Tag: election day
Trump Issues New Executive Order On Election Procedures To 'Rig Midterms'

Trump Issues New Executive Order On Election Procedures To 'Rig Midterms'

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump issued a new executive order targeting voter eligibility and voting by mail. Various experts, journalists and commentators are now concerned that Trump may be attempting to put his thumb on the scale ahead of next year's midterm elections.

According to the Washington Post, the order "could prevent millions of Americans from voting" if it passes legal muster. Notably, the order mandates that states require voters provide a "government-issued documentary proof of citizenship" upon registering to vote, and that only Real ID drivers' licenses and passports are accepted, whereas birth certificates alone are not sufficient. The order would also ban states from counting mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day, which would be a significant curtailing of voting by mail (states allowing vote-by-mail typically count ballots after Election Day provided that they were postmarked on or before Election Day).

SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah accused Trump of "trying to rig [the] 2026 election" with the order, and argued that "banning birth certificates is RIGGING!" Alexei Koseff, who covers the California state capitol for CalMatters, said the order has "huge implications" for residents of the largest state in the union, given how much of the Golden State votes by mail. Ottawa,

Canada-based radio journalist Andy Pinsent observed: "When this is inevitably shut down by the courts, the [White House] will posture that 'radical judges want illegal immigrants to vote.'" And author Mitchell Plitnick flatly asserted: "The order is illegal. This is Trump testing to see if he can get away with it. Win or lose, you can bet this is only the first volley in a campaign to undermine free and fair elections."

"When they said 'voter fraud' it meant they wanted to do it," University of Iowa associate sociology professor Victor Ray wrote on Bluesky.

When combing through the full text of the executive order itself, Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic instructor Alejandra Caraballo noticed one line that stood out to her. The order stipulates that the Department of Homeland Security will coordinate with the administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — which is unofficially led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — to "review each state's publicly available voter registration list and available records concerning voter list maintenance activities."

"Elon Musk would now be in charge of the databases determining voter eligibility," Caraballo wrote.

"I don't say that the law won't stop this and elections won't matter because I'm a doomer. I'm saying this so people understand the moment we're in. We're no longer a democracy," she continued. "People need to accurately diagnose the problem before they can fix it and waiting for the courts or elections isn't it."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

'Lots Of Empty Seats' At Closing Trump Rallies In Swing States

'Lots Of Empty Seats' At Closing Trump Rallies In Swing States

Win or lose on Election Day, it’s unlikely the 78-year old Donald Trump will ever hold another presidential campaign rally again, and yet some of his supporters over the past week have stopped showing up for his final tour, leading reporters on several networks to mention there are “a lot of empty seats.”

Who will win the presidential election is anyone’s guess, but for the Republican nominee coming to the end of his third campaign, some expected more people would be out to get one last rush of the MAGA experience.

“Very low energy,” is how Mother Jones’ D.C. bureau chief David Corn described Trump’s rally Monday in Reading, Pennsylvania—a must-win state both candidates have been focusing on.

NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard, who says he’s been covering Trump since 2015, notes Trump’s first rally on the last day before Election Day is just 70 percent full—and Trump was 40 minutes late.

And he talked about the “far smaller crowds” they’ve been seeing, including this one in North Carolina.

“I wanna show you guys real fast what this crowd looks like,” Hillyard told MSNBC viewers. “We’re looking at about a capacity, about 70% full here, and for nine years … we have talked about the enthusiasm in the masses that have come out for Trump’s rallies, time and again, even at his politically lowest points, including in 2022.”

Biden White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt, from his personal account on X responded: “The act got old.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein posted video from Trump’s Sunday rally in Macon, Georgia.

Revealing just how tired Trump’s supporters have, the comedy team of The Good Liars, who frequently go to Trump rallies and interview his supporters, on Monday caught several people holding Trump signs leaving but his rally early.

The Lincoln Project posted a video, originally posted by Hillyard, remarking, “This is how the MAGA movement is dying, like a bad club when the lights come on.”

Another Trump rally today with “a lot of empty seats.”

A CNN reporter for that same rally agreed: “a lot of empty seats.”

Democratic former U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill noted that a Trump rally on Saturday also had “a lot of empty seats.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Harris Campaign Chief Says She's 'Confident' As Undecideds Swing Democratic

Harris Campaign Chief Says She's 'Confident' As Undecideds Swing Democratic

In a rare move seven days before Election Day, the chair of the Harris campaign has released a video in an apparent effort to tamp down nervousness in the Democratic base.

Jen O’Malley Dillon told supporters, “we’re on track to win a very close election,” “we feel really good with what we’re seeing,” but “we still have a lot of work to do.”

The video (below) has gone viral, with nearly 400,000 views on the social media platform X in just 90 minutes.

“I know you’re anxious,” O’Malley Dillon says, “I know you’re worried because you know what the stakes are and it’s okay to be worried, but what we can do for you is help you channel that anxiety into helping us in this campaign.” And she asked supporters to “go knock on doors.”

O’Malley Dillon, who also served as President Joe Biden’s 2020 and 2024 campaign manager, and his White House deputy chief of staff, recorded the three-and-a-half-minute “campaign update” to “tell you why you don’t have to feel anxious and you can feel good,” insisting “we have multiple pathways to get to 270 electoral votes.”

