ВИБОРЧА ГАЗЕТА

Americans Go to the Polls

More than 100 million Americans had already made their choice before Election Day, in early voting and voting by mail. Amid a pandemic, and ready for possible protests, tens of millions cast their ballots on Election Day.  Camera: Vero Balderas, Matteo Ghidoni, Esha Kaur Sarai, Gary Jaffe, Adam Greenbaum, Carolyn Presutti
…

Race for the White House is Too Close to Call

Americans are still waiting for the final vote tally in battleground states to determine whether incumbent Republican President Donald Trump will continue to be the country’s chief executive for the next four years, or be replaced by his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.Produced by: Barry Unger   
…

Trump, Biden Locked in Tight Contest for the US Presidency

U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden were locked in a tight contest for a four-year term in the White House Tuesday night, with the national outcome of the election hanging on undecided contests in key political battleground states. By mid-evening, Trump and Biden had both won states they were expected to win in their bid for a majority of 270 electoral votes in the 538-member Electoral College that determines who wins the presidency in the country’s indirect form of democracy, not the national popular vote. But the outcome of individual contests in several states – North Carolina and Pennsylvania in the eastern part of the country, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa in the Midwest and Arizona in the Southwest– were unsettled as officials counted millions of votes, some that were cast on Tuesday and many more during weeks of early voting. “It’s going to be a fight to the end,” said La Trice Washington, a political scientist at Otterbein University in Ohio. The national winner is determined by the outcome in each of the individual 50 states and the national capital city of Washington, with each state winner collecting all the state’s electoral votes except in two lightly populated states where the winners in individual congressional districts come into play. The biggest states have the most electoral votes and the most sway in the Electoral College. Latest Developments Democrats were on track, as expected, to retain their majority control of the House of Representatives. But continued Republican control of the Senate was uncertain with the outcome of several Senate elections throughout the country undecided.  Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate majority leader, won his seventh six-year term, defeating former Marine Corps fighter pilot Amy McGrath. According to an Edison Research voter exit poll, Trump improved his standing with every race and gender except white men, compared with his showing in 2016 when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton. While losing 5 percentage points with white men, Trump picked up 2 points with white women, four points with both Black men and Black women and 3 points each with Latino men and women.  The FBI said it was investigating reports of robocalls discouraging people from voting in some states. But there were no signs of large-scale conflict at polls as some had feared. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told reporters Tuesday there is “no indication” that a “foreign actor” has successfully interfered in the election. /

