Our live coverage has ended. Read more about the 2020 election here.
Frank Fahrenkopf, co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that muting a non-speaking candidate’s microphone during portions of Thursday’s debate is a necessary move after what took place during the first debate in Cleveland.
“There’s no question that the first debate was a disappointment for everybody, I think particularly for the American people,” Fahrenkopf said on the “Situation Room” Tuesday night. “We as a commission knew we couldn’t change rules without the consent of both [campaigns] but saying to the candidates that what’s going to happen is when the moderator asks candidate number one to begin their two minutes to talk uninterrupted, the candidate’s mic will not be live. When those two minutes are up, it is then candidate B’s chance to talk.”
Fahrenkopf also said that both candidates will be tested for Covid-19 prior to Thursday’s debate in Nashville, and that their guests must wear masks throughout the event.
“The testing will be done, HCA, which has been designated to be the health group in Nashville, I think it’s Health Corporation of America, designated by the Cleveland Clinic, will be meeting with and working with the doctors for the White House and for former Vice President Biden,” Fahrenkopf said. “In Cleveland, we had some of the first family remove their masks and not wear the masks, both candidates have now agreed, their campaigns, that everyone will leave their masks on for the whole — if the first family is there, I’m not sure at this point in time — and will not take their masks off.”
“Both candidates have committed that their guests will wear their masks throughout.”
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris celebrated her 56th birthday by participating in a virtually rally for Milwaukee to kick off the first day of early voting.
In true Midwest nice fashion, Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin presented Harris with a cupcake and had the California senator blow it out virtually.
“So we are 14 days away from this election. And today’s the first day of early voting in Wisconsin, my birthday. That was my little indulgence,” Harris said.
She pushed the Badger state viewers to early vote and described how excited she was about the numbers from the first hour.
More than 675,000 absentee ballots have been returned in Ohio, which is nearly double the more than 344,000 absentee ballots returned at this point in 2016, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Overall, more than 1.1 million early ballots have been cast so far, the office said in a news release.
The office also said more than one out of three voters have requested to vote early in the state.
Senior Homeland Security officials on Tuesday urged patience from voters and warned that election results won’t likely be known on Election Day.
“There’s very good chance that we will not know the winner of the presidential election for instance, on election night itself. And that’s not because something isn’t working. It’s because of the additional security measures in place,” DHS Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said during a briefing.
Pressed on whether President Trump’s comments calling for results on Nov. 3 make it harder to get out the “patience” message, Cuccinelli said all Americans want quick results.
“He’s a candidate. I’ve been one. We’ll have some results on Election Day. The question is: how much and how much will it tell us?” he said, adding that exit polls aren’t “going to be worth much.”
CISA Director Christopher Krebs echoed those remarks, saying, “let’s let the official process, the official results play itself out.”
Krebs said that the most likely election-related cyber incidents will be “highly visible” and intended to undermine confidence in the voting process. “It’s to get the voter to think ‘oh, my God,’ the elections have been hacked,” said Krebs. He told reporters that if there are issues, they anticipate “perception hacks,” such as website defacements DDoS attacks, “just to get undermine confidence in the process.”
Election Day is only two weeks away, and more than 27 million ballots have already been cast, according to a survey of election officials by CNN, Edison Research, and Catalist.
The ballots cast so far represent almost 20% of the more than 136 million total ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election.
Some of the voter information comes from Catalist, a company that provides data, analytics and other services to Democrats, academics and nonprofit issue-advocacy organizations and is giving new insights into who is voting before November.
Here’s a snapshot of early voting numbers by state:
Georgia
Colorado
Virginia
Texas
New Hampshire
Mississippi
North Carolina
Michigan
A photograph of a uniformed Miami police officer wearing a “Trump 2020” protective mask at a polling place Tuesday sparked condemnation from the city’s mayor and police chief.
Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina said in a statement that the officer’s behavior was “unacceptable, a violation of departmental policy, and is being addressed immediately.”
