Supreme court rules Virginia can stop 1,600 people from voting
The supreme court has paused the ruling by a lower court that would have restored voting rights to approximately 1,600 voters in Virginia.
In its brief order, the supreme court wrote:
“The application for stay presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is granted. The October 25, 2024 order of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia … is stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely sought. Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of the Court.”
BREAKING: The U.S. Supreme Court has paused a lower court ruling that orders Virginia to restore some 1,600 registered voters that a state program purged too close to this fall’s election in violation of the National Voter Registration Act pic.twitter.com/7OzDN8eGg2
— Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) (@hansilowang) October 30, 2024
Last week, Virginia was asked to permit more than 1,600 people to the vote after a federal judge ruled that the state had illegally revoked those rights.
The Guardian’s voting rights reporter Sam Levine reported then that the plaintiffs who brought forth the lawsuit said that many people were being incorrectly identified as non-citizen by the Department of Motor Vehicles by checking the wrong box on a form.
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Updated at 10.23 EDT
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Virginia Republican governor claims supreme court ruling is ‘victory for election fairness’
Virginia’s Republican governor Glenn Youngkin has hailed the supreme court’s ruling that allowed the state to proceed with its removal of approximately 1,600 voter registrations, calling it a “victory for common sense and election fairness.”
Youngkin, who ordered state officials to identify and cancel the voter registration of alleged non-citizens unless they could prove their citizenship in two weeks, said:
“Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections. Virginians also know that we have paper ballots, counting machines not connected to the internet, a strong chain of custody process, signature verification, monitored and secured drop boxes, and a ‘triple check’ vote counting process to tabulate results. Virginians can cast their ballots on Election Day knowing that Virginia’s elections are fair, secure, and free from politically-motivated interference.”
We are pleased by the Supreme Court’s order today. This is a victory for commonsense and election fairness. I am grateful for the work of Attorney General @JasonMiyaresVA on this critical fight to protect the fundamental rights of U.S. citizens. Clean voter rolls are one…
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 30, 2024
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Updated at 10.47 EDT
Supreme court rules Virginia can stop 1,600 people from voting
The supreme court has paused the ruling by a lower court that would have restored voting rights to approximately 1,600 voters in Virginia.
In its brief order, the supreme court wrote:
“The application for stay presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is granted. The October 25, 2024 order of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia … is stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely sought. Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of the Court.”
BREAKING: The U.S. Supreme Court has paused a lower court ruling that orders Virginia to restore some 1,600 registered voters that a state program purged too close to this fall’s election in violation of the National Voter Registration Act pic.twitter.com/7OzDN8eGg2
— Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) (@hansilowang) October 30, 2024
Last week, Virginia was asked to permit more than 1,600 people to the vote after a federal judge ruled that the state had illegally revoked those rights.
The Guardian’s voting rights reporter Sam Levine reported then that the plaintiffs who brought forth the lawsuit said that many people were being incorrectly identified as non-citizen by the Department of Motor Vehicles by checking the wrong box on a form.
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Updated at 10.23 EDT
In a new interview with CBS Mornings, Tim Walz said, “People are hungry to come back together … They’re hungry for us to find solutions.”
Walz, who spoke to Good Morning America earlier this morning, said: “One that’s talking about unifying us, one that’s talking about bringing folks to the table … The American tradition of disagreeing and debating but still doing it in a respectful manner.”
He went on to add that one of the most important campaign issues was restoring federal reproductive rights across the country, saying, “Restoration of Roe – that’s what we’re looking for.”
In response to Arab American voters in Michigan who have voiced their disapproval towards Kamala Harris over her support of Israel, Walz said, “There’s one ticket here that is going to find the pathway to stabilization in the Middle East, but also one that is going to respect their human rights here – push back against Islamophobia – make sure that they have the right to fully engage in our system here.”
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Updated at 10.11 EDT
A former Republican congressional candidate has been charged with stealing ballots in Indiana.
Reuters reports:
A Republican former congressional candidate was charged with stealing ballots during a test of a voting system in Madison county, Indiana, state police said on Tuesday.
During the test on 3 October, which involved four voting machines and 136 candidate ballots marked for testing, officials discovered that two ballots were missing, according to the Indiana state police.
