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US sues Virginia over alleged violation of federal election law

washington — The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday that it had sued the state of Virginia for violating the federal prohibition on systematic efforts to remove voters within 90 days of an election.

On August 7, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order requiring the commissioner of the Department of Elections to certify that the department was conducting “daily updates to the voter list” to remove, among other groups, people who are unable to verify that they are citizens to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

U.S. citizens who were identified and notified and did not affirm their citizenship within 14 days would be removed from the list of registered voters, the Justice Department said. It said this practice has led to citizens having their voter registrations canceled ahead of the November 5 election.

“By canceling voter registrations within 90 days of Election Day, Virginia places qualified voters in jeopardy of being removed from the rolls and creates the risk of confusion for the electorate,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke.

“Congress adopted the National Voter Registration Act’s quiet period restriction to prevent error-prone, eleventh-hour efforts that all too often disenfranchise qualified voters,” Clarke added.

The department said it was seeking injunctive relief that would restore the ability of affected eligible voters to cast their votes unimpeded on Election Day and would prohibit future violations.

Youngkin called the move politically motivated and an attempt to interfere in the election.

“With the support of our attorney general, we will defend these common sense steps that we are legally required to take with every resource available to us,” he said in a statement on Friday.

Republicans across the U.S. have pushed against noncitizen voting, which is already illegal, ahead of the November election. Some election officials have warned that the move could penalize eligible voters.
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Back-to-back hurricanes reshape 2024 campaign’s final stretch

WASHINGTON — A pair of unwelcome and destructive guests named Helene and Milton have stormed their way into this year’s U.S. presidential election.

The back-to-back hurricanes have jumbled the schedules of Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, both of whom devoted part of their recent days to tackling questions about the storm recovery effort.

The two hurricanes are forcing basic questions about who as president would best respond to deadly natural disasters, a once-overlooked issue that has become an increasingly routine part of the job. And just weeks before the November 5 election, the storms have disrupted the mechanics of voting in several key counties.

Vice President Harris is trying to use this as an opportunity to project leadership, appearing alongside President Joe Biden at briefings and calling for bipartisan cooperation. Former President Trump is trying to use the moment to attack the administration’s competence and question whether it is withholding help from Republican areas, despite no evidence of such behavior.

Adding to the pressure is the need to provide more money for the Small Business Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which would require House Republicans to work with the Democratic administration. Biden said Thursday that lawmakers should address the situation immediately.

Timothy Kneeland, a professor at Nazareth University in Rochester, New York, who has studied the issue, said, “Dealing with back-to-back crises will put FEMA under more scrutiny and, therefore, the Biden administration will be under a microscope in the days leading up to the election.

“Vice President Harris must empathize with the victims without altering the campaign schedule and provide consistent messaging on the widespread devastation that makes FEMA’s work even more challenging than normal,” Kneeland said.

Already, Trump and Harris have separately gone to Georgia to assess hurricane damage and pledge support, and Harris has visited North Carolina, requiring the candidates to cancel campaign events elsewhere and use up time that is a precious resource in the final weeks before any election. Georgia and North Carolina are political battlegrounds, raising the stakes.

Campaign language altered

The hurricane fallout is evident in the candidates’ campaign events as well.

On Thursday, the first question Harris got at a Univision town hall in Las Vegas came from a construction worker and undecided voter from Tampa, Florida. Ramiro Gonzalez asked about talk that the administration has not done enough to support people after Helene, and whether the people in Milton’s path would have access to aid — a sign that Trump’s messaging is breaking through with some potential voters.

Harris has called out the level of misinformation being circulated by Republicans, but her fuller answer revealed the dynamics at play just a few weeks before an election.

“I have to stress that this is not a time for people to play politics,” she said.

On the same day, Trump opened his speech at the Detroit Economic Club by praising Republican governors in the affected states and blasting the Biden-Harris administration.

“They’ve let those people suffer unjustly,” he said about those affected by Helene in North Carolina.

Voting systems affected

The storms have also scrambled the voting process in places. North Carolina’s State Board of Elections has passed a resolution to help people in the state’s affected counties vote. Florida will allow some counties greater flexibility in distributing mail-in ballots and changing polling sites for in-person voting. But a federal judge in Georgia said Thursday the state doesn’t need to reopen voter registration despite the disruptions by Helene.

Tension and controversy have begun to override the disaster response, with Biden on Wednesday and Thursday saying that Trump has spread falsehoods that are “un-American.”

Candace Bright Hall-Wurst, a sociology professor at East Tennessee State University, said that natural disasters have become increasingly politicized, often putting more of the focus on the politicians instead of the people in need.

“Disasters are politicized when they have political value to the candidate,” she said. “This does not mean that the politicization is beneficial to victims.”

As the Democratic nominee, Harris has suddenly been a major part of the response to hurricanes, a role that traditionally has not involved vice presidents in prior administrations.

On Thursday, she participated virtually at a Situation Room briefing on Milton while she was in Nevada for campaign activities. She has huddled in meetings about response plans and on Wednesday phoned into CNN live to discuss the administration’s efforts.

At a Wednesday appearance with Biden to discuss Milton ahead of it making landfall, Harris subtly tied back the issues into her campaign policies to stop price gouging on food and other products.

“To any company that — or individual that — might use this crisis to exploit people who are desperate for help through illegal fraud or price gouging — whether it be at the gas pump, the airport or the hotel counter — know that we are monitoring these behaviors and the situation on the ground very closely and anyone taking advantage of consumers will be held accountable,” she said.

Harris warned that Milton “poses extreme danger.” It made landfall in Florida late Wednesday and left more than 3 million without power. But the storm surge never reached the same levels as Helene, which led to roughly 230 fatalities and for a prolonged period left mountainous parts of North Carolina without access to electricity, cell service and roads.

Misinformation about Helene

Trump and his allies have seized on the aftermath of Helene to spread misinformation about the administration’s response. Their debunked claims include statements that victims can only receive $750 in aid, as well as false charges that emergency response funds were diverted to immigrants.

The former president said the administration’s response to Helene was worse than the George W. Bush administration’s widely panned handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which led to nearly 1,400 deaths.

“This hurricane has been a bad one; Kamala Harris has left them stranded,” Trump said at a recent rally in Juneau, Wisconsin. “This is the worst response to a storm or a catastrophe or a hurricane that we’ve ever seen ever. Probably worse than Katrina, and that’s hard to beat, right?”

Asked about the Trump campaign’s strategic thinking on emphasizing the hurricane response, campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it reflects a pattern of “failed leadership” by the Biden administration that also includes the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and security at the U.S. southern border.

John Gasper, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who has researched government responses to natural disasters, said storm victims generally want to ensure foremost that they get the aid they need.

“These disasters essentially end up being good tests of leadership for local, state and federal officials in how they respond,” he said.

But Gasper noted that U.S. politics have gotten so polarized and other issues such as the economy are shaping the election, such that the debate currently generating so much heat between Trump and the Biden administration might not matter that much on Election Day.
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Taylor Swift, Hulk Hogan. Can celebrities sway US voters?

