the letter said.

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment.

Wisconsin Department of Justice spokesperson Gillian Drummond said the department takes allegations of potential violations of election law seriously. She said the agency was reviewing the information in the request for an investigation and would assess “what, if any, follow-up is appropriate based on the facts and the law.”

University of Wisconsin System spokesperson Mark Pitsch said in an email that system officials were unaware of any security breach that may have resulted in leaked student contact information. He added that nothing has been reported to system officials about the text, and there was no indication how many students may have received it.

Riley Vetterkind, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said in an email to The Associated Press that the commission can’t determine whether the text message violates state law because the commission hasn’t received a formal complaint about it.

However, he called the message “concerning” and said it certainly could leave recipients feeling intimidated. He urged recipients to contact law enforcement directly if they are worried about the message.

“We understand that these third-party text messages can be very frustrating for voters,” Vetterkind said. “We recommend voters rely upon official sources of election information, such as from state or local election officials. Voters are free to ignore these text messages since they are not sent or associated with an official source.”

The text message was sent as thousands of voters in Wisconsin are casting absentee ballots. As of Monday, nearly 240,000 absentee ballots had already been returned statewide.

Starting October 22, voters can start casting absentee ballots in person.

Wisconsin is one of the “blue wall” states along with Michigan and Pennsylvania that is key to winning for either Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris or Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
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How Republican-leaning Nevada became a swing state

In the U.S., all eyes are on the seven so-called battleground states that are expected to determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. While some of them have shifted politically over the years, the Western swing state of Nevada does not lean strongly toward one major party or the other. VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports from Las Vegas. Camera: Miguel Amaya
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Microsoft: Cybercriminals increasingly help Russia, China, Iran target US, allies

WASHINGTON — Russia, China and Iran are increasingly relying on criminal networks to lead cyberespionage and hacking operations against adversaries such as the United States, according to a report on digital threats published Tuesday by Microsoft.

The growing collaboration between authoritarian governments and criminal hackers has alarmed national security officials and cybersecurity experts. They say it represents the increasingly blurred lines between actions directed by Beijing or the Kremlin aimed at undermining rivals and the illicit activities of groups typically more interested in financial gain.

In one example, Microsoft’s analysts found that a criminal hacking group with links to Iran infiltrated an Israeli dating site and then tried to sell or ransom the personal information it obtained. Microsoft concluded the hackers had two motives: to embarrass Israelis and make money.

In another, investigators identified a Russian criminal network that infiltrated more than 50 electronic devices used by the Ukrainian military in June, apparently seeking access and information that could aid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There was no obvious financial motive for the group, aside from any payment they may have received from Russia.

Marriage of convenience

For nations such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, teaming up with cybercriminals offers a marriage of convenience with benefits for both sides. Governments can boost the volume and effectiveness of cyber activities without added cost. For the criminals, it offers new avenues for profit and the promise of government protection.

“We’re seeing in each of these countries this trend toward combining nation-state and cybercriminal activities,” said Tom Burt, Microsoft’s vice president of customer security and trust.

So far there is no evidence suggesting that Russia, China and Iran are sharing resources with each other or working with the same criminal networks, Burt said. But he said the growing use of private cyber “mercenaries” shows how far America’s adversaries will go to weaponize the internet.

Microsoft’s report analyzed cyber threats between July 2023 and June 2024, looking at how criminals and foreign nations use hacking, spear phishing, malware and other techniques to gain access and control over a target’s system. The company says its customers face more than 600 million such incidents every day.

Russia focused much of its cyber operations on Ukraine, trying to enter military and government systems and spreading disinformation designed to undermine support for the war among its allies.

Ukraine has responded with its own cyber efforts, including one last week that knocked some Russian state media outlets offline.

US elections targeted

Networks tied to Russia, China and Iran have also targeted American voters, using fake websites and social media accounts to spread false and misleading claims about the 2024 election. Analysts at Microsoft agree with the assessment of U.S. intelligence officials who say Russia is targeting the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, while Iran is working to oppose former President Donald Trump.

Iran has also hacked into Trump’s campaign and sought, unsuccessfully, to interest Democrats in the material. Federal officials have also accused Iran of covertly supporting American protests over the war in Gaza.

Russia and Iran will likely accelerate the pace of their cyber operations targeting the U.S. as election day approaches, Burt said.

China, meanwhile, has largely stayed out of the presidential race, focusing its disinformation on down-ballot races for Congress or state and local office. Microsoft found networks tied to Beijing also continue to target Taiwan and other countries in the region.

Denials from all parties

In response, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said allegations that China partners with cybercriminals are groundless and accused the U.S. of spreading its own “disinformation about the so-called Chinese hacking threats.”