/–>/
Large turnoutTens of millions of people stood in lines across the country throughout the day to cast their ballots on Election Day. More than 101 million other people voted early in recent weeks, partly to avoid coming face to face with others amid the unchecked coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. The early vote count focus was on three Atlantic coastal states — Florida, Trump’s adopted home state, Georgia to the immediate north and North Carolina. Trump won all three states in his 2016 upset victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, but recent national polls showed Trump and Biden locked in tight contests in all three.  Voters line up at a polling station on Election Day in Charlotte, North Carolina, Nov. 3, 2020.Analysts say Trump likely needs to win all three states if he is to claim a second term and avoid becoming the third U.S. president in the last four decades to lose a bid for re-election.  A victory for Biden, a political fixture in Washington for nearly a half century, in any of the three states would significantly increase his chances of winning the presidency on his third try. He lost bids for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008. Florida, with 29 electoral votes, Georgia, with 16, and North Carolina, with 15, play an important role in the U.S. indirect form of democracy that decides its presidential elections, rather than the national popular vote. The outcome is effectively decided in state-by-state elections throughout the 50-state country and the national capital city, Washington, D.C.  There were other key states in play in early vote-counting as well, including Virginia along the Atlantic Coast with 13 electoral votes and Ohio in the Midwest with 18. The winner needs a 270 majority in the 538-member Electoral College.Record early voting  The early vote in the waning weeks of the 2020 election amounted to more than two-thirds of the entire vote count of nearly 139 million in the 2016 election when Trump upset Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the White House.   With the heavy early voting, the total 2020 vote count, by some estimates, could reach a U.S. record of 150 million or more. But with state-by-state laws controlling how soon the absentee votes can be counted — not until Tuesday night or later in some states — the outcome of the election may not be known for days, depending on how close the contest turns out.     The presidential election is coming after a rancorous and combative campaign, with both Trump and Biden lobbing taunts, claiming the other is unfit to lead the country and would take it to ruination.  Facing Unprecedented Challenges, Americans Answer Democracy’s Call at PollsMillions of Americans are casting ballots in unfamiliar ways during the global pandemic Over last weekend, tensions mounted as thousands of Trump campaign supporters rallied and demonstrated throughout the country; in one case a caravan of vehicles with Trump flags in Texas forced a Biden campaign bus off a highway.   Authorities and merchants in some cities, including New York, Detroit and Washington near the White House, have boarded up storefronts to prevent potential damage and looting in the event election-related violence erupts.   Many of the early voters — two-thirds of whom mailed in ballots while the rest cast votes in person — said they wanted to avoid coming face to face Tuesday with other people in long lines at polling stations, as the U.S. on some recent days has recorded more than 90,000 new coronavirus cases.   Some Democrats said they wanted to be among the first to vote against Trump, while many Republicans said they planned to vote in person on the official presidential Election Day — the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November — as has been the norm in U.S. elections every four years since the mid-1800s.   Voters are choosing between two septuagenarians, both of them older than the vast majority of the country’s 328 million citizens. Biden will be 78 by Inauguration Day on January 20, while Trump is 74. Whoever wins will be the oldest U.S. leader ever.   In addition, voters are choosing all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate.Control of US Senate at Stake on Election DayJust a few close races will determine if Republicans maintain their Senate majority Trump campaigningThe president, in the waning days of the campaign, called the election “a choice between the American Dream and a socialist nightmare. … A choice between a Trump super-recovery and a Biden depression.”Trump has claimed that Biden, if elected, would be beholden to the policy proposals of more progressive Democrats who are pushing for a government takeover of U.S. health care and a Green New Deal to control climate change, both of which the moderate Biden says he opposes.   Trump has repeatedly contended that the U.S., with a world-leading coronavirus death toll of more than 231,000 people and 9.2 million infections, according to Johns Hopkins University, is “rounding the corner” in dealing with the pandemic, and promises that within weeks, the U.S. will have a vaccine against the coronavirus.   “I watched Joe Biden speak yesterday,” Trump said Saturday. “All he talks about is COVID, COVID. He’s got nothing else to say. COVID, COVID.”   Good Chance Neither Trump nor Biden Will Concede Presidential Election Concession speeches from defeated political rivals have traditionally played a key role in the peaceful transfer of power in American democracy. But as VOA’s Brian Padden reports, this year the presidential candidates may not concede on election night or soon after if the results are close.   
Produced by: Brian PaddenBiden’s rhetoric Biden has often assailed Trump’s handling of the virus, mocking him for suggesting months ago it could be treated by ingesting bleach.    Biden told one rally, “Millions of people out there are out of work, on the edge” because of the pandemic. “Can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, and Donald Trump has given up. Donald Trump has waved the white flag, abandoned our families and surrendered to the virus.”   Biden said he would “choose hope over fear. We choose unity over division. Science over fiction. And yes, we choose truth over lies.”     “I don’t care how hard Donald Trump tries. There’s nothing — let me say that again — there’s nothing that he can do to stop the people of this nation from voting in overwhelming numbers and taking back this democracy,” Biden said at a rally in Flint, Michigan.   According to Polls, Who’s Likelier to Win, Trump or Biden? Biden wants the election to be a referendum on Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Are there other issues shaping the race?Electoral voting   National polls have for weeks shown Biden leading Trump nationally by about 7 or 8 percentage points, but only by about half that margin or less in key battleground states that are likely to determine the outcome.   Even two lightly populated states — Maine in the Northeast with four electoral votes and Nebraska in the Midwest with five — could play a role in the national outcome if the election is close. The two states award their electors by the vote count in individual congressional districts and the overall statewide vote, which could be a factor in an extremely close election.   
…