From pop superstar Taylor Swift to former wrestler Hulk Hogan, celebrity endorsements have been a feature of this year’s U.S. presidential race. But whether they will have any kind of impact on the election is difficult to predict. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
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Christian nationalist streak runs through US Republican Party

There is a significantly large group of U.S. voters who believe one religion should dictate the nation’s laws. But that notion is a divisive issue between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans. VOA’s senior Washington correspondent Carolyn Presutti looks into the phenomenon of Christian nationalism. VOA footage by: Mary Cieslak, Saqib Ul Islam, Henry Hernandez.
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Though voter fraud rare, US election offices feature safeguards to catch it

NEW YORK — You’ve heard the horror stories: Someone casting multiple ballots, people voting in the name of dead relatives, mail-in ballots being intercepted. 

Voter fraud does happen occasionally. When it does, we tend to hear a lot about it. It also gets caught and prosecuted. 

The nation’s multilayered election processes provide many safeguards that keep voter fraud generally detectable and rare, according to current and former election administrators of both parties. 

America’s elections are decentralized, with thousands of independent voting jurisdictions. That makes it virtually impossible to pull off a large-scale vote-rigging operation that could tip a presidential race — or almost any other race. 

“You’re probably not going to have a perfect election system,” said Republican Trey Grayson, a former Kentucky secretary of state and the advisory board chair of the Secure Elections Project. “But if you’re looking for one that you should have confidence in, you should feel good about that here in America.” 

What’s stopping people from committing voter fraud? 

Voting more than once, tampering with ballots, lying about your residence to vote somewhere else, or casting someone else’s ballot are crimes that can be punished with hefty fines and prison time. Non-U.S. citizens who break election laws can be deported. 

For anyone still motivated to cheat, election systems in the United States are designed with multiple layers of protection and transparency intended to stand in the way. 

For in-person voting, most states either require or request voters provide some sort of ID at the polls. Others require voters to verify who they are in another way, such as stating their name and address, signing a poll book or signing an affidavit. 

People who try to vote in the name of a recently deceased friend or family member can be caught when election officials update voter lists with death records and obituaries, said Gail Pellerin, a Democratic in the California Assembly who ran elections in Santa Cruz County for more than 27 years. 

Those who try to impersonate someone else run the risk that someone at the polls knows that person or that the person will later try to cast their own ballot, she said. 

What protections exist for absentee voting? 

For absentee voting, different states have different ballot verification protocols. All states require a voter’s signature. Many states have further precautions, such as having bipartisan teams compare the signature with other signatures on file, requiring the signature to be notarized or requiring a witness to sign. 

That means even if a ballot is erroneously sent to someone’s past address and the current resident mails it in, there are checks to alert election workers to the foul play. 

A growing number of states offer online or text-based ballot tracking tools as an extra layer of protection, allowing voters to see when their ballot has been sent out, returned and counted. 

Federal law requires voter list maintenance, and election officials do that through a variety of methods, from checking state and federal databases to collaborating with other states to track voters who have moved. 

Ballot drop boxes have security protocols, too, said Tammy Patrick, chief executive officer for programs at the National Association of Election Officials. 

She explained the boxes are often designed to stop hands from stealing ballots and are surveilled by camera, bolted to the ground and constructed with fire-retardant chambers, so if someone threw in a lit match, it wouldn’t destroy the ballots inside. 

Sometimes, alleged voter fraud isn’t what it seems 

After the 2020 election, social media surged with claims of dead people casting ballots, double voting or destroyed piles of ballots on the side of the road. 

Former President Donald Trump promoted and has continued to amplify these claims. But the vast majority of them were found to be untrue. 

An Associated Press investigation that explored every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by Trump found there were fewer than 475 out of millions of votes cast. That was not nearly enough to tip the outcome. Democrat Joe Biden won the six states by a combined 311,257 votes. 

The review also showed no collusion intended to rig the voting. Virtually every case was based on an individual acting alone to cast additional ballots. In one case, a man mistakenly thought he could vote while on parole. In another, a woman was suspected of sending in a ballot for her dead mother. 

Former election officials say that even more often, allegations of voter fraud turn out to result from a clerical error or a misunderstanding. 

Pellerin said she remembered when a political candidate in her county raised suspicion about many people being registered to vote at the same address. It turned out the voters were nuns who all lived in the same home. 

Patrick said that when she worked in elections in Maricopa County, Arizona, mismatched signatures were sometimes explained by a broken arm or a recent stroke. In other cases, an elderly person tried to vote twice because they forgot they had already submitted a mail ballot. 

“You really have to think about the intent of the voter,” Patrick said. “It isn’t always intuitive.” 

Why voter fraud is unlikely to affect the presidential race 

It would be wrong to suggest that voter fraud never happens. 

With millions of votes cast in an election year, it’s almost guaranteed there will be a few cases of someone trying to game the system. There also have been more insidious efforts, such as a vote-buying scheme in 2006 in Kentucky. 

In that case, Grayson said, voters complained, and an investigation ensued. Then participants admitted what they had done. 

He said the example shows how important it is for election officials to stay vigilant and constantly improve security in order to help voters feel confident. 

But, he said, it would be hard to make any such scheme work on a larger scale. Fraudsters would have to navigate onerous nuances in each county’s election system. They also would have to keep a large number of people quiet about a crime that could be caught at any moment by officials or observers. 

“This decentralized nature of the elections is itself a deterrent,” Grayson said. 
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Last-minute change in US swing state’s election rules alarms some

leesburg, georgia — In the town of Leesburg in the U.S. state of Georgia, slightly more than a dozen election workers sit at card tables, each thumbing through stacks of 50 blank pieces of paper, practicing counting ballots by hand.

With the U.S. presidential vote only weeks away, the Georgia State Election Board, led by a pro-Donald Trump majority, passed a controversial requirement in September that counties manually hand count their ballots, a move that has caused alarm in the closely watched swing state.

Veronica Johnson, who is leading the training session as the Lee County director of elections and registration, says hand counting the ballots is unlikely to pose major operational problems in her small county.

But logistics are far from election officials’ only concern.

Georgia officials from both sides of the political aisle say the count is not only superfluous — machines already count the ballots — but also a potential tool to sow doubt by slowing the process and creating space for disinformation should discrepancies arise via error-prone human counting.

“I don’t feel it’s necessary. I have no problem saying that. I think that at our precincts here in Lee County we’re already balancing our numbers,” Johnson told AFP.

The change is all the most notable given Republican candidate Trump’s alleged election tampering in the state in 2020, pushing for Georgia officials to “find” enough votes to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory.

‘Misguided’

Lee is among Georgia’s 159 counties, which encompass major metropolitan areas such as Atlanta and rural regions like the area surrounding Leesburg, with populations ranging from majority white to majority Black.

Like many of its rural counterparts, Lee County voted heavily in 2020 for Trump, who received 72 percent of its votes.

Poll workers such as those at the training will be stationed across the county’s 10 voting precincts on November 5, when U.S. voters choose between Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, in addition to candidates in hundreds of down-ballot races.

Because of lawsuits, Johnson is unsure if hand counting will actually happen.

“Honestly, every election director I know really just wants to serve the people and not get bogged down by the political ramifications,” she said, emphasizing that ballots are already counted by machine three times.

Calling the rule change “misguided,” Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that “activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures” only “undermine voter confidence and burden election workers,” while Georgia’s Republican attorney general has stated the new rule is likely illegal.

The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia sued to block the rule last week with the Harris campaign’s backing.

‘Untrusting’

The state election board passed the rule by a three-to-two vote — those in favor being staunch Trump backers praised by the ex-president as “pit bulls” fighting for “victory.”

Along the same three-to-two lines, the board passed another rule in August allowing county election boards to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying results.