In a statement, spokesperson Liu Pengyu said that “our position is consistent and clear. China firmly opposes and combats cyberattacks and cybertheft in all forms.”

Russia and Iran have also rejected accusations that they’re using cyber operations to target Americans. Messages left with representatives of those three nations and North Korea were not returned Monday.

Efforts to disrupt foreign disinformation and cyber capabilities have escalated along with the threat, but the anonymous, porous nature of the internet sometimes undercuts the effectiveness of the response.

Federal authorities recently announced plans to seize hundreds of website domains used by Russia to spread election disinformation and to support efforts to hack former U.S. military and intelligence figures. But investigators at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab found that sites seized by the government can easily and quickly be replaced.

Within one day of the Department of Justice seizing several domains in September, for example, researchers spotted 12 new websites created to take their place. One month later, they continue to operate.
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As US presidential vote looms, newsrooms focus on how to stay safe

Washington/New York — On a rainy day in September, a group of journalists gathered in a nondescript office building outside Washington. Some were seasoned reporters, others still students. But they were all there to learn how to stay safe while covering elections and unrest.

Organized by the International Women’s Media Foundation, or IWMF, the training session was part of a national campaign to teach journalists based in the United States how to stay safe on assignment, including while reporting on the presidential campaign.

Over the past year, the IWMF has trained more than 620 journalists across 13 states.

“This safety tour has really been illuminating. Unfortunately, what we are hearing is quite alarming, and it’s not just about election reporting,” IWMF executive director Elisa Lees Munoz told VOA. “What we’re understanding more and more is that literally every beat in America has become a polarizing beat, and therefore has become a dangerous beat.”

Three times as many journalists have been arrested in the U.S. this year compared to last year, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. More journalists have been assaulted too, according to the group’s data.

“We’re seeing journalists still struggling every day to uphold that basic right of freedom of the press,” Kirstin McCudden, the Tracker’s managing editor, told VOA at the group’s office in Brooklyn. “It’s a little alarming.”

Many of the incidents took place during pro-Palestine protests. In one case, three photojournalists were arrested in Chicago in August while covering a protest on the outskirts of the Democratic National Convention.

“Police departments feel that they have the power to violate the rights of journalists. Then what ends up happening is it turns into a snowball effect. More police agencies crack down even harder,” said Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which publishes the Tracker.

While press freedom is often a local issue, it also matters what presidential candidates are saying and how they treat the press, multiple analysts said.

The campaign of former President Donald Trump has been punctuated by the same kinds of attacks against the media that characterized his presidency, the analysts who spoke with VOA said.

Leading up to and during Trump’s presidency, Stephanie Sugars, a senior reporter at the Tracker, documented more than 2,000 anti-media posts by Trump on the social media platform X, then known as Twitter. The tenor of those posts evolved from targeting individual journalists to targeting specific news outlets to targeting the media industry writ large.

“A lot of that rhetoric is still in play and is part of his playbook,” Sugars said. She added that the Tracker would monitor anti-media posts from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris if those kinds of posts existed.

Sugars cautioned against solely blaming Trump for the increased hostility facing journalists in the U.S. But, she said, he hasn’t helped the situation either.

“If you sow distrust in these sorts of external sources and really encourage your followers, those who support you, to only believe what you specifically say, that’s a great way to maintain firm control over what the narrative is, what truth is understood to be, and that’s an incredible amount of power to have,” Sugars said.

McCudden agreed. “Rhetoric does matter, and it’s fuel to the fire,” she said.

In response to VOA’s request for comment, Trump’s presidential campaign shared a statement that Republican National Committee spokesperson Taylor Rogers originally provided to the conservative news site the Daily Caller.

In it, Rogers described Trump as a “champion for free speech” and said that “everyone was safer under President Trump, including journalists.”

Mitigating risk

The hostile environment for journalists comes at a time when trust in media is already at a record low in the U.S., according to Gallup. Attacks or hostile rhetoric against the press only make the situation worse.

So far, the Tracker has documented only a few violations directly related to the election. But, McCudden said, “History tells us that we should be worried and aware.”

She cited the January 6 insurrection on the Capitol, where 18 journalists were assaulted.

It may take a few days for the election results to be confirmed, McCudden said. “And in that time, tensions will be high. And journalists whose job it is to cover these tense times are also often in harm’s way,” she said.

The IWMF’s safety training originally was directed at journalists in combat zones and dangerous regions. But following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when attacks on the media began to rise, the IWMF realized U.S. based journalists would benefit from them, too, according to Munoz.

For Jennifer Thomas, a journalism professor at Howard University in Washington, the training offered her the tools to better help her students to stay safe.

“Back when I was reporting locally and then nationally and covering news, we didn’t have to really be that concerned when we went out to cover an event,” said Thomas, who previously worked at CNN. “Well, times have changed.”