US Officials Confident in Secure Election, Turn Focus to Disinformation

U.S. security officials are bracing for a new round of potential attacks on the country’s election, with polling sites across the country starting to shut down and unofficial results starting to come in. “We’re not going to let our guard down,” a senior official with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) told reporters late Tuesday, speaking only on the condition of anonymity. “It’s presenting a whole new attack surface,” the official added. U.S. election security officials had expressed confidence the 2020 election would be “the most secure election in modern history” heading into the nationwide vote. Some officials Tuesday even described the threat environment as “much quieter” than in 2016, when Russian hackers targeted systems in all 50 states. Election workers open ballots at the Palm Beach County Elections Office during the 2020 U.S. presidential election in West Palm Beach, Florida, Nov. 3, 2020.But as polling sites close down, their focus has shifted to what many counterintelligence and security officials have long billed as the greater threat — possible attempts by U.S. adversaries to sow chaos and confusion by targeting websites that report on election results, or by spreading disinformation about how votes are being counted. “A range of actors could post misleading, false, fake news, whatever, about voting results at this point,” the senior CISA official said. The government assessment was quickly echoed by private cybersecurity firms, who said potential attacks on voting infrastructure or related systems never materialized. “At this point, we are more concerned about adversaries undermining our confidence than altering any outcome,” John Hultquist, senior director of analysis at American cybersecurity firm Mandiant, told VOA in a statement. Even as the first states began reporting results late Tuesday, there were signs some Russian state-backed media were posting misleading information on social media. NEW: Senior US election security officials renew warning about #Russia|n outlets like RT, Sputnik “These are organs of the state. These are mouthpieces of the state. Treat them accordingly. w/a hefty, hefty, hefty dose of skepticism” per official https://t.co/CK8xi58gFE— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) November 3, 2020 “These are organs of the state. These are mouthpieces of the state,” the senior CISA official warned. “Treat them accordingly … with a hefty, hefty, hefty dose of skepticism.” Counterintelligence and election security officials have likewise warned Iranian cyber actors may also seek to disrupt the election by turning to two of their favorite tactics — defacing websites and denial of service attacks — both of which could make it more difficult for U.S. voters to get the early, unofficial results. As polls begin to close in some states on the East Coast, remember #ElectionNight results reported are UNOFFICIAL.Official results are certified sometimes days or weeks after the election. ? This is a normal process for each election ?#TrustedInfo2020pic.twitter.com/yHAngk1f31— NASS #TrustedInfo2020 (@NASSorg) November 4, 2020They also cautioned Americans not to panic, saying just as with voting during the day, some problems could very well be the result of heavy demand or other technical issues. Our election results webpage is currently experiencing technical difficulties. We are working with our vendor to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience. Data to third parties/news outlets has not been affected.— Texas Secretary of State (@TXsecofstate) November 4, 2020Even before Tuesday’s voting, U.S. officials acknowledged at least two attempts to meddle with the elections in recent weeks, one by Iran and one by Russia. In both cases, hackers were able to steal information related to voter registration databases, with Iranian hackers managing to infiltrate one state’s database and use that information as part of a disinformation campaign. US Confirms Iran Hacked Voter Registration Data in 1 StateOfficials describe the hack as part of broad Iranian campaign, warning that while Tuesday’s election remains safe, more attacks are comingBut officials said that, as of Tuesday, Russia had yet to make use of the information it managed to steal. Officials ‘confident’ in election securityOfficials also expressed confidence the Russian and Iranian efforts would have no bearing on the outcome of the election. “No voter data was altered,” the senior CISA official said. “We remain confident in the security of the vote, the vote count and the certification process.” Officials have also credited U.S. Cyber Command’s “hunt forward” approach with potentially helping to shut down or block attacks against the U.S. election before they had the chance to do damage. US Cyber Forces Go Hunting for Election Trouble Officials warn adversaries — especially Russia and China — that US forces are waging a preemptive campaign to protect the November presidential vote “We’ve got defensive cyber elements that are sitting in war rooms, waiting on a call,” a CYBERCOM spokesperson told VOA. “If there is something that happens that DHS needs help with, we are trained, and we have collaborated in the past, and we’re ready.” CYBERCOM Commander, Gen. Paul Nakasone, took to Twitter on Tuesday to hammer the message home. “[We] are working around the clock to defend our Nation,” he wrote, adding in another tweet, “Rest assured, if called to, we will act.” .@US_CYBERCOM & @NSAgov are working around the clock to defend our Nation, making it harder for adversaries to conduct malicious cyber campaigns. Along with our partners, we continue to protect our democracy from foreign influence & interference for a safe and secure election.— General Paul M. Nakasone (@CYBERCOM_DIRNSA) November 4, 2020In addition to Russia and Iran, counterintelligence officials have warned repeatedly about China, saying it too has been actively targeting Americans, trying to play up existing political divisions and foster distrust in the election process. Official: US Adversaries Taking Sides, Wielding Influence Ahead of Election  US counterintelligence officials, splitting with President Trump, warn Russian-linked actors are pulling for his reelection as China and Iran aim to put Democrat Joe Biden in the White HouseBut they also say as many as 30 countries have sought to influence the election, a list that includes U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and adversaries like Cuba and Venezuela. US Bracing for Attacks Before and After Election Day Counterintelligence and security officials warn voters attempts to meddle will come in various shapes, forms and will not end once polls closeAs of early Tuesday, officials said they were aware of at least one disinformation campaign targeting Chinese-American voters and were working with other government agencies and social media companies to address it. According to the nonprofit investigative website ProPublica, at least two dozen groups on the Chinese-owned social media app WeChat were trying to intimidate voters by spreading rumors that U.S. officials were going to mobilize troops to put down impending riots.Officials have also expressed concern about state-backed media, which has been producing what one official described as “this steady drumbeat of disinformation.” 
…

First US Polls Close as Trump, Biden Await Initial Vote Counts

Election polls began closing in the U.S. Tuesday night, with Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, waiting for officials to release the first vote counts in their highly contested race for a four-year term in the White House. As polls closed in the Midwestern state of Indiana and neighboring Kentucky in early evening, people were continuing to vote along the eastern seaboard and throughout more western time zones in the U.S.Latest DevelopmentsBiden began the day by attending Mass at a Delaware church, and later spoke to supporters in nearby Philadelphia, Pennsylvania   Trump started the morning by calling the “Fox & Friends” program and then visited his reelection headquarters outside Washington, before returning to the White House  The U.S. Postal Service said there were delays in delivering 300,000 ballots to election officials in Michigan and parts of North Carolina and Pennsylvania. They must be delivered by Election Day in Michigan and must be postmarked by Election Day in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to count  Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told reporters Tuesday there is “no indication” that a “foreign actor” has successfully interfered in the election. */