Like the hand count requirement, the measure is being challenged in court, with critics particularly worried about the vagueness of the word “reasonable.”

Mitchell Brown, director of the election administration program at Auburn University in Alabama, told Agence France-Presse that such a rule is unnecessary given that election officials “have meetings regularly where they go through the documentation and the information with the certifying body.”

“The bigger, more interesting question to me is, what happens if a body chooses not to certify?”

Back in Lee County, Donna Mathis, who has served as a poll worker since 2018, noted that the “country is divided so much.”

Asked about the hand count and reasonable inquiry rule, she said, “the hand count doesn’t bother me” given how quickly they were able to tabulate the votes.

But “I think you can inquire too much, it ties things up,” she added. “People are just so untrusting anymore that they question everything.”
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Wisconsin’s Dane County could hold key to White House

One county in the battleground U.S. state of Wisconsin plays a disproportionate role in deciding whether Democrats or Republicans win the White House in November, analysts say. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias takes us to Dane County, where the fight to sway votes is getting hotter as the election draws near.
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Republicans, Democrats work to preempt fraud claims ahead of election

ANN ARBOR, FLINT AND DETROIT, MICHIGAN — U.S. election officials in battleground states are pushing back against disinformation about election integrity and working to assure Americans that their votes will be counted.

Officials from both major parties in six states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — met in Ann Arbor, Michigan, last month for panel discussions hosted by the nonpartisan group Keep our Republic. The group seeks to educate the American public about threats to the U.S. election system and build trust in the electoral system.

They’re working to avoid a repeat of November 2020 scenes in nearby Detroit and other American cities where supporters of then-President Donald Trump, riled up by his baseless accusations of election fraud, pressured officials to stop counting the votes.

This year, many Trump supporters who spoke with VOA say they worry about fraud in this election.

“Right now, our government, you’re going to question everything about it,” said Marvin Minton, a Trump supporter who attended the Republican presidential nominee’s town hall event in Flint, Michigan, in September. “I wish I could say differently, but that’s not how America feels. We don’t trust nobody.”

Angelina Kandow, who was also at the Flint event, said, “Was [the 2020 election] stolen or not? One case, one case is enough to question the whole system.”

Some Trump supporters quoted alleged instances of 2020 election fraud that were disproven during court cases triggered by the more than 60 lawsuits filed by Republicans and the Trump campaign after that year’s election.

Disinformation around election integrity has gained traction among Republicans, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts poll, released in August.

The poll found 67% of Republicans trust Trump and his campaign for accurate information on the outcome of the election. Only 51% of Republicans said they trust the government’s certification of election results.

In contrast, 87% of Democrats trust government certifications, while 82% trust Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s presidential nominee, and her campaign.

Dangerous disinformation

Officials in battleground states say disinformation can be dangerous.

“They can in some cases lead to people making threats to election officials or worse, based on lies or misinformation they have been told about elections,” said Jonathan Brater, director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections.

“Even if it doesn’t result in any sort of physical violence, it does undermine trust long term in the election system, which is bad for our republic and is bad for our democracy,” he told VOA.

Meagan Wolfe, an election official in Wisconsin, another battleground state, has been targeted with intimidation, even death threats. Republicans loyal to Trump have attempted to oust her over false claims that she helped to rig the 2020 vote in favor of President Joe Biden.

Wolfe encouraged people who don’t trust the election process to become involved.

“They can become a poll worker. They can become a poll observer. They can watch the audits of the voting equipment,” she told VOA.” All of that is open for [the] public to view.”

In many states, efforts to ensure voters that elections are secure are supported by Republicans. Justin Roebuck, a Republican election official in Ottawa County, Michigan, acknowledges it’s an uphill battle.

“Our political leaders at every level need to also seek facts and to seek data,” he told VOA. “And I think until that happens, we will have a problem in terms of our confidence and trust in the process.”

Roebuck said he is working directly with citizens, instead of through the campaigns.

“We have very decentralized elections in the United States. There are always things that we can do better,” he said. “Sometimes we have to work through those challenges and work through those messes.”

Messy in Michigan

It’s already looking like it could become messy in Michigan. Republicans loyal to Trump have sued Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, over absentee ballot processing guidelines and voter registration lists.

“If Jocelyn Benson is not responding to what is required under the law, we will take her to court to get the courts to compel her to do that,” Michigan Republican Party chairperson Pete Hoekstra told VOA.

Benson dismissed it as a Republican strategy to create a “false sense of irregularities in the process.”

“In general, we see lawsuits masquerading as a legal strategy when they’re really a PR strategy to get misinformation or sow seeds of doubt about our elections into the narrative,” she told VOA.

She said that there are “more checks and balances in place than ever before” to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the election process.

Both parties have launched election-related lawsuits in various battleground states, which could mean chaos in the November election.

“Any kind of legal challenge happening this close to an election, typically, is lawyers putting a placeholder in case they may not win in a state or may not have an outcome they like, and it gives them the ability to challenge the election after the fact,” said Kim Wyman, senior fellow with the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Elections Project in Washington.

There are other potential disruptions, including efforts to delay election certification by county officials who support Trump.

“We’ve seen some legal maneuvers and some boards of elections that have changed the rules that allow more scrutiny over the canvas period and the certification of the election,” Wyman told VOA.

After Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 loss culminated in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, Congress sought to prevent such events from recurring by passing the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act.

Mandatory deadline

The reforms set a new mandatory December 11 deadline for states to submit certified slates of presidential electors, provided expedited court access to resolve challenges and raised the threshold for objecting to election results in Congress.

Battleground states Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina have passed legislation to ensure that canvasses, recounts, audits and legal challenges meet the new deadline.

Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have not, leaving their electoral systems vulnerable to partisan lawsuits and political pressures that could force them to miss the certification deadline.

This could leave uncertain the fate of 29 electoral college votes. A presidential candidate needs at least 270 electoral college votes to win.

VOA’s Rivan Dwiastono contributed to this report.
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Razor-thin margins: Why Wisconsin is crucial in the 2024 presidential race

Wisconsin, a Midwestern U.S. state known for its dairy farms and beer production, has emerged as a crucial battleground in the 2024 presidential election. With a history of extremely close races, Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes could determine who becomes the next president. The state’s unique mix of urban and rural voters, along with key issues like the economy and abortion rights, make it a microcosm of the nation’s political divide.
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Republicans, Democrats preempt claims of voter fraud ahead of election

Former U.S. President Donald Trump and many of his supporters claim, without evidence, the 2020 election was stolen and warn that the same could happen in 2024. Democratic and Republican election officials in Michigan dispute those claims and are working to assure Americans that their votes are secure. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara brings us this story from Michigan. Videographer: Rivan Dwiastono
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US bulletin says Iranian hackers targeting political campaigns

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Not all elections look the same. Here are some of the different ways states run their voting

washington — The U.S. general election on Nov. 5 will decide the country’s direction, but it is far from a nationally administered contest. The 50 states and the District of Columbia run their own elections, and each does things a little differently.

Here’s a look at some notable variations in the 2024 election:

Maine and Nebraska allocate electoral votes by congressional district

To win the presidency outright, a candidate must receive at least 270 of the 538 votes in the Electoral College. In 48 states, the statewide winner gets all of that state’s electoral votes, and that’s also the case in the nation’s capital. 

In Maine and Nebraska, the candidate who receives the most votes in each congressional district wins one electoral vote from that district. The candidate who wins the statewide vote receives another two. 

