64 million votes cast, far ahead of early voting in 2016
The 64 million-plus votes already cast represent 37% more than all preelection votes cast for the 2016 election, according to University of Florida Professor Michael McDonald’s U.S. Elections Project.
The current vote total is almost half of the 129 million total votes cast four years ago. All this, McDonald says, is good news. Concerns about the ability to conduct an election during a pandemic appear somewhat allayed. Not only are people voting, but they are voting over a longer period of time, thereby “spreading out the workload” election officials face, McDonald says.
“Yes, there have been problems, and in many places lines are intolerably long,” McDonald says. “But people are voting. And there are more opportunities for them to do so by Election Day.”
Miss. may have most barriers
The opposition to Black voters in Mississippi has changed since the 1960s, but it hasn’t ended, some experts say. Obstacles include statemandated ID laws that mostly affect poor and minority communities and the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of former prisoners.
These government-created barriers make the state the most difficult in which to vote, according to a study in the Election Law Journal in 2018. And despite having the largest percentage of Black people of any state, a Black person hasn’t been elected to statewide office in 130 years.
Ohio fully staffed for election
Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Ohio recruited more than 140,000 poll workers and trained at least 50,000 to deploy to precincts on Election Day. The state has been preparing for its pandemic election since the spring, when the virus forced a delay of the March 17 primary election at the last minute.
“There have been some folks wondering, ‘Will election day happen as scheduled?’ Of course it will,” LaRose said. “Election Day is unchangeable ... it has been unchanged since 1843.”
Fla. GOP narrows gap in early vote cast
Florida Republicans are counting on a surge during in-person early voting and on Election Day to overcome the advantage in mail ballots notched by Democrats so far. A week ago, Democrats had cast 481,892 more votes than Republicans.
By Sunday morning, aided by inperson early voting, the lead had dropped by 119,043 votes, to 363,849. Nationwide, most Republican voters are expected to vote on Election Day.
Supreme Court backs Wis. absentee-ballot laws
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld Wisconsin’s voting laws, rejecting an effort to require counting any absentee ballots postmarked on or before Election Day even if they don’t reach election officials on time.
The 5-3 ruling Monday means that absentee ballots will be counted only if they are in the hands of municipal clerks by the time polls close on Nov. 3. The justices determined the courts shouldn’t decide the state’s election rules.
Ind. ban upheld on seeking extended voting hours
Indiana voters cannot petition county judges to allow polling places to extend voting past 6 p.m. should problems emerge on Election Day, a federal appeals court ruled. A law passed by the GOP-led Legislature last year gives county election officials the sole power to make those requests. The three-judge panel on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the law does not infringe on residents’ right to vote.