Mayor Francis Suarez tweeted that the officer involved is under investigation and that “disciplinary measures will be taken.”
Steve Simeonidis, chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, said he photographed the officer, who he identified as Officer Daniel Ubeda, wearing the mask at voting site in Miami’s Government Center Tuesday. A Miami police spokesperson declined to confirm the name of the officer.
Simeonidis said he did not know what Ubeda was doing there or if he was voting.
A manual from the Florida Division of Elections says that while poll workers and election staff are prohibited from wearing campaign-related material while on duty, voters are permitted to do so when they enter polling places.
Ubeda could not immediately be reached for comment.
Matt Reyes, vice president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, told CNN the matter would become an open investigation, so he couldn’t discuss details.
Reyes shared a statement from the union that said, “Police Officers also have first amendment rights under the US Constitution as well as the right to vote in uniform pursuant to Florida State Law.”
CNN’s Tina Burnside contributed to this report.
The US Postal Service inspector general released a new report today criticizing USPS service reductions implemented under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, charging that they were done without a proper analysis of the impact the cuts would have.
The inspector general notes that three changes DeJoy made after he started in June, including the elimination of late and extra trips to transport mail, were compounded by more than 50 other cost-cutting initiatives that also went into effect.
“These initiatives undertaken individually may not have been significant. However, launching all of these efforts at once, in addition to the changes instituted by the Postmaster General, had a significant impact on the Postal Service,” the report says.
CNN is reaching out to USPS for comment.
The top cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday—two weeks ahead of Election Day—that there hasn’t been a “coordinated campaign” purposely targeting the election systems like in 2016.
Chris Krebs, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said that is important to note because they have “better visibility now than we did then” and “we have better reporting pipelines now.”
Krebs, who made the comments Tuesday in a pre-recorded message at the Cyber Talks conference, said officials have not been seeing the level of activity as of today, but “that’s not to say that state local systems aren’t getting hit every single day.”
Still, Krebs noted that the election is two weeks away and, “I don’t know what’s going to happen, if anything,” between now and then.
He also reiterated the agency’s concerns about ransomware attacks, which have evolved over the last several years and ransomware gangs are on the upswing.
“They’re really kind of finding that groove,” Krebs said. “And we’re seeing some really crazy ransom demands from some of the whales out there.”
Krebs said they have seen organizations in the private sector get hit for as much as $30 million.
“We’re seeing big ones,” he said. “So what we’ve been worried about is how these criminals have been targeting; the cyber criminals have been targeting state local systems. Again, they tend not to have the capital of the investment that the private sector organizations do. And so, in a couple cases, they’re going to be easy pickings. And we really wanted to make sure that that intersection of ransomware in the 2020 election didn’t manifest in a way that would disrupt the vote that would disenfranchise you as the voter.”
Echoing other officials, Krebs urged patience on Election Day.
“Let’s not get caught up in the hysteria of election night or election week. And just have a little bit of patience here,” he said. ”Let’s let the officials count the ballots. Let’s let the pros do their job. So remember, please prepare, participate and have a little patience.”
More than two million voters in the state of North Carolina have already successfully cast their ballots for the 2020 election.
As of 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, at least 2,024,883 North Carolinians had voted, according to the State Board of Elections.
By comparison, the NCSBE says that at this time in 2016, roughly 700,000 total votes had been cast.
Of the two million ballots cast so far in 2020, more than half were cast in person. A total of 1,369,041 people voted early in-person. The early in-person voting period started five days ago on Oct. 15 in North Carolina.
A total of 655,842 absentee by mail ballots have been returned and accepted by county boards.
According to the NCSBE Director Karen Brinson Bell, there are between 7,000 to 10,000 ballots have corrections that need to be made, either with a cure certificate or by spoiling and issuing a new ballot.
The state’s ballot curing process had been on hold since Oct. 4 due to several lawsuits.