Declaring it “truly is a margin of error race,” O’Malley Dillon says, “every single state, the blue wall, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, the sun belt, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina … are in play, and in each of these states, every week we see and we monitor our numbers, we monitor the work that’s happening, and we’re seeing growing enthusiasm and we’re so excited about it.”

And she insists, “we feel really good about what we’re seeing out there.”

She says that Republicans, who historically have not taken advantage of early voting but this year are, at the behest of the RNC and occasionally Donald Trump, are simply “changing their mode of voting.”

“We are seeing Republicans voting early, but these are Republicans that are gonna vote no matter what.”

Meanwhile, Democrats are “voting at the levels we need them to vote in order for us to win,” she adds, and says early Democratic voters “are our lower propensity voters,” meaning voters who do not tend to vote in every election.

She says undecided voters are still out there, but they are moving more toward Harris than Trump, a claim confirmed in recent news reporting.

Last week the Monmouth University Poll reported the number of undecideds who are “motivated … is only 1%.”

Newsweek reported that “Emerson College polling, conducted between October 14 and 16, shows that among undecided voters who chose who they would vote for in the past week or month, 60 percent opted for the Democratic vice president, while 36 percent opted for Republican former President Donald Trump.”

She urged Harris and Walz supporters to go talk to the undecideds.

“They need to have people at their doors, they need to get phone calls, they need to see us wherever they are in any part of their life, so we leave no stone unturned.”

“Maybe you can make phone calls,” she asked, “or send texts from your home or maybe you can do something that only you can do, which is talk to people in your own lives. The people that you see every day. Maybe you work with them, maybe there are people in your life that you don’t always want to talk politics about because I know talking about politics is hard, but we need you to have those conversations. And if you even just have one of those hard conversations, that is gonna make a difference in this race.”

The Daily Beast reports Tuesday morning, O’Malley Dillon told reporters, “We’re confident we’re going to win.”

“And it’s not because we’re running away with it. It’s because we’re confident we’re on a path to win a very close election,” she said.

“She added that the Harris campaign has seen a ‘growth of support’ since Trump’s Sunday rally, where a comedian’s insulting joke about Puerto Rico offended many Latino voters.”

Watch O’Malley Dillon’s video below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Arson Hits Ballot Drop Boxes In Oregon And Washington

Arson Hits Ballot Drop Boxes In Oregon And Washington

With little more than one week until Election Day, a ballot drop box in Vancouver, Washington was set on fire, destroying hundreds of ballots. And in nearby Portland, Oregon, a ballot drop box was also set on fire, but a fire suppressant minimized the loss—just three ballots were damaged. An elections analyst said Vancouver is a strong source of Democratic votes in that congressional district, where the race is seen as extremely tight.

“Vancouver is the biggest city in Washington’s Third Congressional District, the site of what is expected to be one of the closest U.S. House races in the country, between first-term Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Republican challenger Joe Kent,” The Associated Press reports. “Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey in Vancouver told The Associated Press that the ballot drop box at the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center … had a fire suppression system inside, but for some reason it wasn’t effective. Responders pulled a burning pile of ballots from inside the box, and Kimsey said hundreds were lost.”

“It’s a direct attack on democracy,” Kimsey told the AP, calling it, “heartbreaking.”

Washington state Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, suggested the fire was an act of terror and “said the state would not tolerate threats or acts of violence meant to derail voting.”

“I strongly denounce any acts of terror that aim to disrupt lawful and fair elections in Washington state,” Secretary Hobbs said.

Washington and Oregon are vote by mail states.

Professor of law and former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance called it “utterly unacceptable & criminal behavior,” and said “the local US Attys will make this a top priority for prosecution. No 60 day rule for election violence.”

Rick Hasen, a professor of law and noted elections law expert added, “Lighting ballot boxes on fire in a federal election is a serious crime. It is going to need to be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice in federal and state courts.”

Elections expert Trygve Olson, a senior advisor to The Lincoln Project, commented, “there is nothing less American than the idea you would do something like this to your fellow Americans. It is an insult to our founders, to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the nation, and for those around the world who would give just about anything to have the right to vote.”

Talking Points Memo publisher Josh Marshall called for “a massive (FBI/brings in the Feds level) effort to find these culprits and severely punish them. For all the ways confidence and the reliability of our voting system has been damaged. Destruction of ballots takes things to a dramatic and unsustainable new level which tears at the fabric which still mostly ensures civic peace.”

FiveThirtyEight senior elections analyst says Vancouver, Washington “is the biggest source of Dem[ocratic] votes in WA-03 (which went about 50 percent - 46 percent for Trump overall). Vancouver has ~200k people and is the main city in Clark County, a county that provided about 70 percent of all WA-03 Dem votes in 2020.”

According to FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracking, the last two polls in that district were tied, 46 percent to 46 percent.

The FBI is investigating and working with local and state officials.

KATU photographer was able to capture video of the ballot box on fire in Vancouver, Washington.

Voters in Vancouver “who dropped off ballots at that location after 11 a.m. Saturday need to contact the Election Auditor’s Office IMMEDIATELY for a new ballot,” KATU reports. “A link to the Clark County Elections page, with contact information for the Auditor’s Office, can be found HERE. Washington voters can track the status of their ballots HERE.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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