AP
Fierce North Carolina congressional race could hinge on other names on the ballot
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Congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout, R-N.C., left, speaks to supporters at the Nash County Republican headquarters in Rocky Mount, N.C., Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)Read More
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FILE – Democratic candidates Rep. Don Davis and state Rep. Terence Everitt listen to speakers at the Granville County Democratic Party fundraiser in Oxford, N.C., while standing among other attendees May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Makiya Seminera, File)
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Congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout, R-N.C., second from right, speaks to supporters at the Nash County Republican headquarters in Rocky Mount, N.C., Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)
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Congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout, R-N.C., second from right, speaks to a supporter prior to a staff photo at the Nash County Republican headquarters in Rocky Mount, N.C., Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)
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Congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout, R-N.C., left, speaks to a supporter at the Nash County Republican headquarters in Rocky Mount, N.C., Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)
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Congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout, R-N.C., left, leaves with a staff member from the Nash County Republican headquarters for a day of campaigning in Rocky Mount, N.C., Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)
BY MAKIYA SEMINERAUpdated 8:12 PM GMT+6, September 29, 2024Share
ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. (AP) — As Laurie Buckhout made her way around Nash County GOP headquarters in Rocky Mount, she seemed to be in high spirits. The Republican congressional candidate bounced around the crowded room, hugging and laughing with volunteers set to canvass local neighborhoods that afternoon.
But a scandal emerging in North Carolina politics was getting harder to ignore. The day before Buckhout’s Nash County visit, CNN released a bombshell report detailing alleged racist and sexual comments made by Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson — the GOP nominee for governor — on an online pornography forum more than a decade ago.
Addressing the volunteers, Buckhout spoke generally about the importance of the race. Then she paused and acknowledged “the elephant in the room.”
“My fight is right here, and when you fight, the most important part is not to get distracted by somebody over there rattling sabers,” she said. “It’s to keep moving forward and fighting for this district.”
There’s a delicate balancing act unfolding in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District — a battleground district in a battleground state, and one of the few toss-up congressional races across the Southeast.
Incumbent Democratic Rep. Don Davis and Buckhout are campaigning fiercely for the state’s northeastern district, but the outcome may not be entirely up to them. Candidates farther up the ballot — Vice President Kamala Harris for Davis and Robinson for Buckhout — might impact voters’ choices.
The freshman representative’s seat is one of the most vulnerable in the country, political analysts say. A loss for Davis could give Republicans a pathway to control the U.S. House.
Democratic groups from all over the country have heavily outspent Republicans on ads in the 1st District contest — $9.5 million to $3.7 million as of Friday, according to AdImpact, which tracks campaign advertisement spending. As for the candidates themselves, Buckhout’s campaign has spent slightly more than Davis’.
Things could change by Election Day. Republicans, boosted by a big infusion of cash from their Congressional Leadership Fund and a new ad buy announced Friday by the National Republican Congressional Committee, have $9.1 million worth of spots reserved between now and Nov. 5, compared with $8.6 million for Democrats.
The district terrain is more challenging for Davis than when he won in 2022. It became redder after the latest GOP-led redistricting added conservative-leaning Lenoir, Wayne, Currituck and Camden counties and cut out Democratic-leaning Pitt County.
He also faces a “much stronger opponent” in Buckhout than Sandy Smith, whose campaign two years ago was saddled with various scandals, said Peter Francia, political science professor at East Carolina University. Davis defeated Smith by almost 5 percentage points, or about 12,000 votes.
Buckhout isn’t burdened by that kind of turmoil, Francia said, and her military background may help her. Buckhout served in the U.S. Army for over 25 years before retiring in 2010 and starting a Virginia consulting company specialized in military technology, according to her website. She later sold it and moved to North Carolina a few years ago.
Buckhout says her military experience and her intent not to become a “professional politician” — she’s agreed to be term-limited — will allow her to get things done.
One of the volunteers at party headquarters, John Norwood, said he didn’t know much about Buckhout but appreciated her military service as a veteran himself. Some friends had told him about her race, so the 32-year-old blacksmith — wanting “real change” after avoiding politics for years — traveled more than 250 miles or 400 kilometers from McDowell County near Asheville to help out.
“She definitely seems like a candidate I’d want in office,” he said.
Davis, meanwhile, has cultivated a reputation as a moderate Democrat in a district he knows well. He grew up in Snow Hill and has served six terms as a state senator. An Air Force veteran himself, he has sponsored legislation in Congress to help veterans.
In a district that’s more conservative than before, the top of the Democratic ticket could cost Davis some voters. But he hopes to benefit from Democrats energized by Harris’ campaign, including Black voters, who make up more than 40% of his district’s population.
Davis said in an interview that he’s running much as he did in 2022 and remains committed to giving all eastern North Carolinians a “strong voice in government.” If he wins reelection, he said, he will work to strengthen the region’s largely rural communities, including by expanding broadband access and improving Social Security benefits.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re Democrats, Republicans, independents, we’re fighting for an eastern North Carolina that has been left out of a process for so long,” he said.
