Biden raised whopping $383M in September

Joe Biden announced Wednesday evening that his campaign and affiliated committees raised $383 million in September, breaking a record he had just set the prior month as his campaign continues to ride a surge of online donations.

Biden, the Democratic National Committee and the campaign's joint fundraising committees started the final 34 days of the campaign with $432 million in the bank, Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon tweeted.

President Donald Trump's campaign and the Republican National Committee have not yet released their fundraising totals for September, though they must file campaign finance reports for the month by Oct. 20. In August, Biden raised $154 million than Trump, $365 million to $210 million.


https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/14/biden-fundraising-haul-429546

California Republican Party says it will not comply with state's cease and desist order on ballot dr

CNN)The California Republican Party said Wednesday it will not comply with the state's cease-and-desist order over unofficial ballot drop boxes placed in at least four counties, escalating a brewing political showdown ahead of the November election.

The unauthorized ballot boxes, which state officials have called illegal, have been found in at least four counties across the state: Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange and Fresno.
"Ballot harvesting program will continue," California Republican Party spokesman Hector Barajas said in a statement to CNN.

The fight over the unofficial drop boxes comes as the coronavirus pandemic has led to historic interest in mail-in voting, even as President Donald Trump and the GOP have spent months attacking the integrity of mail ballots and fighting in court against drop boxes. Trump has repeatedly made unfounded claims that the election tally will be fraudulent because of the proliferation of mail-in voting and drop box usage and has warned that he may not agree to a peaceful transfer of power due to those misleading beliefs.

he party made their intentions clear in a letter to the California Secretary of State on Wednesday. In the letter, attorneys for the state GOP say all of the ballot boxes deployed by the party are indoors, staffed by volunteers or party officials, secure and not labeled "official."
While images of the ballot boxes have shown the boxes labeled as "official," the state GOP said it did not authorize the use of that term and had it removed.


https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/14/politics/california-republicans-ballot-drop-boxes-cease-and-desist/index.html

FL: Trailblazing transgender state Senate candidate dies just weeks before election

A transgender state Senate candidate running in Northeast Florida died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer, just weeks before the end of her historic run for office.

Melina Rayna Svanhild Farley-Barratt of Trenton was the Democratic nominee in Senate District 5, a largely rural and deep-red sinecure in Northeast Florida.

In a district where 51% of registered voters are Republicans, few Democrats would take on the political machine of Senate Appropriations Chair Rob Bradley and his likely successor and wife, Jennifer Bradley. But Barratt was no ordinary candidate.

Barratt was a familiar presence in the halls of the Florida Capitol during the 2020 Legislative Session, often willing to make arguments that flew in the face of the inevitable Republican consensus positions on one issue or another. She was undaunted by committee chairs struggling to pronounce her name.

She was the Legislative Director with Florida NOW and — as she told Florida Politics last year — she was the first transgender woman to run for the state Senate. She was not intimidated by the Republican composition of the district and the challenge posed by the opposition.



https://floridapolitics.com/archives/374438-trailblazing-transgender-senate-candidate-dies-before-election

Texas Republicans' last-minute challenge to drive-thru voting in Harris County dismissed by appeals

Drive-thru and curbside voting programs in Harris County can continue after a state appeals court Wednesday quickly threw out a last-minute lawsuit filed by the Texas Republican Party challenging the county's efforts to provide more voting options during the coronavirus pandemic. The state GOP had filed suit Monday night asking the court to place limits on curbside voting and halt drive-thru voting.

The appellate judges said the party and a voter who filed the suit did so too late, and did not show how they specifically might be injured by the voting practices. The lawsuit was filed just hours before early voting polls opened and more than a month after the Harris County Clerk announced his plan for drive-thru voting.

"The election is currently in progress and the relators delayed filing this mandamus until over a month after learning of the actions of the Harris County Clerk’s Office," the panel of three judges on Texas' 14th Court of Appeals wrote in their ruling dismissing the case.

A Texas Republican Party spokesperson said it plans to appeal Wednesday's ruling to the Texas Supreme Court "to ensure that no illegal votes would be cast and counted in this election." In an unrelated recent voting lawsuit, the state's high court ruled against another voting challenge because it was filed too late, saying changes during an ongoing election could cause voter confusion.



https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/13/texas-republicans-voting-harris-county/

Florida Democrats are outvoting Republicans in early ballots

Democrats are leading by a wide margin in vote-by-mail totals in Florida, though Republicans are optimistic they can catch up on Election Day.

Data first reported by The Associated Press from Florida's Division of Elections indicate that registered Democrats lead registered GOP voters by more than 320,000 ballots among the roughly 1.7 million mail-in votes cast so far in the key battleground state, a margin that analysts from both parties suggest could indicate that Republicans largely plan to vote in person on Nov. 3.

Florida's mail-in totals have already surpassed 60 percent of the total for such ballots in 2016. There are 10 days remaining to request a mail-in ballot in the Sunshine State.

