“Thanks to new voting laws in numerous states—laws that permit more voters to request and cast absentee ballots—we always expected that in-person voting rates on Election Day would plunge to record lows. That was before Covid-19.
Now, the combination of the pandemic and the looser regulations all but guarantees a surge of absentee voting unlike anything we’ve ever witnessed. And that’s fine: Despite what the president says, there is no evidence of absentee ballots being especially susceptible to fraud or manipulation. What are absentee ballots especially susceptible to? Disqualification. Every election cycle, many thousands of absentee ballots are rejected because they fail to meet certain criteria: They are not signed, or properly sealed, or they arrive too late. (This year alone, a neck-snapping 550,000 ballots were disqualified during the presidential primaries, according to an analysis by NPR.) Because Democrats are far likelier to vote absentee than are Republicans, the problem is uniquely daunting for Biden. In Pennsylvania alone, there are estimates that a new law requiring mail ballots be
placed inside of two envelopes—a privacy envelope containing the ballot, tucked inside an outer envelope—could result in the disqualification of 100,000 votes. Remember: Trump’s margin of victory in Pennsylvania in 2016 was roughly 44,000 votes.”
Biden said during a town hall on Monday that he did not believe a president could impose a nationwide mask mandate. Instead, Biden said he would require masks on federal property and urge state and local executives to also require masks.
Donald Trumpwas discharged from the Walter Reed Medical Center and returned to the White House on Monday evening after receiving treatment for COVID-19. In a video posted to Twitter, Trump said of the coronavirus, “Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it. We have the best medical equipment. We have the best medicines, all developed recently.” He also said vaccines were coming momentarily.
Trump began airing a new ad on network cable focused on the opportunity zone investment program created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump paused their campaigns in Florida as Hurricane Matthew approached.
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