Voter fraud is rare in the United States, and courts dismissed multiple lawsuits of alleged electoral fraud brought by former president Donald Trump and some of his Republican allies who accused Democrats of stealing the 2020 election. Trump faces the Democratic vice-president, Kamala Harris, in a 5 November presidential election.
For the full story, click here:
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Updated at 09.36 EDT
Walz says election will be close but hails Democrat ground game
Tim Walz appeared on Good Morning America, saying, “We know it’s going to be close but we’re going to win this thing.”
Speaking to host George Stephanopoulos, Walz said, “We’ve got the better ground game, we’ve got the excitement, we’ve got the momentum on our side.”
He added that his biggest concern was that “that Donald Trump has brought up a pessimism to folks, that folks don’t believe that their vote matters. Those votes do matter … Make sure you participate in this democracy. I think you’re going to see Donald Trump continue to spiral downward in this really difficult and hateful rhetoric.”
In response to Joe Biden’s “garbage” remark, Walz said, “The president’s clarified his remarks, but let’s be very clear: the vice-president and I have made it absolutely clear that we want everyone as a part of this. Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric is what needs to end … and what I say is, there’s a place for all of us here.”
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Updated at 09.42 EDT
With the election just a few days away, here is what the presidential and vice-presidential candidates are going to be up to today, according to Politico:
Donald Trump will hold a rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, at 1pm ET then a rally in Green Bay Wisconsin at 7pm ET.
JD Vance will hold a town hall with Democrat-turned-Republican Tulsi Gabbard in Bedford, Pennsylvania at 5.30pm ET.
Kamala Harris will hold rallies in Raleigh, North Carolina, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Madison, Wisconsin.
Tim Walz will make appearances on Good Morning America and CBS Mornings before holding campaign events in Charlotte, Greensboro and Asheville, North Carolina.
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Updated at 08.54 EDT
Nikki Haley: ‘not a time to have anyone criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos’
In a new interview on Fox News, Nikki Haley, a Donald Trump critic-turned ally, said now was “not a time to have anyone criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos”.
Haley, who ran against Trump earlier this year before dropping out the presidential race, added:
“You’ve got Americans who are absolutely not going to vote for Trump. And then you’ve got a percentage in the middle who like Trump’s policies but don’t like his style. That is what they need to focus on. So when you look at these things, it has got to be a story of addition. This is not a time to have anyone criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos. This is not a time for them to get overly masculine with this bromance thing that they’ve got going. 53% of the electorate are women with will vote. They care about how they’re being talked to, and they care about the issues …”
“This is not a time to have anyone criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos. This is not a time for them to get overly masculine with this bromance thing they’ve got going.”
— Nikki Haley says she hasn’t spoken to Trump since June but remains “on standby” if the campaign needs her help pic.twitter.com/HlHtSiau9n
— The Recount (@therecount) October 30, 2024
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Updated at 09.43 EDT
Paulina Velasco
When Yadira Caraveo, a Democratic party member, won the race to represent Colorado’s eighth district in the House of Representatives in 2022, she eked out a victory, winning by the narrowest margin of any Democrat in the country. This November, Caraveo is facing yet another close race – one that could determine the balance of Congress.
In a district where nearly 40% of residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, the community will be decisive in crowning a winner. The battle for their votes is mostly playing out not on TV or in town halls, but on social media and local radio.
“(Latino voters) are listening to social media and the radio,” said Sonny Subia, Colorado’s volunteer state director for Lulac, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the largest and oldest Hispanic organization in the country …
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Updated at 08.04 EDT
Local newspapers are just as relevant as ever this election, as the DNC takes out attack ads.
The adverts that paint Donald Trump as “unhinged, unstable, unchecked” are running in 25 local newspapers in the seven battleground states. The papers include the Delco Times and Erie Times-News in Pennsylvania or the Macomb Daily and Northern Express in Michigan.
On of the ads takes up a full page and is plastered with Trump’s infamous mugshot snapped during his indictment on racketeering charges in Georgia. The ad calls the former president “unhinged, unstable, unchecked” and “unfit to lead”.