The new figures support findings of an Axios survey last month that indicated as many as 75 percent of Americans who strongly disapprove of the president's job performance are likely to vote early by mail, while the president's supporters were more likely to vote in person.

“Voting in Florida is a marathon. And what you’re seeing is a bit of a sprint from the Democrats,” added the director of President Trump’s campaign in Florida, Susie Wiles, in a statement to Politico. “But we have far more high-propensity voters on our side. That should be noted in all the hype about the Democrats’ lead. We’re not finished. We’re turning our sights to early in-person voting and to Election Day.”



https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/520964-florida-democrats-are-outvoting-republicans-in-early-ballots

As Virus Spread Early On, Reports of Trump Administration Briefings Fueled Sell-Off

On the afternoon of Feb. 24, President Trump declared on Twitter that the coronavirus was “very much under control” in the United States, one of numerous rosy statements that he and his advisers made at the time about the worsening epidemic. He even added an observation for investors: “Stock market starting to look very good to me!”

But hours earlier, senior members of the president’s economic team, privately addressing board members of the conservative Hoover Institution, were less confident. Tomas J. Philipson, a senior economic adviser to the president, told the group he could not yet estimate the effects of the virus on the American economy. To some in the group, the implication was that an outbreak could prove worse than Mr. Philipson and other Trump administration advisers were signaling in public at the time.

he next day, board members — many of them Republican donors — got another taste of government uncertainty from Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council. Hours after he had boasted on CNBC that the virus was contained in the United States and “it’s pretty close to airtight,” Mr. Kudlow delivered a more ambiguous private message. He asserted that the virus was “contained in the U.S., to date, but now we just don’t know,” according to a document describing the sessions obtained by The New York Times.

The document, written by a hedge fund consultant who attended the three-day gathering of Hoover’s board, was stark. “What struck me,” the consultant wrote, was that nearly every official he heard from raised the virus “as a point of concern, totally unprovoked.”





https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-investors.html

Texas surpassed 1 million votes on first day of early voting

More than a million Texans have already cast ballots after just the first day of early voting.

And the state isn’t even finished counting the first day’s numbers.

Record breaking early voting, combined with unusually high mail-in ballot returns show Texas has already surpassed 1 million votes with still three more weeks of voting come.

Harris County by far had the biggest turnout on the first day, with almost 170,000 ballots cast in-person or through mail-in voting as of Wednesday morning. In 2016, Harris County had just under 130,000 ballots submitted on the first day.

Even with the long lines, voters in places like Harris County said they were determined to vote on the first day to leave nothing to chance.


https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Texas-surpassed-1-million-votes-on-first-day-of-15647238.php

Connecticut State Senate moves from 'Likely' to 'Safe' Democratic.

With early voting starting Monday, 16% of Pinellas County voters have already cast a ballot

Early voting in Pinellas County is set to start next Monday, and continue until Nov. 1, just two days ahead of the Nov. 3 General Election.

The early voting locations, listed below, will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. The Pinellas Supervisor of Elections warns voters to expect lines when going to vote in-person.

The Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections broke all previous election records in late September after mailing out 363,312 domestic ballots to voters across the county, all via request.

As of Wednesday morning, the county posted a 15.88% turnout rate all from mail-in ballots. Of Pinellas County’s 711,170 registered voters, 112,966 have casted mail-in ballots so far.

Of the ballots cast so far, 49.10%, or 55,471 have been sent in by Democrats; 30.21%, or 34,124 by Republicans; 19.59%, or 22,126 by voters with no-party affiliation; and 1.10%, or 1,245 by third party voters.

Pinellas County is a swing county, notable for supporting former President Barack Obama in 2008 and again in 2012, but then going for President Donald Trump in 2016. Currently, Democrats only outnumber Republicans in the county by about 5,000 voters — the county has 255,833 registered Democrats and 250,791 registered Republicans, as well as 205,963 third-party or NPA voters.



https://floridapolitics.com/archives/374445-with-early-voting-starting-monday-16-of-pinellas-county-voters-have-already-cast-a-ballot

Contra Costa County (CA) Officials Begin Processing Flood Of Early Ballots

MARTINEZ (KPIX 5) — A record number of Bay Area voters are turning in their ballots weeks ahead of election day, a practice that is making the jobs of local county registrars much easier.

Voter turnout appears to be picking up speed in the Bay Area. The wave of early ballots may even be enough to produce sizable returns the moment polls close on Election Day.

“So all of these are going through, pictures are being taken of the signatures,” explained Scott Konopasek, Contra Costa County Assistant. Registrar of Voters. “Those signature images are sent to our signature verification team which is across the street.”

voter’s signature isn’t just important; it’s the first thing the machine looks for on the first pass.

“Once they get verified, they’ll come through again,” Konopasek said. “Exceptions will be sorted out into these other categories.”



https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/10/13/contra-costa-county-officials-begin-processing-flood-of-early-ballots/