In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden received three of Maine’s four electoral votes because he won the popular vote in the state and its 1st Congressional District. Republican Donald Trump received one electoral vote from the 2nd Congressional District. Trump won four of Nebraska’s five votes for winning the popular vote in the state as well as its 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts; Biden received one electoral vote for winning the 2nd Congressional District. 

Alaska and Maine use ranked choice voting 

In ranked choice voting, voters rank candidates for an office in order of preference on the ballot. If no candidate is the first choice for more than 50% of voters, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Voters who chose that candidate as their top pick have their votes redistributed to their next choice. This continues, with the candidate with the fewest votes getting eliminated, until someone emerges with a majority of votes. 

Maine uses ranked choice voting in state-level primaries and for federal offices in the general election. That means Maine voters can rank presidential, Senate and House candidates on ballots that include the Democrat and the Republican who advanced out of their respective party primaries, plus third-party and independent candidates who qualify. 

The presidential ballot will include Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, plus three other candidates. In the six years since implementing ranked choice voting, the state has used it twice in races for Congress in its 2nd Congressional District. The 2020 presidential race did not advance to ranked choice voting, with the winners of the state and in each congressional district exceeding 52% of the vote. 

Alaska holds open primaries for statewide offices and sends the top four vote-getters, regardless of party, to the general election, where the winner is decided using ranked choice voting. In all legislative and statewide executive offices, Alaskans can rank up to four names that can include multiple candidates from the same party. 

The exception is the presidency, which is eligible for ranked choice voting in Alaska for the first time. This year, there will be eight presidential tickets on the ballot, and Alaskans can rank all candidates if they choose to. The last time the winner of the presidential contest in Alaska failed to surpass 50% of the vote was in 1992, when third-party candidate Ross Perot won almost 20% of the national popular vote. 

But in 2022, both Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski won their elections after both went to ranked choice voting. 

Another wrinkle this year? In Alaska, where ranked choice voting was implemented by ballot measure in 2020, there’s a voter initiative on the ballot this fall to repeal it. 

In California and Washington, candidates from the same party can face off 

California and Washington hold open primaries in which all candidates run on the same ballot and the two top vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party. This year, there are two House races in Washington that include candidates of the same party, one with two Republicans and one with two Democrats. There are four in California: three with only Democrats and one with only Republicans. 

The winning party in those six districts will be reflected in The Associated Press’ online graphic showing the balance of power in the House at poll close, rather than once a winner is declared because the party of the winner is a foregone conclusion. 

Louisiana holds a ‘primary’ on Nov. 5 

Louisiana holds what it refers to as its “open primaries” on the same day the rest of the country holds its general election. In Louisiana, all candidates run on the same open primary ballot. Any candidate who earns more than 50% of the vote in the primary wins the seat outright. 

If no candidate exceeds 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters advance to a head-to-head runoff, which can end up pitting two Republicans or two Democrats against each other. Louisiana refers to these contests as its “general election.” 

That will change for elections for the U.S. House starting in 2026 when congressional races will have earlier primaries that are open only to registered members of a party. Certain state races will continue to hold open primaries in November, but the change will prevent future members of Congress from waiting until December — a month later than the rest of the country — to know whether they are headed to Washington. 

Nebraska has two competing abortion measures on the ballot, but only one can be enacted 

In Nebraska, any measure that receives approximately 123,000 valid signatures qualifies for the ballot. This year, two measures relating to abortion met this threshold. 

One would enshrine in the Nebraska Constitution the right to have an abortion until fetal viability or later, to protect the health of the pregnant woman. The other would write into the constitution the current 12-week ban, with exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the pregnant woman. 

This marks the first time since the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade that a state has measures that seek to roll back abortion rights and protect abortion rights on the ballot at the same time. 

It’s possible voters could end up approving both measures. But because they’re competing and therefore cannot both be enshrined in the constitution, the measure with the most “for” votes will be the one adopted, according to the Nebraska secretary of state. 

Georgia holds runoff elections if a candidate doesn’t win a majority of votes 

In primary elections, a handful of states, mostly in the South, go to runoffs if no candidate receives at least 50% of the vote. In races with more than two candidates, runoffs in those states are common. Several states held primary runoffs this year. 

Georgia uses the same rules in general elections. The last three Senate races there went to runoffs because a third-party candidate won enough of the vote to prevent the Republican or Democratic nominee from exceeding 50% of the vote. 

But this year, runoff possibilities may be confined to downballot races such as state legislature. There’s no Senate race there this year, and the U.S. House races have only two candidates on the ballot. 

Texas, Florida and Michigan report a lot of votes before final polls are closed 

This is common in states that span multiple time zones. In most states, polls close at the same time in each time zone. 

The AP will not call the winner of a race before all the polls in a jurisdiction are scheduled to close, even if votes already reported before that time make clear who will win the race. So if there is a statewide race in a state where polls close at 8 p.m. local time, but some of the state is in the Eastern time zone and some of the state is in Central time zone, the earliest the AP can call the winner is 8 p.m. CST/9 p.m. EST. 

The AP will still show the results as they arrive from counties with closed polls. 

Some of the biggest states with split poll close times are Florida, Michigan, Texas and Oregon. Tennessee is an exception, as even though the state is in both the Eastern and the Central time zones, all counties coordinate their voting to conclude at the same time. 
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Native American vote could swing the election — but in which direction?

WASHINGTON — In the final weeks of the 2024 election, Native American organizers are intensifying efforts to increase voter turnout, recognizing the impact of the Native vote, especially in swing states like Arizona and Wisconsin.

Advocacy groups like the Native American Rights Fund continue to address barriers to the ballot box, such as isolation, poor infrastructure and limited internet access, along with restrictions on in-person voter registration and early voting.

New challenges in Arizona

Arizona, home to 22 Native tribes, played a key role in the 2020 Democratic victory.

However, a recent voter registration glitch in the state may affect up to 218,000 voters, more than double previous estimates. The issue stems from an error in the driver’s license database that flagged some individuals as having proved citizenship when they had not.

A recording obtained by The Washington Post revealed concerns among Arizona Democratic leaders about how resolving the error could either disenfranchise voters or spark conspiracy theories. Despite the glitch, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that those affected can still vote in federal and state elections.

Jaynie Parrish, executive director of Arizona Native Vote, said the impact on Native voters remains unclear. She stressed that Native Americans face ongoing challenges when voting, including Arizona’s requirement to show proof of a physical address at the polls.

“We rely on post office boxes,” Parrish said, explaining that early voters can use a driver’s license or tribal I.D. “We just have to keep reminding our community what identification they need for Election Day. Our best defense is offense.”

Voting based on issues, not party

University of New Mexico Professor Gabriel R. Sanchez said Native American voting preferences haven’t been well-studied.

“The assumption that they are overwhelmingly Democrat isn’t backed by data,” Sanchez told VOA.

His polling shows the majority of Native voters lean Democratic but not as strongly as other minority groups like Black and Latino voters. In the 2020 election, 60% of Native Americans supported Joe Biden, but this dropped slightly by 2022.

“Native voters tell us they aren’t really partisan,” Sanchez said. “They evaluate which party better addresses tribal issues each election cycle.”

As an example, in an editorial Monday in the Navajo Times, Francine Bradley-Arthur, a Navajo organizer and co-founder of Freedom House in St. Michaels, Arizona, explains why many Navajos support Donald Trump.

“In Navajo culture, life is sacred, including life in the womb,” she writes. “Trump’s administration upheld pro-life values that resonate deeply with our traditions.”