/–>/
Large turnoutTens of millions of people stood in lines across the country throughout the day to cast their ballots on Election Day. More than 101 million other people voted early in recent weeks, partly to avoid coming face to face with others amid the unchecked coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. The early vote count focus was on two Atlantic coastal states — Florida, Trump’s adopted home state, and North Carolina. Trump won both states in his 2016 upset victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, but late polls this year showed Trump and Biden locked in tight contests.  Voters line up at a polling station on Election Day in Charlotte, North Carolina, Nov. 3, 2020.Analysts say Trump needs to win both states if he is to claim a second term and avoid becoming the third U.S. president in the last four decades to lose a bid for re-election.  A victory for Biden, a political fixture in Washington for nearly a half century, in either or both of the states would significantly increase his chances of winning the presidency on his third try. He lost bids for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008. Florida, with 29 electoral votes, and North Carolina with 15, play an important role in the U.S. indirect form of democracy that decides its presidential elections, rather than the national popular vote. The outcome is effectively decided in state-by-state elections throughout the 50-state country and the national capital city, Washington, D.C.   The winner needs a 270 majority in the 538-member Electoral College.   Record early voting  The early vote in the waning weeks of the 2020 election amounted to more than two-thirds of the entire vote count of nearly 139 million in the 2016 election when Trump upset Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the White House.   With the heavy early voting, the total 2020 vote count, by some estimates, could reach a U.S. record of 150 million or more. But with state-by-state laws controlling how soon the absentee votes can be counted — not until Tuesday night or later in some states — the outcome of the election may not be known for days, depending on how close the contest turns out.     The presidential election is coming after a rancorous and combative campaign, with both Trump and Biden lobbing taunts, claiming the other is unfit to lead the country and would take it to ruination.  Facing Unprecedented Challenges, Americans Answer Democracy’s Call at PollsMillions of Americans are casting ballots in unfamiliar ways during the global pandemic Over last weekend, tensions mounted as thousands of Trump campaign supporters rallied and demonstrated throughout the country; in one case a caravan of vehicles with Trump flags in Texas forced a Biden campaign bus off a highway.   Authorities and merchants in some cities, including New York, Detroit and Washington near the White House, have boarded up storefronts to prevent potential damage and looting in the event election-related violence erupts.   Many of the early voters — two-thirds of whom mailed in ballots while the rest cast votes in person — said they wanted to avoid coming face to face Tuesday with other people in long lines at polling stations, as the U.S. on some recent days has recorded more than 90,000 new coronavirus cases.   Some Democrats said they wanted to be among the first to vote against Trump, while many Republicans said they planned to vote in person on the official presidential Election Day — the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November — as has been the norm in U.S. elections every four years since the mid-1800s.   Voters are choosing between two septuagenarians, both of them older than the vast majority of the country’s 328 million citizens. Biden will be 78 by Inauguration Day on January 20, while Trump is 74. Whoever wins will be the oldest U.S. leader ever.   In addition, voters are choosing all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate.Control of US Senate at Stake on Election DayJust a few close races will determine if Republicans maintain their Senate majority Trump campaigningThe president, in the waning days of the campaign, called the election “a choice between the American Dream and a socialist nightmare. … A choice between a Trump super-recovery and a Biden depression.”Trump has claimed that Biden, if elected, would be beholden to the policy proposals of more progressive Democrats who are pushing for a government takeover of U.S. health care and a Green New Deal to control climate change, both of which the moderate Biden says he opposes.   Trump has repeatedly contended that the U.S., with a world-leading coronavirus death toll of more than 231,000 people and 9.2 million infections, according to Johns Hopkins University, is “rounding the corner” in dealing with the pandemic, and promises that within weeks, the U.S. will have a vaccine against the coronavirus.   “I watched Joe Biden speak yesterday,” Trump said Saturday. “All he talks about is COVID, COVID. He’s got nothing else to say. COVID, COVID.”   Good Chance Neither Trump nor Biden Will Concede Presidential Election Concession speeches from defeated political rivals have traditionally played a key role in the peaceful transfer of power in American democracy. But as VOA’s Brian Padden reports, this year the presidential candidates may not concede on election night or soon after if the results are close.   
Produced by: Brian PaddenBiden’s rhetoric Biden has often assailed Trump’s handling of the virus, mocking him for suggesting months ago it could be treated by ingesting bleach.    Biden told one rally, “Millions of people out there are out of work, on the edge” because of the pandemic. “Can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, and Donald Trump has given up. Donald Trump has waved the white flag, abandoned our families and surrendered to the virus.”   Biden said he would “choose hope over fear. We choose unity over division. Science over fiction. And yes, we choose truth over lies.”     “I don’t care how hard Donald Trump tries. There’s nothing — let me say that again — there’s nothing that he can do to stop the people of this nation from voting in overwhelming numbers and taking back this democracy,” Biden said at a rally in Flint, Michigan.   According to Polls, Who’s Likelier to Win, Trump or Biden? Biden wants the election to be a referendum on Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Are there other issues shaping the race?Electoral voting   National polls have for weeks shown Biden leading Trump nationally by about 7 or 8 percentage points, but only by about half that margin or less in key battleground states that are likely to determine the outcome.   Even two lightly populated states — Maine in the Northeast with four electoral votes and Nebraska in the Midwest with five — could play a role in the national outcome if the election is close. The two states award their electors by the vote count in individual congressional districts and the overall statewide vote, which could be a factor in an extremely close election.   
…

