Trump Travels Saturday to Pennsylvania; Biden to Michigan

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With only three days of campaigning left before Election Day in the United States, both top candidates travel to battleground states Saturday, with Republican President Donald Trump focusing on Pennsylvania while Democratic candidate former Vice President Joe Biden plans events in Michigan.Biden will be campaigning alongside former President Barack Obama for the first time during the campaign. The two will travel to Flint and Detroit on Saturday, part of two days of campaigning to get out the vote in Michigan.In Detroit, they will be joined by singer Stevie Wonder, who will perform at a drive-in rally. Wonder has previously performedmore

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Can I Post a Photo of My Ballot? 

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In response to increased social media messages on how, where and when to vote in the U.S. general election, voters are posting proof that they cast their ballots.Whether it is a photo of the ballot showing who someone voted for, or a selfie of the voter, an increase in mail-in and early voting amid the pandemic means more voters are posting their ballot selfies the week ahead of the election.Whether these photos are legally allowed differs by state.According to data from Ballotpedia, as of September, 25 states and the District of Columbia allow ballot selfies — photos of a completedmore

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Why a Big Boost in Litigation Is Possible After Tuesday’s Election

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With Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election upon us, it is far from certain that either President Donald Trump or his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, will emerge as the clear winner on election night.While Biden is leading Trump by a cumulative average of 8 percentage points in national polling, the Democrat’s lead shrinks to just a few points in a number of battleground states crucial to determining the winner in America’s unique system of indirect presidential election.This has raised the odds that the election results could be delayed until all the ballots are officially tallied and certified. To bemore

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Walmart Returns Firearms, Ammunition to US Store Floors Ahead of Election

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Walmart Inc said on Friday it had begun returning firearms and ammunitions to the floors of its U.S. stores a day after the world’s largest retailer said it had removed these products to protect customers and employees as tensions across the country rise.”After civil unrest earlier this week resulted in damage to several of our stores … we asked stores to move firearms and ammunition from the sales floor …. As the current incidents have remained geographically isolated, we have made the decision to begin returning these products to the sales floor today,” the company said.A Walmart spokesperson declined tomore

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Biden, Trump Offer Remedies for College Woes

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While student debt and the affordability of a college education as a youth voter issue has been overshadowed by COVID and race events, it remains a top concern for many.“I’ve been paying whatever the minimum is for well over a decade,” said Victor Varadi, senior program manager at Disney/ABC, to VOA. Now 47, he has been paying down more than $50,000 in student loans for his undergraduate and master’s degree studies since 2006. The interest rate on those loans have been between 5% and 7%, he said.Varadi is among the student debtors who owe $1.5 trillion to lending institutions, moremore

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US Confirms Iran Hacked Voter Registration Data in 1 State

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Some of the data Iran used to unleash a deluge of emails designed to intimidate U.S. voters just weeks before the country’s presidential election came directly from one state’s voter registration database.U.S. officials confirmed the finding late Friday in an alert issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which has been coordinating U.S. election security efforts.The alert said Iranian hackers targeting websites belonging to various U.S. states, including state election websites, “successfully obtained voter registration data in at least one state” by exploiting what it described as website misconfigurations.That data wasmore

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Trump Tests Limits as Cabinet Members Fan Out to Key States

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Education Secretary Betsy DeVos planned a “Moms for Trump” rally in her home state of Michigan. The Department of Homeland Security’s top official was in Texas to celebrate completion of a section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall. The chief of the Environmental Protection Agency headed to North Carolina after visiting Georgia the day before. That was just Thursday. Members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet are logging extra miles as mostly unofficial campaign surrogates in crucial states in the final days before Tuesday’s election, blending politics and policy in ways that critics say skirt established norms and may even violate themore

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Trump, Biden Head to Battleground States Friday

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With just a few days until voters cast the last ballots in the U.S. presidential election, the top candidates are focusing their campaign efforts Friday in four midwestern battleground states. President Donald Trump will campaign in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, while former Vice President Joe Biden will campaign in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.Michigan has 16 electoral votes, Minnesota and Wisconsin have 10 each, and Iowa 6.WATCH: Blue states and Red states  Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can Democratic U.S. presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden greets suporters at a drive-in, Get Out the Vote campaign stop in Tampa, Florida, Oct. 29, 2020.Biden slams Trump overmore

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Walmart Pulls Firearms, Ammunition from US Store Floors as Civil Unrest Flares

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Walmart Inc removed firearms and ammunition from U.S. store floors this week to protect customers and employees as tensions across the country have been rising, the world’s largest retailer said on Thursday.The move comes days before the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 3, with many worried that the result could be contested or spark violence.”We have seen some isolated civil unrest and as we have done on several occasions over the last few years, we have moved our firearms and ammunition off the sales floor as a precaution for the safety of our associates and customers,” a Walmart spokesperson said.more

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Supreme Court Issues Flurry of Last-Minute Election Orders

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North Carolina, yes. Pennsylvania, yes. Wisconsin, no. That is how the Supreme Court has answered questions in recent days about an extended timeline for receiving and counting ballots in those states. In each case, Democrats backed the extensions and Republicans opposed them. All three states have Democratic governors and legislatures controlled by the GOP. At first blush, the difference in the outcomes seems odd because the Supreme Court typically takes up issues to harmonize the rules across the country. But elections are largely governed by states, and the rules differ from one state to the next. These cases are being dealt with onmore

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Former DHS Official Says He Wrote NY Times ‘Anonymous’ Trump Critique