She recalls that as attorney general of California, Kamala Harris opposed “at least 15 tribal land-into-trust applications,” undermining the tribes’ ability to reclaim lost land.

The Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign this week launched an initiative to better engage Native communities through culturally appropriate outreach. Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan announced the program Wednesday during an October 2 event hosted by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.

“Vice President Harris has been a fierce advocate for tribal sovereignty, working to secure funding for health care, education and economic development that truly empowers our communities. … And let’s not forget her running mate, who I have the privilege of knowing a thing or two about,” Flanagan told reporters during a press call later in the day.

Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, was elected alongside Governor Tim Walz in 2018 and reelected in 2022. Native American voters are mindful that if the Harris-Walz ticket succeeds, she would become the first Native American woman to serve as a state governor.

VP candidates’ debate

On October 1, vice presidential candidates Walz and JD Vance debated key topics like immigration and abortion. Native commentators expressed disappointment on a Facebook discussion hosted by Native News Online, noting the debate overlooked issues crucial to Native voters, such as tribal sovereignty and climate change.

Judith LeBlanc, Caddo Tribe member and director of the Native Organizers Alliance, said she was disappointed Walz didn’t highlight his work with Flanagan.

Aaron Payment, former chair of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, pointed out that Native voters in swing states can help Democrats win.

“Are candidates concerned that if they start talking pro-Indian, then all of a sudden they’re going to be considered radical or … in the back pocket of American Indians?” Payment asked.

Trump’s proposal

The candidates did discuss Trump’s plan to open federal land for housing construction. LeBlanc criticized this proposal in a Native News Online editorial, calling it an overreach and warning that it could lead to seizing tribal lands for development.

During the Facebook discussion, Levi Rickert, editor of Native News Online, shifted focus to the Montana Senate debate between Jon Tester and Republican Tim Sheehy.

Sheehy has faced criticism for past racially charged remarks about the Crow Tribe.Tester confronted Sheehy, telling him to apologize for his comments. Sheehy admitted his remarks were insensitive, blaming them on military culture.

Payment noted that Sheehy’s support has increased in Montana, but with Native Americans making up 6.4% of the vote, it could still swing.
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Do prediction markets have a future in US elections?

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US warns voters of disinformation deluge

WASHINGTON — American voters are likely about to be swamped by a flood of misinformation and influence campaigns engineered by U.S. adversaries aiming, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials, to sway the results of the upcoming presidential election and cast doubt on the process itself.

The latest assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, issued Monday, comes just 29 days before the November 5 election that will see U.S. voters choose the country’s next president and cast ballots in hundreds of other state and local races. 

“We’ve continued to see actors ramp up their activities as we get closer to Election Day,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity.

“They recognize that individuals are already voting, and operations can have a greater impact as we get closer to Election Day,” the official said, noting that the election itself may just be a starting point.

“The intelligence community expects foreign influence actors to continue their campaigns by calling into question the validity of the election results after the polls close,” the official added.

A second U.S. intelligence official warned the pace of such influence efforts, especially those targeting specific races or political campaigns, has also picked up.

“We have had more than a threefold increase,” the official said, explaining that the number of private briefings to candidates and campaigns has likewise jumped.

Intelligence agencies also cautioned that U.S. adversaries will likely seize upon the damage done by Hurricane Helene and potential damage from Hurricane Milton as it strengthens off the U.S. coastline to further amplify and manufacture narratives meant to undermine confidence in the election results.

“It does take time for those types of narratives to be formed and put out into the wild, so to speak,” the first intelligence official said. “But we certainly expect foreign countries to take advantage of such situations and promote further divisive rhetoric.”

Monday’s assessment follows a series of earlier public warnings about foreign efforts to meddle in the U.S. election.

U.S. officials said Monday that Russia, Iran and China continue to be responsible for most of the influence efforts targeting U.S. voters.

And, they said, there have been no indications that any of those countries have changed their goals. 

Russia, they said, continues to run influence campaigns aimed at boosting the chances of former U.S. President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, while seeking to hurt the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.

Iran’s efforts remain focused on helping Harris by hurting Trump, they said, pointing to the ongoing hack-and-leak operation against the Trump campaign, which has been traced to three operatives working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Targeting state, local races

U.S. intelligence agencies assess that China has yet to wade into the U.S. presidential campaign, focusing instead on persuading American voters to reject state and local candidates perceived as detrimental to Beijing’s interests, especially those voicing support for Taiwan. 

But the latest public assessment pointed to some changes.

U.S. intelligence officials on Monday warned that Russia and Cuba have joined China, in targeting congressional, state and local races.

“Moscow is leveraging a wide range of influence actors in an effort to influence congressional races, particularly to encourage the U.S. public to oppose pro-Ukraine policies and politicians,” the intelligence official said.

“Havana almost certainly has considered influence efforts targeting some candidates,” the official added. “This is consistent with what they’ve done in past cycles.”

Russia, China and Iran have all rejected previous U.S. accusations of election meddling. Russia, Iran and Cuba have yet to respond to requests from VOA for comment on the latest U.S. findings.

China late Monday again dismissed the U.S. concerns.

“China is not interested in the U.S. congressional election, and we have no intention and will not interfere in it,” Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA in an email.

“Some U.S. congressmen stick to their wrong positions on the Taiwan question,” Liu added. “China firmly defends its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, but this does not lead to the conclusion that China has interfered in the congressional elections.”

But the U.S. intelligence assessments align with concerns voiced by some lawmakers and private technology companies.

“The 48 hours after the polls close, especially if we have as close an election as we anticipate, could be equally if not more significant in terms of spreading false information, disinformation and literally undermining the tenets of our democracy,” Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said during a hearing last month.

‘Vigorous activity’ 

Microsoft President Brad Smith, who has warned that the most perilous moments could come in the 48 hours before the U.S. election, separately said the increase in malign cyber efforts by Russia and Iran, especially, is undeniable.

“We’re seeing vigorous activity,” Smith told a cyber conference last month. “We’re seeing the Iranians really target the Republican Party in the Trump campaign,” he said. “We’re seeing the Russians target the Democratic Party and now the Harris campaign.”

And it is unclear what impact the U.S. has made with its attempts to counter the growing number of foreign influence efforts.

Last month, the U.S. Justice Department seized 32 internet domains used by companies linked to Moscow to spread disinformation. At the same time, the department indicted employees of the state-controlled media outlet RT in connection with a plot to launder Russian propaganda through a U.S.-based media company.

U.S. intelligence officials on Monday, however, said such tactics are no longer unique to the Kremlin. 

“Foreign influence actors are getting better at hiding their hand and using Americans to do it,” said one of the U.S. intelligence officials. “Foreign countries calculate that Americans are more likely to believe other Americans compared to content with clear signs of foreign propaganda.”

Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that social media is rife with fake personas generated by U.S. adversaries.

“If you’re looking at stuff on Twitter, on TikTok, on Facebook, on Instagram, and it’s political in nature … there is a very reasonable chance — I would put it in the 20 to 30% range — that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China,” he said. “It’s not going to stop on November 5.”
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North Carolina changes election rules to help voters hit by Hurricane Helene 

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Trump, Harris mark somber anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are marking the anniversary of the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust as the presidential candidates approach the final weeks of the campaign during a widening conflict in the Middle East.