US Confident in Election Security as Voters Cast Ballots

Efforts to secure U.S. voting infrastructure and to hunt down potential cyber threats appear to be paying off as millions of Americans cast ballots for president and local and state officials.U.S. election security officials continue to express confidence, hours after the first polling centers opened their doors to voters on Tuesday, the last day for citizens to cast a ballot.A senior official with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), briefing reporters only on the condition of anonymity, described the threat to the country’s election infrastructure as “much quieter” than in 2016, when Russian hackers targeted systems in all 50 states.“At this point, this just looks like any other election day and even just another Tuesday,” the official added, noting technical issues had caused some problems across the United States, though many of them had been resolved.Some polling places across the country reported long lines, which officials have mostly attributed to the high volume of Americans wanting to vote in the hotly contested presidential election.Voters wait in a long line to cast their ballots at Church of the Servant in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Nov. 3, 2020.But officials said the stress on the country’s election infrastructure has also been eased by the more than 100 million Americans who have already voted by mail or at early voting centers.“We have no indications that a foreign adversary has succeeded in compromising or affecting the actual votes cast in this election,” acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said at a briefing just hours after the first polling sites opened their doors Tuesday.“Our election infrastructure is resilient,” he said, adding, “We do remain on high alert.”U.S. officials have already acknowledged at least two attempts to penetrate systems seen as critical to elections in recent weeks, one by Iran and one by Russia.In both cases, hackers were able to steal information related to voter registration databases, with Iranian hackers managing to infiltrate one state’s database and use that information as part of a disinformation campaign.US Confirms Iran Hacked Voter Registration Data in 1 StateOfficials describe the hack as part of broad Iranian campaign, warning that while Tuesday’s election remains safe, more attacks are comingOfficials ‘confident’ in election securityStill, officials said Tuesday that those attacks were shut down quickly and would have no bearing on the outcome of the election.“No voter data was altered,” the senior CISA official said. “We remain confident in the security of the vote, the vote count and the certification process.”Officials also credited U.S. Cyber Command’s “hunt forward” approach with potentially helping to shut down or block attacks against the U.S. election before they had the chance to do damage.US Cyber Forces Go Hunting for Election Trouble Officials warn adversaries — especially Russia and China — that US forces are waging a preemptive campaign to protect the November presidential vote CYBERCOM also said it remained ready to respond if necessary.”We’ve got defensive cyber elements that are sitting in war rooms, waiting on a call,” a CYBERCOM spokesperson told VOA. “If there is something that happens that DHS needs help with, we are trained, and we have collaborated in the past, and we’re ready.”FBI investigating robocallsStill, federal and state officials have voiced concerns about some attempts to intimidate U.S. voters, including a series of robocalls to voters in at least six states, urging them to stay home.NOW: Here’s the full audio of the “time to stay home” robocall landing across the US. Did you get a call today? Let me know. Please RT! pic.twitter.com/XmWJyJ6sar
— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) November 3, 2020The senior CISA official said the FBI is investigating the calls, but cautioned, “robocalls of this nature happen every election.”FBI officials declined to comment but urged U.S. voters to go directly to local election officials for information.While the origins of the calls remain unclear, it appears the messaging itself is not new.“We had been receiving complaints about these robocalls throughout the season,” said Kristen Clarke, the president and CEO of The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.Clarke, though, said it appears to be number of calls has spiked in connection with Tuesday’s election.Warning voters on foreign meddlingU.S. election security officials are also warning Americans to remain vigilant, cautioning that U.S. adversaries like Russia, China and Iran may be waiting until the polls close to launch more serious attacks.“We’re not out of the woods yet,” said CISA Director Christopher Krebs on Tuesday.”Today in some sense is halftime. There may be other events or activities or efforts to interfere and undermine confidence in the election,” he said. “So, I ask all Americans to be patient, to treat all sensational claims with skepticism.”Counterintelligence officials have been especially concerned about ongoing influence operations, warning that Russia, China and Iran in particular, have been actively targeting Americans, trying to play up existing political divisions and foster distrust in the election process.Officials also charge all three countries with trying to impact the outcome of the U.S. presidential race, trying to boost or harm the candidacies of President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden.Official: US Adversaries Taking Sides, Wielding Influence Ahead of Election  US counterintelligence officials, splitting with President Trump, warn Russian-linked actors are pulling for his reelection as China and Iran aim to put Democrat Joe Biden in the White HouseBut they also say as many as 30 countries have sought to influence the election, a list that includes U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and adversaries like Cuba and Venezuela.US Bracing for Attacks Before and After Election Day Counterintelligence and security officials warn voters attempts to meddle will come in various shapes, forms and will not end once polls closeAs of early Tuesday, officials said they were aware of at least one disinformation campaign targeting Chinese-American voters and were working with other government agencies and social media companies to address it.According to the nonprofit investigative website ProPublica, at least two dozen groups on the Chinese-owned social media app WeChat were trying to intimidate voters by spreading rumors that U.S. officials were going to mobilize troops to put down impending riots.Officials have also expressed concern about state-backed media, which has been producing what one official described as, “this steady drumbeat of disinformation.One Russian-backed media outer Tuesday, RT, spent part of Tuesday promoting an election day interview with Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer and the former mayor of New York City.This past Sunday, Trump’s top adviser on the coronavirus, Dr. Scott Atlas, apologized on Twitter after giving RT an interview from the White House, saying he was “unaware they are a registered foreign agent.”The U.S. intelligence community has called RT a propaganda arm of the Russian government.(VOA’s Masood Farivar contributed to this story.)
…