Buckhout focused on her own race after Robinson news
Since CNN reported on Robinson’s alleged messages — which included comments such as “I’m a black NAZI!” and disparaging characterizations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — the lieutenant governor has denied the accusations, which The Associated Press has not independently confirmed. Robinson also has vowed to “use every legal means to hold CNN accountable for their lies.”
The fallout has been substantial. Several members of Robinson’s campaign staff have resigned. Multiple GOP officials — Sen. Thom Tillis and state party chairman Jason Simmons among them — have urged Robinson to disprove the allegations. Other groups, such as the Republican Governors Association, have cut ties financially.
Photos of Robinson and Buckhout together, once featured on her social media, now flash at the end of a television attack ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, connecting Buckhout to the lieutenant governor on abortion policies. She doesn’t mention that she has donated to his campaign.
Davis said there’s “no need” to tie Buckhout to Robinson because she’s done that work herself. He said he trusts the district’s voters to “sort through all of that.”
Buckhout says she’s focused on her own race.
“If folks want to make it about social media and personalities, I want to make it about issues,” Buckhout said.
She said she’s asking the same question she’s asked voters throughout the race: Is anything any better than it was four years ago? Responses are “resoundingly no,” she says.
Harris could be mixed blessing for Davis
Buckhout has worked to tie Davis to the Biden-Harris administration’s economic policies — what she and other Republicans now call “Kamalanomics” — and to what they call the failure of Democrats on immigration and crime.
Davis actually voted to rebuke Harris’ work at the U.S.-Mexico border in July, setting himself apart from most House Democrats. The next day, even as he endorsed Harris’ presidential run on X, he noted that immigration issues “cannot be overlooked.”
Davis told The Associated Press he is “fully supportive” of Harris’ presidential run and welcomes the opportunity to partner with her on “comprehensive immigration reform” to secure the border. He’s also seen excitement for Harris firsthand in his district and said it was a “good environment to run in.”
“I am glad to endorse the vice president,” Davis said. “We’re committing to do everything to help her get elected.”
Voter turnout on both sides could be make or break for either candidate, Francia said. “We’re in a very tight election where every vote could potentially make the difference.”
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Leah Askarinam of the AP Decision Desk contributed from Washington.
AP
The final day of voting in the US is here, after tens of millions have already cast their ballots
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People stand in line during the last day of early voting, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)Read More
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Voters line up to vote as a early voting location opened in Carmel, Ind., Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
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A person walks past a sign during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Fall River, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
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An election worker demonstrates mail-in ballot processing during a media preview at the Philadelphia Election Warehouse, in Philadelphia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
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A voter fills out their their ballot during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Fall River, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
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People line up to vote at the Chicago Early Voting Loop Supersite in Chicago, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
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Bennett College student Zairen Jackson listens to a fellow student answer a question during a roundtable in Greensboro, N.C., Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
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FILE – A Delaware County secured drop box for the return of vote-by-mail ballots is pictured, May 2, 2022, in Newtown Square, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
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An elections official sorts counted mail-in ballots on the first day of tabulation, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)
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People wait in line to cast their ballots at an early voting location, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Blue Springs, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
BY CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY AND ALI SWENSONUpdated 11:05 AM GMT+6, November 5, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day 2024 arrived Tuesday — with tens of millions of Americans having already cast their ballots. Those include record numbers in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.
The early turnout in Georgia, which has flipped between the Republican and Democratic nominees in the previous two presidential elections, has been so robust — over 4 million voters — that a top official in the secretary of state’s office said the big day could look like a “ghost town” at the polls.
As of Monday, Associated Press tracking of advance voting nationwide showed roughly 82 million ballots already cast — slightly more than half the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier. That’s driven partly by Republican voters, who were casting early ballots at a higher rate than in recent previous elections after a campaign by former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee to counter the Democrats’ longstanding advantage in the early vote.
That included in the parts of western North Carolina hammered last month by Hurricane Helene. State and local election officials, benefiting from changes made by the Republican-controlled legislature, pulled off a herculean effort to ensure residents could cast their ballots as they dealt with power outages, lack of water and washed out roads.
By the time early voting in North Carolina had ended on Saturday, over 4.4 million voters — or nearly 57% of all registered voters in the state — had cast their ballots. As of Monday, turnout in the 25 western counties affected by the hurricane was even stronger at 59% of registered voters, state election board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said.
Brinson Bell called the voters and election workers in the hurricane-hit counties “an inspiration to us all.”
Besides the hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida, the most worrisome disruptions to the election season so far were arson attacks that damaged ballots in two drop boxes near the Oregon-Washington border. Authorities there were searching for the person responsible.
The absence of any significant, widespread problems has not stopped Trump, the Republican nominee, or the RNC, which is now under his sway, from making numerous claims of fraud or election interference during the early voting period, a possible prelude to challenges after Election Day.