Political leaders across the spectrum were marking the killing of about 1,200 people, including 46 U.S. citizens, by Hamas-led militants in the October 7 attack last year, and the taking of about 250 hostages. A year later, about 100 people, including several Americans, remain in captivity, as U.S.-led efforts to negotiate a cease-fire and hostage release deal have sputtered out.

Trump visited the New York City gravesite of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who led the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Orthodox Judaism from 1951 until his death in 1994. Schneerson was the movement’s seventh leader, known as Lubavitcher Rebbe. Trump then will speak before Jewish community leaders at one of his Florida resorts in the Miami suburb of Doral.

Harris and her husband planted a pomegranate tree on the grounds of the vice president’s residence in honor of the those killed a year ago.

Earlier Monday, Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, recited a prayer for peace at an event to commemorate the anniversary hosted by the American Jewish Committee in Washington.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden also hosted a somber memorial ceremony at the White House Monday to mark the anniversary of the attack. The Bidens looked on as Rabbi Aaron Alexander of Washington’s Adas Israel Congregation recited the Jewish remembrance prayer for the more than 1,200 people, including dozens of Americans, killed that day, listing the towns, villages and festival site that were the scenes of the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

The president then lit a lone memorial candle placed on a small table at the center of the Blue Room, before they observed a moment of silence.

Earlier in the day, Biden spoke with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, the White House said.

The attack sparked a deadly war in Gaza, as Israel moved to root out Hamas’ control over the territory and try to return those taken captive. Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, including many women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians.

Another Iran-backed group, Hezbollah, has fired thousands of rockets at Israeli territory in the same period from Lebanon, and Israel last month expanded a campaign of sabotage and assassination and launched a ground incursion into Lebanon to combat the threat from the group.

In 1997, the U.S. State Department designated both Hezbollah and Hamas as foreign terrorist organizations. Many other countries also label them as terrorist groups, although some apply the designation only to their military wings.
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For US adversaries, Election Day won’t mean end to efforts to influence Americans

Washington — Soon, the ballots will be cast, the polls will close and a campaign marked by assassination attempts, animosity and anxiety will come to an end. But for U.S. adversaries, the work to meddle with American democracy may be entering its most critical phase.

Despite all the attention on efforts to spread disinformation in the months before the Nov. 5 election, the hours and days immediately after voting ends could offer foreign adversaries like Russia, Iran and China or domestic extremist groups the best chance to mess with America’s decision.

That’s when Americans will go online to see the latest results or share their opinions as the votes are tabulated. And that’s when a fuzzy photo or AI-generated video of supposed vote tampering could do its most damage, potentially transforming online outrage into real-world action before authorities have time to investigate the facts.

It’s a threat taken seriously by intelligence analysts, elected officials and tech executives, who say that while there’s already been a steady buildup of disinformation and influence operations, the worst may be yet to come.

“It’s not like at the end of election night, particularly assuming how close this election will be, that this will be over,” said Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. “One of my greatest concerns is the level of misinformation, disinformation that may come from our adversaries after the polls close could actually be as significant as anything that happens up to the closing of the polls.”

Analysts are blunter, warning that a particularly effective piece of disinformation could be devastating to public confidence in the election if spread in the hours after the polls close, and if the group behind the campaign knows to target a particularly important swing state or voting bloc.

Possible scenarios include out-of-context footage of election workers repurposed to show supposed fraud, a deepfake video of a presidential candidate admitting to cheating or a robocall directed at non-English speakers warning them not to vote.

When a false or misleading claim circulates weeks before the election, there’s time for local election officials, law enforcement or news organizations to gather the facts, correct any falsehoods and get the word out. But if someone spreads a deceptive video or photo designed to make a big chunk of the electorate distrust the results the day after the election, it can be hard or even impossible for the truth to catch up.

It happened four years ago, when a drumbeat of lies about the 2020 results spurred the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Often, those arrested on accusations of trying to interfere with the transfer of power have cited debunked election fraud narratives that circulated shortly after Election Day.

An especially close election decided in a handful of swing states could heighten that risk even further, making it more likely that a rumor about suitcases of illegal ballots in Georgia, to cite an example from 2020, could have a big impact on perceptions.

President Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in 2020 wasn’t especially close, and no irregularities big enough to affect the result were found — and yet false claims about vote-rigging were still widely believed by many supporters of the Republican, who’s running for president again.

The relatively long run-up to Inauguration Day on Jan. 20 gives those looking to sow doubt about the results ample time to do so, whether they are propaganda agencies in Moscow or extremist groups in the U.S. like the Proud Boys.

Ryan LaSalle, CEO of the cybersecurity firm Nisos, said he won’t feel relief until a new president is sworn in without any serious problems.

“The time to stay most focused is right now through the peaceful transfer of power,” LaSalle said. “That’s when real-life activities could happen, and that’s when they would have the greatest chance of having an impact on that peaceful transfer.”

Another risk, according to officials and tech companies, is that Russia or another adversary would try to hack into a local or state election system — not necessarily to change votes, but as a way of making voters question the security of the system.

“The most perilous time I think will come 48 hours before the election,” Microsoft President Brad Smith told lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee last month. The hearing focused on American tech companies’ efforts to safeguard the election from foreign disinformation and cyberattacks.

Election disinformation first emerged as a potent threat in 2016, when Russia hacked into the campaign of Democrat Hillary Clinton and created networks of fake social media accounts to pump out disinformation.

The threat has only grown as social media has become a leading source of information and news for many voters. Content designed to divide Americans and make them mistrust their own institutions is no longer tied only to election seasons. Intelligence officials say Russia, China and other countries will only expand their use of online disinformation and propaganda going forward, a long-range strategy that looks beyond any one election or candidate.

Despite the challenges, election security officials are quick to reassure Americans that the U.S. election system is impervious to any attack that could alter the outcome of the vote. While influence operations may seek to spread distrust about the results, improvements to the system make it stronger than ever when it comes to efforts to change votes.

“Malicious actors, even if they tried, could not have an impact at scale such that there would be a material effect on the outcome of the election,” Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told The Associated Press.
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Famous firsts for US presidents

U.S. history is filled with presidential feats that were the first of their kind. Here is a look at some of the U.S. presidents and the milestones they set.
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Trump holds rally at site of 1st assassination attempt; Harris readies for media appearances

With less than a month to go until the U.S. presidential election, the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees have a busy week ahead. Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are both scheduled to continue rallying supporters in key states, amid warnings that the rhetoric is becoming more inflammatory. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
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Trump returns to site of first assassination attempt for campaign rally

BUTLER, Pennsylvania — Donald Trump returned on Saturday to the Pennsylvania fairgrounds where he was nearly assassinated in July, holding a sprawling rally before a massive crowd in a critical swing state Trump hopes to return to his column in November’s election.

The former president and Republican nominee picked up where he left off in July when a gunman tried to assassinate him and struck his ear. He began his speech with, “As I was saying,” and gestured toward an immigration chart he was looking at when the gunfire began.

The Trump campaign worked to maximize the event’s headline-grabbing potential with just 30 days to go and voting already underway in some states in his race against his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Musician Lee Greenwood appeared on stage and serenaded him with God Bless the USA, frequently played at his rallies, and billionaire Elon Musk spoke for the first time at a Trump rally.

“We fought together. We have endured together. We have pushed onward together,” Trump said. “And right here in Pennsylvania, we have bled together. We’ve bled.”

