Courts Inject Politics Into Final Days Of Campaign
- Courts handed down a number of decisions this week related to voting rights. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a restriction on absentee ballot counting in Wisconsin.
- TPM’s Tierney Sneed detailed how two Trump-appointed justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, used the ruling to lay out their hardcore approach to voting rights cases.
- Kavanaugh wrote a concurrence in the Wisconsin case, which contained a number of errors and misrepresentations. Hey, everyone could use an editor, it turns out. Vermont’s secretary of state requested Kavanaugh correct the order, which Kavanaugh did — kind of.
- On Wednesday, the Supreme Court declined to weigh in before Election Day on a Republican request to impose a Nov. 3 deadline for mail-in ballots in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania. However, three of the high court’s justices signaled they were eager to rule in favor of the GOP effort, potentially imperiling thousands of ballots if they are received after Election Day.
- Also on Wednesday, the Supreme Court declined a Republican effort in North Carolina to reinstate a tight deadline for mail-in ballots.
- On Thursday, a federal appeals court issued a ruling that signaled a seven-day grace period for mail-in ballots to arrive after Election Day in Minnesota was kaput. The order has injected chaos and confusion in the final days of the campaign in the midwestern state, which Trump lost narrowly to Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Notes From The Campaign Trail
- The TPM staff has been busy live-blogging the final stretch of the campaign. One theme we have been following closely is the number of early votes cast. In Texas, for instance, early vote numbers have already eclipsed the state’s total turnout in 2016.
- In Minnesota, a record 1.5 million absentee ballots have been accepted as of Friday.
- Trump and Biden have been criss-crossing the country for their final campaign blitz. Trump on Friday made fun of Fox host Laura Ingraham for wearing a mask at one of his rallies. Classy.
- In Georgia, Sen. David Perdue, who is facing off against Democratic challenger John Ossoff, pulled out of their final scheduled debate. Ossoff had absolutely roasted Perdue during their debate on Wednesday, calling Perdue a “crook” to his face.
- More than one Trump rally this week resulted in people needing hospital treatment. On Tuesday night, many supporters were stranded in the cold after a rally in Omaha, Nebraska. Seven people were taken to the hospital, according to local reports. On Thursday, the heat at a Trump rally in Tampa caused several people to pass out. A dozen people were sent to the hospital, according to NBC News.
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Here’s a great way to start your weekend.
Or you could start your weekend like this:
Saw a tweet that said…
RIP Mr. Bond, James Bond.
It was a good long run.
ETA: I have a special affinity for Bond movies starring Sean Connery in that my dad would take me to the movies, just me, and not my brothers and sister, to see all the Bond movies when they first came out. You could say we were able to ‘bond’ that way during my younger days. All Bond movies remind me and at times even endear me to my since deceased dad’s Mad Man persona in some ways.
Why the fuck is Trump having a rally at 8:00 pm tonight in my hometown?
We’re a small town, and it’s Halloween! The kids will be trick-or-treating! Trick-or-treating is one of the fun things that these kids can do that is fun and easily lends itself to social distancing and wearing PPE, and Trump has chosen to fuck it up.
He must have been told already that he’s going to win this county. He’s such an ass.
Our local police department has been posting updates on social media about both trick-or-treating and the rally. They listed the banned items from the rally…which actually (in print) includes toasters! They also posted the following…
Toasters? What’s that about? That’s so weird. The man is willing to destroy everything in his wake.
You think that’s bad? Just wait. This is his plan from Nov. 3rd and afterwards…He’s nuts. He’s more than willing to put as much gasoline on the fire as possible, even as they’re still counting the votes. Shameless and destructive to the end:
Well then, a Bond movie will be this evening’s entertainment (sorfy donald, but you don’t compair to Sean Connery in any way). I expect it will be Dr No.