During the training, Thomas and the others were introduced to a range of resources on issues including covering riots and dealing with an arrest. Munoz thinks this information will become all the more important for journalists in the U.S. in years to come.
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How Republican-leaning Arizona became a swing state

There are 50 U.S. states, but voters from seven so-called battleground states are expected to determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. The Southwestern state of Arizona used to reliably lean toward Republican candidates. But President Joe Biden, a Democrat, won the state in 2020. And this year, Arizona’s electoral votes are up for grabs again.
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Harris laying out plan to empower Black men, earn their votes 

washington — Vice President Kamala Harris is announcing a plan to give Black men more economic opportunities and other chances to thrive as she works to energize a key voting bloc that has Democrats concerned about a lack of enthusiasm. 

Harris’ plan includes providing forgivable business loans for Black entrepreneurs, creating more apprenticeships, and studying sickle cell and other diseases that disproportionately affect African American men. 

Harris already has said she supports legalizing marijuana, and her plan calls for working to ensure that Black men have opportunities to participate as a “national cannabis industry takes shape.” She is also calling for better regulation of cryptocurrency to protect Black men and others who invest in digital assets. 

The vice president’s “opportunity agenda for Black men” is meant to invigorate African American males at a moment when there are fears some may sit out the election rather than vote for Harris or her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump. 

The vice president unveiled the plan ahead of a Monday visit to Erie, Pennsylvania, where she planned to visit a Black-owned small business and hold a campaign rally. Her push comes after former President Barack Obama suggested last week that some Black men aren’t comfortable with “the idea of having a woman as president.” 

The Harris campaign has also been working to increase support among other male voting blocs, including Hispanics, by founding the group “Hombres con Harris,” Spanish for “Men with Harris.”

The latest policy rollout is notable because it comes with the stated purpose of motivating Black men to vote mere weeks before Election Day. 

As Harris’ team has done with the “Hombres” group, it plans to organize gender-specific gatherings. Those include “Black Men Huddle Up” events in battleground states featuring African American male celebrities for things like professional and college football game watch parties. The campaign says it also plans new testimonial ads in battleground states that feature local Black male voices. 

‘Tools to thrive’

Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris campaign and a former Louisiana congressman who is Black, said Harris wants to build an economy “where Black men are equipped with the tools to thrive: to buy a home, provide for our families, start a business and build wealth.” 

Black Americans strongly supported Joe Biden when he beat Trump in 2020. Harris advisers say they are less worried about losing large percentages of Black male support to the former president than about some of these voters choosing not to turn out at all. 

Trump, too, has stepped up efforts to win over Black and Hispanic voters of both genders. He has held round-tables with Black entrepreneurs in swing states and will sit for a town hall sponsored by Spanish-language Univision this week. He also has repeatedly suggested that immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally are taking jobs from Black and Hispanic Americans. 

The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey data show that as of 2023, native-born Black workers are most predominantly employed in management and financial operations, sales and office support roles, while native-born Latino workers are most often employed in management, office support, sales and service occupations.

Foreign-born, noncitizen Black workers are most often represented in transportation and health care support roles, and foreign-born, noncitizen Hispanic workers are most often represented in construction, building and grounds cleaning.

Harris’ plan 

Harris’ new round of proposals includes a promise that, if elected, she will help distribute 1 million loans of up to $20,000 that can be fully forgivable to Black entrepreneurs and others who have strong ideas to start businesses. The loans would come via new partnerships between the Small Business Administration and community leaders and banks “with a proven commitment to their communities,” her campaign says. 

The vice president also wants to offer federal incentives to encourage more African American men to train to be teachers, citing statistics that Black males made up only a bit more than 1% of the nation’s public school teaching ranks in 2020-21, according to data from the National Teacher and Principal Survey. 

Harris also is pledging to expand existing federal programs that forgive some educational loans for public service to further encourage more Black male teachers. She also wants to use organizations like the National Urban League, local governments and the private sector to expand apprenticeships and credentialing opportunities in Black communities. 

The vice president’s advisers have been urging her to talk more about cryptocurrency to appeal to male voters. Her campaign said that as president, Harris will back a regulatory framework meant to better protect investors in cryptocurrency and other digital assets, which are popular with Black men. 

Harris also promised to create a national initiative to better fund efforts to detect, research and combat sickle cell disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, mental health challenges and other health issues that disproportionately affect Black men. 

A recent poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found about 7 in 10 Black voters had a favorable view of Harris and preferred her leadership to that of Trump on major policy issues including the economy, health care, abortion, immigration, and the war between Israel and Hamas. There was little difference in support for Harris between Black men and Black women.
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