The NCSBE announced new guidance Monday on which ballot deficiencies can be cured and which will require the voter to start over with a new ballot. County election officials began notifying voters with ballot deficiencies Monday.
Brinson Bell noted that it is possible, based on their projections, that North Carolina could possibly have more than 80% of all votes cast before the polls even open on Nov. 3.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tested negative for Covid-19 today.
“Vice President Biden underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 today and COVID-19 was not detected,” the Biden-Harris campaign said today.
Biden will share a debate stage with President Trump during their final presidential debate Thursday in Nashville.
President Trump abruptly ended a solo interview with “60 Minutes” Tuesday and did not return for an appearance he was supposed to tape with Vice President Mike Pence, according to multiple sources familiar with what happened.
After camera crews set up at the White House Monday, President Trump sat down with Lesley Stahl for about 45 minutes Tuesday before he abruptly ended the interview and told the network he believed they had enough material to use, according to two sources.
Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris were also interviewed by “60 Minutes” and all four are scheduled to appear in the same program Sunday.
While Biden and Harris taped their interviews separately, Trump and Pence were scheduled to appear on camera together, like they did four years ago, for a walk and talk session. But Trump did not return for the appearance with Pence, sources said.
The interview is slated to air this Sunday.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris underwent PCR testing today and Covid-19 was not detected, according to a Harris aide.
Properly-mailed absentee ballots that arrive at Virginia elections offices without a postmark will still be counted under new rules formally approved by the state board of elections on Tuesday.
The regulation requires vote counting officials to accept mailed absentee ballots until Nov. 6 at noon, as long as those ballots are mailed on or before polls close on Nov. 3, the official Election Day.
If there is no postmark to prove when the ballot was mailed, the new regulation requires election officials first consult barcode data stamped by the US Postal Service on the ballot. If that does not prove conclusive whether the ballot was mailed before the deadline, officials will review the date the voter wrote when signing the ballot envelope.
The rules passed at a Tuesday afternoon meeting of the board by a vote of 2-1. Board members did not explain the rationale for their votes.
The total ballots cast so far in Virginia, 1.44 million, is more than two and a half times the number cast in early voting in 2016.
More than one million Georgians have cast early, in-person ballots, according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
In a news release the secretary of state’s office said voters hit the one million mark at noon Tuesday, the 9th day of early voting.
That pace is ahead of 2016 when it took until the end of the second week to hit the mark, according to the release.
In person voting is running 62.5% faster than 2016 and absentee ballots by mail are 640% ahead of four years ago.
Georgians have cast nearly 1.7 million total early ballots, a 142% overall increase.
Three-fourths of Americans think that attending a campaign rally is risky due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new poll from Axios-Ipsos.
Fifty-eight percent of respondents said it was a large risk, and 17% said it was a moderate risk in the poll, which was based on a nationally representative sample of 1,001 American adults. The poll was conducted from Oct. 16 to Oct. 19.
Broken down by political party, 54% of Republicans, 79% of independents and 93% of Democrats said attending rallies was risky.
The poll also gave respondents six true or false statements about the pandemic, such as “A Covid-19 vaccine will be available before Election Day.” Those who got four or fewer questions correct were less likely to view political rallies as a risk.
When it came to in-person voting, fewer thought it was a risky activity. Twelve percent of respondents said that it was a large risk and 32% a moderate risk.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is off the campaign trail for the second day in a row today, meeting with advisers and preparing for Thursday night’s second and final presidential debate.
A campaign adviser tells CNN that Biden is getting ready for President Trump to “bully and deflect” from the debate stage, and is also preparing for the President to go after not just Biden but his family as well as we saw in the first debate.
Biden’s overarching goal is similar to the first debate, the adviser added: talk directly to the American people about how he would contain Covid-19 and build back the economy.
He’ll also be pointing out that Trump has been avoiding the reality on how bad the virus is right now. We’ll likely hear him emphasize the “Park Ave. vs. Scranton” theme that he’s been hitting on in recent weeks.
