Happy Election week!
Tomorrow is officially Election Day—the final day voters can cast ballots and the first day election officials begin to release results. We're here to keep you abreast of all the important developments this week and beyond.
Here's what you can expect in the Brew, starting Wednesday:
- Summaries of where things stand each day in the presidential race, as well as congressional and state-level elections.
- In-depth coverage of the close races, recounts, lawsuits, and election challenges as they develop.
- Links to the latest information—whether it’s about the presidential contest, the battle for control of Congress, trifecta statuses, ballot measures, and more.
Whether you read the Brew each morning, follow events directly at Ballotpedia.org, or keep informed through any of our other newsletters, we’ll give you the information you need to stay on top of things. And we'll have special coverage and editions as circumstances warrant. To keep abreast of changes to election processes and lawsuits from the presidential campaigns and major political parties, click here to subscribe to our 2020 Election Help Desk newsletter.
We want to honor your readership by being the only source you need to get all the facts and unbiased information about the 2020 elections. I hope we can serve as a calming resource for you this week as you make sense of the election results.
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Previewing D.C. elections
Over the last five weeks, we previewed elections in all 50 states. We hope those previews gave you insight into your state’s elections and of the national landscape. Here are the links to all the states we covered:
Week One: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Texas, North Carolina, Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio, Nebraska, and Oregon
Week Two: Montana, New Mexico, Iowa, South Dakota, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Maryland, Nevada, and South Carolina
Week Three: North Dakota, West Virginia, Georgia, New York, Kentucky, Virginia, Colorado, Utah, New Jersey, and Oklahoma
Week Four: Maine, Missouri, Arizona, Michigan, Kansas, Washington, Hawaii, Tennessee, Vermont, and Wisconsin
Week Five: Connecticut, Minnesota, Florida, Wyoming, Alaska, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island
Today we’re finishing our election previews with a look at the District of Columbia, as well as other battleground races.
On the ballot in the District of Columbia
At the federal level, District of Columbia voters will elect three presidential electors, one Shadow U.S. Senator, one Shadow U.S. Representative, and one U.S. House Non-Voting Delegate. Voters will also decide on one district-wide ballot measure. Ballotpedia is tracking local elections taking place for the D.C. Council and board of education.
Ballot measures
- D.C. voters will decide one ballot measure on Nov. 3. The measure—Initiative 81—would declare that police shall treat the non-commercial cultivation, distribution, possession, and use of entheogenic plants and fungi, which includes psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, and iboga, among the lowest law enforcement priorities.
- Oregon voters will also decide an initiative this year—Measure 109—to create a program for administering psilocybin, such as psilocybin-producing mushrooms and fungi, to individuals aged 21 years or older. Oregon would be the first state with a program for legal psilocybin use if Measure 109 is approved.
- D.C. would be the fifth city to decriminalize psilocybin after Denver, Colorado; Oakland and Santa Cruz, California; and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Voting
- The District of Columbia changed its rules in 2020 to send absentee/mail-in ballots to all active registered voters in the general election.
- D.C. does not require witnesses or notaries to sign absentee/mail-in ballot return documents.
- Voters can return their ballots in person or by mail. If returned in person, ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day. If returned by mail, ballots must be postmarked on or before Nov. 3 and received by Nov. 13. Click here to check the status of your ballot.
- D.C. does not require all voters to present identification at the polls.
- Early voting in D.C. began on Oct. 27 and ends on Nov. 2.
- In D.C., polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. D.C. is in the Eastern time zone.
Mayor of Miami-Dade County
Esteban Bovo Jr. and Daniella Levine Cava are running in the nonpartisan general election for Mayor of Miami-Dade County. In the August nonpartisan primary, Bovo and Levine Cava advanced with 29.5% and 28.6% of the vote, respectively. Both candidates currently serve as Miami-Dade County commissioners.
Though the race is nonpartisan, the candidates have received partisan support, with Republican organizations endorsing Bovo and Democratic organizations endorsing Levine Cava. The office was last held by a Democratic-aligned candidate in 2004. In 2016, incumbent Carlos Gimenez, a Republican, won re-election 48% to 32%.
Mayor of Portland, Oregon
Incumbent Ted Wheeler and Sarah Iannarone are running for mayor of Portland, Oregon, on November 3. Teressa Raiford is a write-in candidate. The mayoral race is nonpartisan. As of October 2020, 63 mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 29 are affiliated with the Republican Party, three are independents, and five identify as nonpartisan or unaffiliated.
Nineteen candidates ran in the May 19 primary. Wheeler received 49.1%—short of the majority needed to win the election outright. Iannarone received 24%, and Raiford received 8.5%. As the top two vote-getters, Wheeler and Iannarone advanced to the general election.
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