‘This is a must-win’

Trump needs to drive up voter turnout in conservative strongholds like Butler County, an overwhelmingly white, rural-suburban community, if he wants to win Pennsylvania in November. Harris, too, has targeted her campaign efforts at Pennsylvania, rallying there repeatedly as part of her aggressive outreach in critical swing states.

At the beginning of the rally, Trump asked for a moment of silence to honor firefighter Corey Comperatore, who died as he shielded family members from gunfire. Opera singer Christopher Macchio sang Ave Maria after a bell rung at the same time that gunfire began on July 13.

Standing behind protective glass that now encases the stage at his outdoor rallies, Trump called the would-be assassin “a vicious monster” and said he did not succeed “by the hand of providence and the grace of God.” There was a very visible heightened security presence, with armed law enforcers in camouflage uniforms on roofs.

One of the most anticipated guests of the evening was Musk, who climbed onto the stage on Saturday jumping and pumping his fists in the air after Trump introduced him as a “great gentleman” and said he “saved free speech.”

“President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution. He must win to preserve democracy in America,” said Musk, who endorsed Trump after the assassination attempt. “This is a must-win situation.”

Musk, who bought Twitter and rebranded it as X and has embraced conservative politics, met with Trump and Vance backstage, donning a black “Make America Great Again” hat. A billboard on the way into the rally said, “IN MUSK WE TRUST,” and showed his photo.

Earlier on Saturday, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, got on stage and reflected on the events that day while criticizing Democrats for calling Trump “a threat to democracy,” saying that kind of language is “inflammatory.”

“You heard the shots. You saw the blood. We all feared the worst. But you knew everything would be OK when President Trump raised his fist high in the air and shouted, ‘Fight, fight!'” said Vance. “Now I believe it as sure as I’m standing here today that what happened was a true miracle.”

Crowds pack stands

Crowds were lined up as the sun rose Saturday. The crowd packed bleachers, folding chairs and the field stretching to the venue’s edges. Area hotels, motels and inns were said to be full and some rallygoers arrived Friday.

Much of the crowd waited several hours for Trump. About half an hour into his speech, Trump paused his speech for more than five minutes after an attendee had a medical issue and needed a medic.

Trump used the event to remember Comperatore, the volunteer firefighter struck and killed at the July 13 rally, and to recognize the two other rallygoers injured, David Dutch and James Copenhaver. They and Trump were struck when 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, opened fire from an unsecured rooftop nearby before he was fatally shot by sharpshooters.

The building from which Crooks fired was completely obscured by tractor-trailers, a large grassy perimeter and a fence. Most bleachers were now at the sides, rather than behind Trump.

How Crooks managed to outmaneuver law enforcement that day and scramble on top of a building within easy shooting distance of the ex-president is among many questions that remain unanswered about the worst Secret Service security failure in decades. Another is his motive.

Butler County District Attorney Rich Goldinger told WPXI-TV this week that “everyone is doubling down on their efforts to make sure this is done safely and correctly.”

Mike Slupe, the county sheriff, told the station he estimates the Secret Service, was deploying “quadruple the assets” it did in July. The agency has undergone a painful reckoning over its handling of two attempts on Trump’s life.

‘I believe God’s got Trump’

Butler County, on the western edge of a coveted presidential swing state, is a Trump stronghold. He won the county with about 66% of the vote in both 2016 and 2020. About 57% of the county’s 139,000 registered voters are Republicans, compared with about 29% who are Democrats and 14% something else.

Chris Harpster, 30, of Tyrone, Pennsylvania, was accompanied by his girlfriend on Saturday as he returned to the scene. Of July 13, he said, “I was afraid” — as were his parents, watching at home, who texted him immediately after the shots rang out.

Heightened security measures were making him feel better now, as well as the presence of his girlfriend, a first-time rallygoer. Harpster said he will be a third-time Trump voter in November, based on the Republican nominee’s stances on immigration, guns, abortion and energy. Harpster said he hopes Pennsylvania will go Republican, particularly out of concern over gas and oil industry jobs.

Other townspeople were divided over the value of Trump’s return. Heidi Priest, a Butler resident who started a Facebook group supporting Harris, said Trump’s last visit fanned political tensions in the city.

“Whenever you see people supporting him and getting excited about him being here, it scares the people who don’t want to see him reelected,” she said.

Terri Palmquist came from Bakersfield, California, and said her 18-year-old daughter tried to dissuade her. “I just figure we need to not let fear control us. That’s what the other side wants is fear. If fear controls us, we lose,” she said.

She said she was not worried about her own safety.

“Honesty, I believe God’s got Trump, for some reason. I do. So we’re rooting for him.” 
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Nearly 24M immigrants eligible to vote in U.S. election

In the United States, nearly 24 million immigrants are eligible to vote in November’s presidential election, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. census data. VOA’s Jeff Swicord spoke with two naturalized citizens about the choices they are making in this vote.
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Harris discusses US policies on Gaza, Lebanon with Arab Americans in Michigan

washington — Vice President Kamala Harris met briefly with a group of Arab Americans in Flint, Michigan, on Friday, as her campaign aims to build support with communities outraged by the administration’s response to the war in Gaza and the expanding conflict in Lebanon.

“The vice president heard directly their perspectives on the election and the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon,” her campaign said in a statement.

Harris “expressed her concern over the scale of suffering in Gaza” and discussed “her efforts to end the war” and to prevent regional war, the campaign statement said.

On Lebanon, Harris expressed “concern about civilian casualties and displacement” and reiterated the administration’s position that “a diplomatic solution is the best path to achieve stability and protect civilians.”

Michigan, a key battleground state, is home to almost 400,000 Arab Americans, the highest in the country by percentage, according to the Arab American Institute.

Neither the Harris campaign nor the vice president’s office provided the list of participants. However, Edward Gabriel, president of the American Task Force on Lebanon, said he took part in the meeting.

“We discussed the need for a cease-fire and the support needed from the United States and its allies to address the humanitarian crisis, the presidential leadership void in Lebanon, and the important role of the Lebanese armed forces,” he told VOA. “This was a valuable two-sided exchange, and we made important progress in our relationship.”

Also participating were representatives from Emgage, a Muslim American advocacy group that endorsed Harris in September, citing the danger of “Trump’s brand of authoritarianism” for “Muslim Americans, America and the world.”

In its endorsement, the group noted its support did not equal “an agreement with Vice President Harris on all issues, but rather, an honest guidance to our voters regarding the difficult choice they confront at the ballot box.”

Pro-Palestinian groups excluded

Harris’ meeting did not include the Uncommitted National Movement and Abandon Harris, two pro-Palestinian activist groups that have been pushing for change in the administration’s policies on Gaza.

“We weren’t invited,” said Layla Elabed, a spokesperson for Uncommitted National Movement, the group that helped organize more than 100,000 Michiganders to vote “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary election to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s military campaign.

Hudhayfah Ahmad, a spokesperson for the Abandon Harris campaign, a group that is actively working to defeat Harris in Michigan and other battleground states in protest of U.S. Gaza policies, said the only path forward is to hold the administration and the Harris campaign accountable.

“We’ve remained firm in our position that we will not meet with the vice president or anyone from her campaign team, as that opportunity has passed,” he told VOA.

The Flint meeting showed the group’s pressure on the Harris campaign is working, Elabed told VOA. However, she added, the campaign should heed the group’s request for Harris to meet “everyday Americans whose loved ones are being impacted by this administration’s policy to continue supplying the bombs and weapons to Israel that are killing Palestinians and now Lebanese people, including Americans in Gaza and Lebanon.”