In addition, the adviser said they still view the 2020 race as being a stable one overall.
Asked about the mic muting decision by the debate commission, the adviser repeated that they expect Trump to “bully and deflect” regardless of the rules. As for Trump getting a negative Covid-19 test before the debate, the adviser said those questions should be directed to the commission and the Cleveland Clinic.
The New York City Police Department will have hundreds of additional officers on duty starting Oct. 26 to assist with anything involving voting locations, Police Chief Terence Monahan said at a news conference.
The NYPD, he said, expects a heavy voter turnout. The chief went on to say that there are no current threats to voting locations and the NYPD does not expect any in the next few weeks.
The NYPD will have uniformed officers at all 1,021 polling locations on Election Day as well as 88 early voting locations that will open Oct. 24.
The NYPD deputy commissioner of intelligence and counter intelligence, John Miller, said that the department is aware of issues in other states but has seen no activity of groups planning to disrupt the election in NYC.
“We’re aware of contentious relations and we’re relying on two things: the extreme right and extreme left both agree that everyone needs to vote and that actually hopefully helps us,” Miller said.
Miller also said that the NYPD is monitoring the election for any possible cyberattacks.
“We will be running a cyber command post in the background to make sure we are monitoring all systems against anything that can be election fraud or tampering,” he said.
First lady Melania Trump had been scheduled to make her first campaign appearance in months tonight at President Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania, but she has decided not to go, based on how she is feeling.
Melania Trump has not attended a rally or campaign appearance since June 2019.
“Mrs. Trump continues to feel better every day following her recovery from Covid-19, but with a lingering cough, and out of an abundance of caution, she will not be traveling today,” the first lady’s spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, told CNN.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins has more:
More than 4.6 million people cast their vote in Texas during the first seven days of early voting, according to data posted on the Texas Secretary of State website Tuesday morning. That represents a little more than 27% of registered voters.
On Monday, about 502,042 people voted in person, bringing the total in-person votes to just under 4 million. Meanwhile, approximately 36,772 mail-in ballots were added to the count, bringing the total ballots-by-mail to 619,017.
These numbers do not include Harris County – the largest county in Texas – which still hasn’t reported its data for Monday to the state website.
How this stacks up: Comparing early voting data from 2016 can be complicated for multiple reasons, in addition to the pandemic.
First, Texas has three weeks of in-person early voting this cycle compared to two weeks in 2016. Second, the state is tracking early voting data from all 254 counties this cycle, but it only collected data from the top 15 most populous counties in 2016.
Still, when looking at the data from the first seven days of early voting in the top five most populous counties in both cycles, turnout has increased by 228,937 in those counties – an increase of about 13.5%. It’s worth noting that those counties represent 42% of all registered voters.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and and the New York Police Department have been in talks about how to prepare for potential unrest following Election Day and in the likelihood of a lingering final count, the mayor said.
If anyone attempts violence “we have to stop that violence,” de Blasio added.
He also said it’s “bluntly false” that anything the leader of the Police Benevolence Association says reflects the tenor of the NYPD. He was responding to a question remarking that the PBA have endorsed the President.
“They hold a broad broad range of views,” he said of the police force reminding that they are a majority “people of color” police force that is “very substantially city residents,” and should not be “stereotyped.”
He believes what has been seen “overwhelmingly” is that officers “leave their politics at home and they go and do what has to be done to keep people safe and respect peaceful protest.”
He added that peaceful protest is a long respected tradition in NYC. He was pressed repeatedly on the notion that some in the police force may not be on the side of potential demonstrators.
De Blasio countered that saying that that “it’s a very professional police force.”
While there are individuals in the force that he acknowledged have “done some things absolutely wrong,” with the regard to the police force on the whole it’s not the “reality.”
He continually touted the NYPD and upper ranks as a very “professional” group of people with “diverse views” who “believe deeply that their job is to protect the democratic process and protect peaceful protest,” he said.
The NYPD has a briefing later this afternoon on post-election preparedness