Record Turnout Expected Among US Millennial, Gen Z Voters

Millennial and Generation Z voters are expected to turn out in record numbers for the Nov. 3 presidential election, experts say, continuing a trend of increased participation since the midterm elections in 2018.  “A lot of students are back in their hometowns, so they are more likely to be able to vote easily,” said Josh Kutner, a senior at the George Washington University and chairman of GW College Republicans. Josh Kutner (courtesy photo)“Campaigns are really looking to young people to be leaders and help fight for their values and their visions for their community, so I think that’s been a pretty big role in getting young voters engaged all across the country this year.”
Among the nearly 240 million eligible voters in the United States today, about 20% are 18- to 29-year-olds who are Jordan Harzynski (courtesy photo)“We’re also seeing that the pandemic has helped many young people, almost 45 percent, say that the decisions made by elected officials impact their everyday life, and that’s a lesson that they’ve learned over the past several months while we’ve been going through this,” said Kiesa.   Social media have been key to galvanizing younger voters, stated Ben Kelley, a young voter from Illinois.  President Donald Trump “is really the first president to be constantly engaged with social media and to use it to communicate his inner thoughts and policy proposals,” stated Kelley, and “that is where young voters are.”According to Twitter, Trump has 87.4 million followers and has tweeted more than 58,100 times. Former President Barack Obama has 124.6 million followers and tweeted more than 16,000 times.  Jordan Harzynski, a freshman at George Mason University in Virginia, runs the “youngvoters4joe” Instagram account, which has more than 1,100 followers and promotes young voter turnout for Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.   “We can’t keep tweeting and posting on Instagram; we have to do the real work,” said Harzynski. “I’ve seen that as a problem with my group, people like to watch the debates but they don’t like to make phone calls. We have to make phone calls; we have to put in the work to win this election.” 
…

Trump, Biden Hold Final Rallies Ahead of Presidential Election

President Donald Trump and his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, spent the final day of the campaign trying to earn every last vote in a few key states. VOA’s Brian Padden reports. 
…

Trump Claims Extended Vote Counting in Pennsylvania Could Spark Violence 

In his final day of campaigning, U.S. President Donald Trump warned of post-election violence due to a Supreme Court decision to allow extended ballot counting in what may be the pivotal state of Pennsylvania.  Polls show former Vice President Joe Biden with a slight lead in the state where mail-in ballots, expected to favor the Democrats, might not be tabulated for days following Tuesday’s election.   In between his Monday rallies in Traverse City, Michigan, and Kenosha, Wisconsin, Trump tweeted that extended counting of such ballots in Pennsylvania “will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!”  The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one. It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Former President Barack Obama speaks at a rally as he campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, Nov. 2, 2020, in Miami.Biden said of Trump at a midday drive-in rally in Cleveland, Ohio. “The character of America is literally on the ballot.”   Discussion of issues during the campaign has been largely overshadowed by the two candidate’s personal attacks on each other and the coronavirus pandemic.  The president, earlier on Monday in North Carolina, emphasized an economic recovery amid the pandemic, promising “we will mass distribute the vaccine within a few short weeks.”       Health officials, including those in Trump’s administration, predict most Americans are unlikely to be inoculated against COVID-19 before early or mid-2021.    Trump, at the first of Monday’s five rallies in four states, said his challenger, if elected, “will turn America into a prison state” through lockdowns to combat the virus.    Biden said in Cleveland that “the first step to beating the virus is beating Donald Trump.”Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden waves after speaking at a rally at Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport, Nov. 2, 2020, in Cleveland.Obama characterized the president as a COVID-19 “super-spreader” for holding packed campaign rallies and White House events.      The pandemic has overshadowed other issues in the presidential campaign with COVID-19 cases spiking in recent weeks in many of the U.S. states expected to decide the presidential election.       The coronavirus has killed more than 231,000 people and infected nearly 9.3 million in the United States, the most of any country in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.    National polls show the former vice president with about an eight-point lead, but the race is significantly tighter in the swing states that will decide the victor.        The common stop on the Monday itineraries of both Biden and Trump was Pennsylvania, the eastern U.S. state that Trump won in 2016.  The winner of Pennsylvania earns 20 of the 270 electoral votes a candidate needs to earn a four-year term in the White House.        Trump on Monday held a rally at the Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport, while Biden addressed supporters at three socially distanced drive-in events in the state.  Biden campaign events in Pennsylvania also featured remarks and performances by entertainers Lady Gaga, Patti LaBelle, John Legend and Common.   “We all know that this could come down to Pennsylvania. … Vote like your life depends on it. Vote like your children’s lives depend on it, because they do,” Lady Gaga said in Pittsburgh before taking a seat at the piano and singing several songs interspersed with appeals for Pennsylvanians to vote for Biden.   Trump is ending his campaigning with a late evening rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a replay of his 2016 finale in a state Hillary Clinton was expected to win.    Results from Election Day will not be official until weeks later. The deadlines vary by state, with a few reporting within a week but many not requiring final results to be reported until late November or early December.          Most years, the winner is clear before the official results with media organizations making projections based on tabulations from individual voting precincts.       This year a record number of people have cast early ballots — nearly 99 million— and with many of those coming by way of mail-in ballots due to concerns about the coronavirus, the counting in some states could be slower than usual.   
…