“In the final week of the election, Democrats are not leaving any stone unturned, reminding voters in key battleground states that their vote means the difference between chaos and revenge with Donald Trump, or a New Way Forward with Vice President Harris,” Jaime Harrison, the chair of the DNC, told the New York Times.
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Updated at 08.03 EDT
Fears grow over Trump’s threats to political foes
Peter Stone
Donald Trump’s extremist attacks on top Democrats as “the enemy from within” and talk of deploying the military against political foes if he wins the election are stark signs Trump will endanger the rule of law in America, say former US justice department officials and scholars.
Trump’s threats – singling out ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and others as “the enemy from within” and “more dangerous than China (and) Russia” – jibe with his earlier incendiary talk of using a return to the White House to seek “revenge” against political foes led by Joe Biden. He also suggested the military could be used to quell violence at the polls from “radical left lunatics”.
Those comments, along with Trump’s adamant refusal to say clearly he will accept the election results if he is defeated, prompt critics to say Trump poses unprecedented dangers to the US constitution …
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Updated at 08.03 EDT
Election too close to call less than a week from polling day
The latest polls show Kamala Harris enjoys a small lead over her rival Donald Trump. However, the election is still too close to call and a small margin of error could see either candidate in the White House.
The key battleground states, so named because there is no entrenched support for Democrats or Republicans and could swing either way, are Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina.
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Updated at 08.03 EDT
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s controversial set continues to be used as a political football by both sides of the aisle as election night draws closer.
The joke that got everyone’s back up was when Hinchcliffe compared Puerto Rico to a floating island of garbage.
President Joe Biden said Puerto Ricans are “good, decent honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
Republicans seized on the president’s line, comparing it to Hilary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables,” comment during the 2016 election campaign.
Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, said: “This is disgusting. Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half of the country.” Just one day earlier, Vance brushed off the Puerto Rico island-of-garbage comment, saying, “We have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America.”
Biden backpedalled somewhat on social media: “Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage – which is the only word I can think of to describe it,” he wrote. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”
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Updated at 08.03 EDT
Steven Greenhouse
If Donald Trump wins next week’s election, it would be the first time in US history that a candidate wins based on such a huge lie – his falsehood that we have “the worst economy ever”. The former president’s Big Lie has distorted the views of millions of Americans, wrongly convincing many that the US economy is in bad shape.
There’s no denying that many Americans are struggling economically and that inflation was painfully high back in 2022, but inflation is far lower now, and most economists agree that our economy is strong. The unemployment rate is low, inflation is way down, economic growth is solid, and job growth has been remarkably strong. Indeed, the country has added nearly 18m jobs – a record – under the Biden-Harris administration. Not only that, median household income has climbed to $80,610, higher than it was in Trump’s last year in office…
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Updated at 08.02 EDT
Biden clarifies ‘garbage’ comments as Harris makes closing speech in Washington
Welcome to our ongoing coverage of the US election campaign as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump continue to make their pitches to voters with less than a week to go to election day.
Current president Joe Biden was forced to clarify comments he made on Tuesday after he was seen in an edited video clip saying “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters”.
He said that a pro-Trump comedian’s “hateful rhetoric” about Puerto Rico was “garbage”.
Republican politicians and rightwing media outlets quickly picked up the clip to argue that Biden had called Trump’s supporters garbage, comparing his remarks with Hillary Clinton’s labeling of half of Trump supporters as belonging in “a basket of deplorables” in 2016.
Elsewhere:
Urged by some allies to apologise for racist comments made by speakers at his weekend rally, Donald Trump took the opposite approach on Tuesday, saying it was an “honour to be involved” in such an event and calling the scene a “lovefest” – the same term he has used to describe the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.
Harris will spend election night at her alma mater, Howard University, in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss her campaign’s plans. If elected, Harris would be the first graduate of a historically Black university to occupy the Oval Office.
Michelle Obama took the stump in Georgia. The former first lady’s organisation When We All Vote hosted a rally for more than 2,000 people at an arena in College Park, near Atlanta’s airport – a slickly produced event that was dominated by earnest pleas to vote from a star-studded roster.
JD Vance hit back at those who say Trump is a fascist, accusing Harris and her allies of disrespecting second world war veterans as he campaigned on Tuesday in one of the most hotly contested regions of battleground Michigan.
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Updated at 07.07 EDT
