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. …
Leave a commentleesburg, 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,more
Leave a commentNEW 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 —more
Leave a commentOne 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. …
Leave a commentANN 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 inmore
Leave a commentWisconsin, 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. …
Leave a commentFormer 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 …
Leave a commentwashington — 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 inmore
Leave a commentWASHINGTON — 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 upmore
Leave a commentWASHINGTON — 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 getmore
Leave a commentFORT 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 releasemore
Leave a commentWith just weeks to go before Election Day, Arizona is one of the crucial battlegrounds in the 2024 U.S. presidential race. Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump know that winning the southwestern state is key to their path to the White House. VOA’s immigration reporter, Aline Barros, traveled to the state to ask voters how immigration is influencing their decision in this election. …
Leave a commentWashington — 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 latestmore
Leave a commentWith 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. …
Leave a commentBUTLER, 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 withmore
Leave a commentIn 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. …
Leave a commentwashington — 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 aboutmore
Leave a commentThere 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. …
Leave a commentAmerica’s voting landscape is shifting. While many still cast ballots at local polls, mail-in voting is on the rise. Once limited to military personnel and homebound citizens, it’s now the primary method in several states. …
Leave a commentwashington — 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 andmore
Leave a commentWASHINGTON — The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene has brought climate change to the forefront of the presidential campaign after the issue lingered on the margins for months. Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Georgia Wednesday to see hard-hit areas, two days after her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, was in the state and criticized the federal response to the storm, which has killed at least 200 people in the Southeast. Helene is the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. President Joe Biden toured some of the hardest-hit areas by helicopter on Wednesday andmore
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