Judge Rejects Republican Effort to Toss Out 127,000 Houston Votes

A federal judge on Monday rejected a Republican effort to invalidate nearly 127,000 votes in Houston because the ballots were cast at drive-thru polling centers established during the pandemic.  The lawsuit was brought by conservative Texas activists who have railed against expanded voting access in Harris County, where a record 1.4 million early votes have already been cast. The county is the nation’s third largest and a crucial battleground in Texas, where President Donald Trump and Republicans are bracing for the closest election in decades on Tuesday.  U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s decision to hear arguments on the brink of Election Day drew concern from voting rights activists and came after the Texas Supreme Court rejected a nearly identical challenge over the weekend.  The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by conservative GOP activists who have filed a battery of court challenges over moves to expand voting options during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenges have not involved Trump’s campaign. Another 20,000 or more voters were expected to use drive-thru polling locations Tuesday, said Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins, the county’s top elections official. Several voters who already used the drive-thru centers rushed to join mounting opposition to the lawsuit, including a Houston attorney whose wife was 35 weeks pregnant when she cast her ballot. She gave birth to twins Friday. “My vote counts,” David Hobbs said. “My wife’s vote counts.” FILE – A line of cars drive in for an event encouraging community members to vote in the upcoming presidential election at an early voting site in Houston, Texas, October 25, 2020.Trump won Texas by nine points in 2016, but polls have shown Democrat Joe Biden still within reach in America’s biggest red state. Democrats also need to flip only nine seats to reclaim a majority in the Texas House for the first time in 20 years and have aggressively targeted several races in Harris County.  Harris County offered 10 drive-thru locations as an option for its nearly 5 million residents amid worries of spreading the coronavirus. Jared Woodfill, a former chairman of the Harris County GOP, argued that Texas election law makes no explicit allowances for drive-thru voting and framed it is as an unlawful expansion of curbside voting, which is legal in Texas but limited to people who are unable to enter polling places because of their health.  Portions of the hearing were consumed by debate over what exactly qualified as a legal structure for a polling place under Texas law.  “You have a fundamental right to vote in a car?” Hanen tersely asked an attorney for the ACLU.  Woodfill’s lawsuit noted that all but one of the drive-thru centers were set up “in Democrat areas of the county.” More than 40% of Harris County residents are Latino, and about one in five residents are Black.Demonstrators stand across the street from the federal courthouse in Houston, Texas, November 2, 2020, before a hearing in federal court involving drive-thru ballots cast in Harris County.The lawsuit drew objections even from Republicans, include former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus. Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who is facing the toughest reelection battle of his career Tuesday against Democrat MJ Hegar, also said during a weekend campaign stop that the Texas Supreme Court made the right decision earlier in rejecting an identical challenge. The Texas Supreme Court, which is controlled entirely by Republicans, rejected an identical lawsuit last month and on Sunday refused to invalidate the votes already cast. The state’s highest court did not explain its decision. Hollins had asked Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to affirm that the drive-thru locations are legal but received no response.  Texas is one of just five states that did not allow for widespread mail-in voting this year during the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 18,000 people statewide. Abbott instead expanded early voting by one week, and that extra time helped Texas already surpass 2016’s total votes even before Tuesday’s election.  More than 9.7 million people have cast early ballots in Texas, where turnout typically ranks among the lowest in the country. Some elections experts predict that total turnout in Texas could surpass 12 million, and Harris County officials have taken more steps than most to expand voting access. The county tripled the number of polling places and last week had eight locations that stayed open for 24 hours.  
…