In the past two weeks, Israel’s military campaign targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has killed hundreds, including Kamel Ahmad Jawad, an American from the nearby city of Dearborn, Michigan.

Earlier this week, Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, spoke to a Muslim group focused on activities to increase voter turnout. Harris’ national security adviser, Phil Gordon, also met virtually with Muslim and Arab community leaders Wednesday.

With the exception of the Arab American Institute and the American Task Force on Lebanon, Gordon’s engagements did not include major Muslim and Arab groups.

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, who participated in the eight-person engagement with Gordon, told VOA it did not include representatives of the community.

The vice president’s office did not respond to queries on why these groups were excluded from the Flint meeting.

A campaign spokesperson, however, said Harris was “committed to work to earn every vote, unite our country, and to be a president for all Americans.”

“Throughout her career, Vice President Harris has been steadfast in her support of our country’s diverse Muslim community, ensuring first and foremost that they can live free from the hateful policies of the Trump administration,” the spokesperson told VOA.

“She will continue working to bring the war in Gaza to an end in a way where Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”

Harris’ outreach efforts come as a new poll indicates Arab American support for the Democratic presidential nominee is virtually tied with that for the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.

Vote evenly split

On Wednesday, the Arab American Institute released a nationwide poll of 500 Arab American registered voters that indicated support for Trump stood at 42%. For Harris, it was 41%.

Among those who said they were very likely to vote, Trump led Harris 46% to 42%.

The poll suggested the administration’s handling of the crisis in Gaza has eroded the community’s support for Democrats, whom they traditionally back. Arab Americans now are evenly divided between the two parties: 38% for each.

Trump has also been courting Arab and Muslim voters. He has won the support of Amer Ghalib, the Yemeni American mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan. The city is home to about 30,000 people, almost half of them Muslim, and it is the only city in the U.S. to have an all-Muslim city council.

“Endorsing President Trump was a combination of disappointment and hope,” Ghalib told VOA. “Disappointed at the current administration’s policies domestically and internationally, and in hope that President Trump will come to fix things up, end the chaos in the Middle East and restore peace everywhere, as well as preventing our economy from further deterioration.”

Ghalib’s endorsement came last month following his meeting with Trump, also in Flint, Michigan.
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Trump, Harris enter last month of campaigning

There is just one month to go in the U.S. presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns looks at the state of the race.
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Major Arab, Muslim, Palestinian American groups say they were excluded from Harris’ Middle East outreach 

washington — Major Muslim and Arab American organizations and pro-Palestinian activist groups say they were excluded from Vice President Kamala Harris’ office’s outreach to community leaders on the administration’s efforts to contain the widening conflict in the Middle East.

On Wednesday, the White House announced that Phil Gordon, Harris’ national security adviser, met virtually with “Muslim, Arab and Palestinian American community leaders from across the United States” to discuss the administration’s efforts to end the war in Gaza.

In a statement, the White House said Gordon “expressed concern for civilians in Lebanon” and about Israeli “actions that undermine peace, security and stability in the West Bank.”

The meeting appeared to be an attempt to repair ties with Arab, Palestinian and Muslim communities who are outraged about the administration’s continued support for Israel in the war against Hamas, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and left a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

However, none of the major community groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council, were invited. Neither were the Uncommitted National Movement and Abandon Harris, the two pro-Palestinian activist groups that have been pushing for change in the administration’s policies on Gaza.

Community leaders of prominent groups in the Washington area, including MakeSpace, the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center and the Mustafa Center, were also not invited.

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, participated in the eight-person engagement with Gordon. He said the meeting was “irritating,” as it did not include representatives of the community.

“We were told an Arab American meeting. We were told a Muslim meeting. It was none of the above,” Zogby told VOA. “There were no Palestinian leaders. There were some Palestinian Americans, but there were no organizations representing Palestinian Americans.”

The White House, the vice president’s office and the Harris campaign did not respond to VOA’s queries.

Zogby said he felt “blindsided” by the event, characterizing it as a “check the box” engagement with the community. He said the administration missed an opportunity by not inviting the list of people the community had recommended to be included.

“There were only two of us out of the eight who headed any organization at all,” he said.

Edward Gabriel, president of the American Task Force on Lebanon, said that the VP’s office has engaged him in “nearly a dozen” meetings, including the one with Gordon this week.

“Our meetings continue to be positive,” he wrote to VOA. “We have expressed to the vice president and her team the importance of now providing our community with a clear message on the need for ending this war and helping those Lebanese citizens most affected by the conflict.”

In the past two weeks, Israel’s military campaign targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has killed hundreds, wounded thousands and displaced over a million people. The victims included Kamel Ahmad Jawad, an American from Dearborn, Michigan.

Gabriel said Biden’s stance on the widening of Israel’s campaign to Lebanon to date “has not been well received by the Lebanese American community, as there was no sense of compassion expressed for the loss of life of innocent citizens, especially women and children.”

Virtually tied

Harris’ outreach efforts come as a new poll showed that Arab American support for the Democratic presidential nominee is virtually tied with that for the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.

The Arab American Institute on Wednesday released a nationwide poll of 500 Arab American registered voters that showed support for Trump stood at 42%. For Harris, it was 41%.

Among those who said they were very likely to vote, Trump led Harris 46% to 42%.

The poll suggested the administration’s handling of the crisis in Gaza has eroded the community’s support for Democrats, whom it traditionally backs. Arab Americans were evenly divided between the two parties, with 38% for each.

The U.S. is home to roughly 3.5 million Arab Americans, according to the latest census. The U.S. Census Bureau does not count population based on religious beliefs, but various sources show an estimated 4 million to 6 million Muslim Americans.

That’s a very small percentage of the 337 million total U.S. population. However, since Arab Americans are concentrated in a few states such as California and Michigan, they may play an outsized role in next month’s election.

This may be seen especially in Michigan, a battleground state with the largest percentage of Arab Americans. Biden won the state in 2020 with only 154,000 votes more than Trump. In 2016, Trump won the state over Hillary Clinton by just under 11,000 votes.

More than 100,000 Michiganders voted “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s military campaign — votes that could be up for grabs for Trump.

Trump courting community

Trump has been courting Arab and Muslim voters and has won the support of Amer Ghalib, the Yemeni American mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan. The city is home to 30,000 people, almost half of them Muslim, and is the only city in the country to have an all-Muslim city council.

“Endorsing President Trump was a combination of disappointment and hope,” Ghalib told VOA. “Disappointed at the current administration’s policies domestically and internationally, and in hope that President Trump will come to fix things up, end the chaos in the Middle East and restore peace everywhere, as well as preventing our economy from further deterioration.”

Ghalib’s endorsement came last month following his meeting with Trump, who held a campaign event in the nearby city of Flint.

On cultural issues such as LGBTQ rights and the right to abortion, Ghalib and many of his constituents are more aligned with the Republican Party. He has supported conservative measures taken by his city council, including a 2023 ban on Pride flags on city property — a move that angered members and allies of the LGBTQ community.

“The cultural issues are important to some,” Zogby said. Wanting to “punish Democrats” over Gaza is another motivator for the community, he added.

“I don’t think that there’s anyone actually very seriously considering that Donald Trump is better than Kamala Harris on the Middle East,” he said. “It’s a question of, they might be both terrible. That’s, I think, the more prevalent view.”

VOA’s U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer and reporter Sayed Aziz Rahman contributed to this report.
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