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A former Trump administration official who penned a scathing anti-Trump op-ed and book under the pen name “Anonymous” revealed himself Wednesday as a former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security. The official, Miles Taylor, came forward six days before Election Day to criticize  President Donald Trump as “a man without character.” He said he hoped other former administration officials will “find their conscience when they wake up tomorrow” and speak up, too. Taylor has been an outspoken critic of Trump’s in recent months and had repeatedly denied he was the author of the column and subsequent bookmore

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Trump, Biden Campaign in Florida Thursday

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With days until voters cast the last ballots in the U.S. presidential election, the top candidates are focusing their campaign efforts Thursday in the southeastern state of Florida.In every election since 1996, the winner of Florida has won the presidency.  The winner there earns 29 of the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the election.President Donald Trump begins his campaigning day with a rally in the city of Tampa before traveling for an evening rally in the state of North Carolina.Former Vice President Joe Biden is set to speak to supporters in Broward County in the afternoon and then head to hismore

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Biden Deploys Obama to Campaign, Trump Sends His Children

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Days before the November 3 election, the campaigns of President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden are making their last pitch to voters, sending high-profile surrogates including former President Barack Obama and the Trump family children. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story. Produced by: Bakhtiyar Zamanov    …

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2020 Election Puts Focus on Twitter, Facebook Content Moderation

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The nation’s top technology leaders urged U.S. lawmakers Wednesday to keep content moderation protections in place, despite growing calls from Republicans to address perceived bias in the way social media companies handle free speech online.  Online companies are shielded from liability for content on their sites under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.  Those protections apply to companies of all sizes operating online that use third-party content. But some Republicans contend Section 230 is a “carve-out” for larger companies such as Facebook and Twitter, allowing them to censor content based on political viewpoints and use their considerable reachmore

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71 Million Americans Have Already Voted 

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Americans are voting early for next Tuesday’s presidential election in unprecedented numbers, a product of strong feelings for or against the two main candidates and a desire to avoid large crowds at Election Day polling stations amid the coronavirus pandemic. More than 71 million people have already voted six days ahead of the official election day, totaling more than half of the overall 2016 vote count, which was 138.8 million. FILE – Returned ballots are shown at elections management center at the Salt Lake County Government Center Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020, in Salt Lake City.About two-thirds of the early voters have mailed inmore

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Where Trump and Biden Differ on Key Issues

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Voters choosing between President Donald Trump and former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden in the U.S. presidential election should have no difficulty distinguishing between the two men on policy questions.  The differences in the candidates’ positions on a large variety of issues – climate, taxes, trade, race relations, national security, immigration, and above all the handling of the coronavirus pandemic – are stark and provide voters with two very distinct options for the direction of the country over the coming four years. In general, President Trump has governed as he campaigned four years ago, as a norm-busting Republican iconoclast who forges his ownmore

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Maintaining Lead in Polls, Biden Plays Offense in Campaign’s Last Days

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One week before the November 3 election, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is making a push into Republican-leaning states, while President Donald Trump plays defense, focusing on states he won in 2016 but where polls now show him trailing. On Tuesday, Biden made two campaign stops in Georgia, a state not carried by a Democratic presidential contender since 1992. He plans to visit Iowa, Florida, Wisconsin and Michigan later this week. Trump won those states in 2016, but Democrats believe Biden has a chance to claim them in 2020.  Analysts say Biden’s foray into so-called “red” states like Georgia and Iowamore

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US to Open Embassy in Maldives Amid Geopolitics Competition with China    

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The United States is opening an embassy in the Maldives to strengthen economic and security cooperation five decades after the two nations established diplomatic ties.  The move reflects “the continued growth of the U.S.-Maldives relationship and underscoring the United States’ unshakeable commitment to Maldives and the Indo-Pacific region,” said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement Wednesday after his meetings in the Maldives with President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walks to board an aircraft to leave for Maldives, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Oct. 28, 2020.The latest move is seen as part of Washington’s push for a free andmore

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More Than 3M in Pennsylvania Apply for Mail-in Ballots

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A week ahead of the Nov. 3 election, applications in the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania for mail-in or absentee ballots exceeded 3 million, with Tuesday the last day to request one and legal wrangling creating uncertainty over the deadline to receive them. State data shows that, of those applications, about 1.9 million, or more than 62%, have been returned to counties. More than 9 million Pennsylvanians have registered to vote, a record high. If turnout is 70%, which was the rate in 2016’s presidential election in Pennsylvania, that means 6.3 million people will vote. The majority of people, 1.9more

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America’s Youth Mull Potential High Court Changes Over Abortion

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A possible challenge to Roe v. Wade, a Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States in 1973, has young people considering how it might impact their lives.Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative judge from Indiana who was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court Monday evening, has previously disagreed with the decision, as well as the Affordable Care Act, which provides many women with free or low-cost contraception. Among 18- to 29-year-old Americans, 70% support abortion rights, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center study. Among all ages, 60% of Americans support legalized abortions.  “I am scared, because amore

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How Media Organizations Report Election Results in Real Time

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As Americans prepare to go to polling stations on Election Day this Nov. 3, U.S. news organizations are preparing to report the count which will determine the winners of more than 7,000 races, including the White House, House and Senate seats, state offices, and local legislative positions.In the United States, news organizations observe the vote count in real time and use a variety of information to determine when they can declare a winner in each race, including overall vote totals, exit polling of voters, and the estimated number of votes still uncounted in each precinct.  Here’s how it works and whatmore

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