Anxious World Watches the Countdown to US Election

Governments across the world are anxiously watching the race for the White House, as they prepare for either Republican Donald Trump securing a second term as U.S. president or for an electoral win by his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden.  Who will be the international winners and losers from Tuesday’s U.S. election?  “The last four years have confirmed that the choices the U.S. makes are highly consequential for international politics,” according to a commentary by Britain’s leading foreign policy research group, Chatham House.  Chatham House added, “The next president will determine how America’s diplomatic, economic and military resources are invested, and, especially, what value the U.S. will attach to existing alliances and multilateral institutions. Whoever sits in the White House will shape the trajectory of the U.S.–China relationship and the global economy, with significant implications for America’s partners.” And implications for U.S. adversaries. Although some profess to claim the impact might not be as great as some might think. In RussiaRussian experts say they expect little improvement in relations between Moscow and Washington, regardless of who wins.  “Putin and people around him might like Trump because he fits very nicely with their view of the world,” according to Andrey Kortunov of the Russian International Affairs Council, a research group based in Moscow, in referencing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kortunov points to Trump’s skepticism about the importance of multilateral institutions and his more transactional approach to diplomacy. FILE – An activist of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia holds a placard during a demonstration ahead of the U.S. presidential election, in front of the U.S. embassy in Moscow, Russia, Oct. 31, 2020.But Kortunov says he does not expect Moscow to shift its foreign policy in the coming months, regardless of who is in the White House. Antagonism, he says, will continue.  “Russia’s leaders have long been convinced that any unilateral steps or shifts in Moscow’s foreign policy will be perceived in the West as a sign of weakness, and thus an invitation to crank up the pressure on Russia,” he said. “Russians don’t back down. This principle has remained at the core of Russia’s foreign policy throughout the years.”Former Russian officials over the past few months have also told VOA they expect relations to remain antagonistic with the United States and Europe, blaming what they see as a U.S.-led conspiracy to curb Russian influence.  “Some people in the Kremlin hoped it would be different with Donald Trump. But I wasn’t holding my breath,” a former senior Kremlin aide told VOA, describing debates among Russian officials in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. election. Much of the same is happening now, say other former officials. Global interestDespite apparent Russian nonchalance about the result, few in Moscow or elsewhere in the world doubt the enormous global ramifications of Tuesday’s election. A reporter for Britain’s Sky News suggested on air that the world should have a vote in the election because of the international repercussions of the result. This is not just a national election, but a global one, he said. Hundreds of millions around the globe will likely stay up for overnight election watch parties. Others say they will interrupt their work day to keep an eye on the results as they start to unfold. Some cities are planning to broadcast election coverage on billboard-sized televisions.  Aside from the fascination with U.S. politics, foreign governments often view the election through the prism of their strategic interests.  “Although the U.S. presidency is not as all powerful as many people think, it is certainly, both inside and outside of the U.S., the most powerful elected position in the world. Right now, the world is looking at the U.S. with great anxiety and expectation,” according to Cas Mudde, professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, writing in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper. Leaders guardedAnxiety is shared by governments at this stage — whether they prefer Trump or Biden. With opinion polls getting their predictions wrong in 2016, no overseas leader can be sure how this election will turn out.  FILE – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands with U.S. President Donald Trump after signing the Abraham Accords, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Sept. 15, 2020.Most foreign leaders have been guarded in expressing who they would prefer to see win. Analysts say national leaders most closely associated with Trump, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, have been cautious in their praise of him, fearing if he loses, their full-throated support of Trump would adversely affect relations with a potential Biden administration.  Hungary’s firebrand populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been one of the few European leaders to speak out in support of Trump as he was in 2016, announcing in an article in a Hungarian newspaper in September that he’s “rooting for another victory for Donald Trump because we are very familiar with the foreign policy of U.S. Democratic administrations, built as it is on moral imperialism. We have tasted it — albeit under duress. We didn’t like it and we don’t want a second helping.” Other conservative nationalist leaders in central Europe have been quieter, despite sharing Trump’s antipathy toward the European Union and his populist ideology. Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and senior officials of the country’s Law and Justice Party, or PiS, have avoided replying when asked who they prefer.  Throughout his term in office, Trump has polled badly in Europe generally, but more so in the west of the continent. Only 13% percent of Germans, 18% of Swedes, and 20% of the French have confidence in him to do the right thing in world affairs, according to a survey at the start of the year by the Pew Research Center. Those percentages are much lower than for Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, during his last year in office. Public opinion becomes a little more mixed moving west to east, largely due to approval of Trump by supporters of populist nationalist parties, which are stronger in central Europe and who see the Republican president as an ideological ally, especially when it comes to migration. The Pew poll found a majority of Poles, 51%, had confidence in Trump doing the right thing in world affairs. In Western EuropeThe western European public and governments, by contrast, are eager for a reset from the Trump years, and a return to more predictable and traditional transatlantic relations, analysts say. “Biden has always been a staunch trans-atlanticist — and, over the course of his decades-long political career, he has forged close relationships with key European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel,” noted Alex Soros in commentary for the European Council on Foreign Relations, an international research institution partly funded by his father, philanthropist George Soros. FILE – German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, walks with then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden for a meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 1, 2013.Western European officials say they expect relations would go smoother and more predictably with Biden than with Trump. Biden is a known quantity, having served 34 years in the U.S. Senate and eight as Obama’s vice president. They say they expect him to work as he always has, building up alliances and working on the international front as a multilateralist. His foreign policy would highlight common liberal values with western Europeans, they say. But they do not expect a total restoration of how things were before Trump’s “America First” policy.  “Winners” outside Europe in the event Trump secures a second term include Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, also a conservative nationalist. Bolsonaro aides say they would fear a change in Washington, adding that Brazil’s leader would be much more isolated internationally if Trump loses. They would expect confrontations with a Biden administration over human rights issues and climate change. In the Middle East, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi clashed badly with the Obama administration over his government’s human rights record and officials in Cairo say they expect a repeat, if Biden is elected. Likewise, the Gulf monarchies have forged close ties with the Trump administration and were relieved when Trump told Arab leaders during a visit to the Saudi capital of Riyadh in 2017 that, “We are not here to lecture.” 
 
…

Twitter to Label Tweets with Premature Election Claims

Social media giant Twitter said Monday it will put warning labels on tweets from U.S. election candidates that claim victory ahead of official results.  In a blog post Monday, the company said an election win must be “authoritatively called” before tweets without warning labels will be allowed by candidates or campaigns.  To determine election results, Twitter said it would require an announcement from state election officials or a “public projection from at least two authoritative national news outlets that make independent election calls,” citing examples that included ABC News, The Associated Press, CNN and Fox News. Tuesday’s U.S. election has a record number of early votes, which election officials say could slow down the vote count in some states. Because of this, it is possible that a winner in the presidential race, along with some state and local races, will not be known on election night.  Twitter said candidates’ tweets that include premature claims of an election victory would be subject to warning labels such as, “Official sources called this election differently,” or “Official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted.” The company said U.S.-based accounts with over 100,000 followers and a significant engagement that post premature claims will also be considered for labeling. In addition, Twitter said any tweets “meant to incite interference” with the election process or with the implementation of election results, including through violent action, will be removed.  
…