He has mischaracterized an investigation underway in Pennsylvania into roughly 2,500 potentially fraudulent voter registration applications by saying one of the counties was “caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person.” The investigation is into registration applications; there is no indication that ballots are involved.
In Georgia, Republicans sought to prohibit voters from returning mailed ballots to their local election office by the close of polls on Election Day, votes that are allowed under state law. A judge rejected their lawsuit over the weekend.
Trump and Republicans also have warned about the possibility that Democrats are recruiting masses of noncitizens to vote, a claim they have made without evidence and that runs counter to the data, including from Republican secretaries of state. Research has consistently shown that noncitizens registering to vote is rare. Any noncitizen who does faces the potential of felony charges and deportation, a significant disincentive.
One case of noncitizen voting was caught during early voting last month and resulted in felony charges in Michigan after a student from China cast an illegal early ballot.
This is the first presidential vote since Trump lost to Joe Biden four years ago and began various attempts to circumvent the outcome and remain in power. That climaxed with the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to halt certification of the results after Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell.”
Even now, a solid majority of Republicans believe Trump’s lie that Biden was not legitimately elected, despite reviews, audits and recounts in the battleground states that all affirmed Biden’s win. A survey last month from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed Republicans remain much more skeptical than Democrats that their ballots will be counted accurately this year.
Seeking to rebuild voter confidence in a system targeted with false claims of widespread fraud, Republican lawmakers in more than a dozen states since 2020 have passed new voting restrictions. Those rules include shortening the window to apply or return a mail ballot, reducing the availability of ballot drop boxes and adding ID requirements.
On the last weekend before Election Day, Trump continued to falsely claim the election was being rigged against him and said a presidential winner should be declared on election night, before all the ballots are counted.
Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters not to fall for Trump’s tactic of casting doubt on elections. The Democratic nominee told supporters at a weekend rally in Michigan that the tactic was intended to suggest to people “that if they vote, their vote won’t matter.” Instead, she urged people who had already cast ballots to encourage their friends to do the same.
Through four years of election lies and voting-related conspiracy theories, local election officials have faced harassment and even death threats. That has prompted high turnover and led to heightened security for election offices and polling sites that includes panic buttons and bullet-proof glass.
While there have been no major reports of any malicious cyberactivity affecting election offices, foreign actors have been active in using fake social media profiles and websites to drum up partisan vitriol and disinformation. In the final weeks, U.S. intelligence officials have attributed to Russia multiple fake videos alleging election fraud in presidential swing states.
On the eve of Election Day, they issued a joint statement with federal law enforcement agencies warning that Russia in particular was ramping up its influence operations, including in ways that could incite violence, and likely would continue those efforts well after the votes have been cast.
Jen Easterly, the nation’s top election security official, urged Americans to rely on state and local election officials for information about elections.
“This is especially important as we are in an election cycle with an unprecedented amount of disinformation, including disinformation being aggressively peddled and amplified by our foreign adversaries at a greater scale than ever before,” she said. “We cannot allow our foreign adversaries to have a vote in our democracy.”
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The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Swenson reports on election-related misinformation, disinformation and extremism for The Associated Press.
AP
Georgia high court says absentee ballots must be returned by Election Day, even in county with delay
Updated 5:13 AM GMT+6, November 5, 2024
ATLANTA (AP) — Thousands of voters in Georgia’s third-largest county who received their absentee ballots late will not get an extension to return them, the state’s highest court decided on Monday.
Cobb County, just north of Atlanta, didn’t mail out absentee ballots to some 3,400 voters who had requested them until late last week. Georgia law says absentee ballots must be received by the close of polls on Election Day. But a judge in a lower court ruled last week that the ballots at issue could be counted if they’re received by this Friday, three days after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruling means the affected Cobb County residents must vote in person on Election Day, which is Tuesday, or bring their absentee ballots to the county elections office by 7 p.m. that day.
The high court ruling instructs county election officials to notify the affected voters by email, text message and in a public message on the county election board’s website. And it orders officials to keep separate and sealed any ballots received after the Election Day deadline but before 5 p.m. Friday.
Board of elections Chair Tori Silas said the board will comply with the Supreme Court order, but it’s still up in the air whether ballots received after Election Day will be counted. The order only addressed a motion for a stay, so election officials will have to wait for the court’s final ruling to see whether votes received after Tuesday will be counted, she said in a statement.
To deliver the ballots on time, election officials in Cobb County were using U.S. Postal Service express mail and UPS overnight delivery, and sending the ballots with prepaid express return envelopes. The Board of Elections said that more than 1,000 of the absentee ballots being mailed late were being sent to people outside of Georgia.
Silas last week blamed the delay in sending out the ballots on faulty equipment and a late surge in absentee ballot requests during the week before the Oct. 25 deadline.
The original ruling extending the deadline stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of three Cobb County voters who said they had not received absentee ballots by mail as of Friday.
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Elon Musk is pledging to give away $1 million a day to voters for signing his political action committee’s petition backing the Constitution. The giveaway by the Donald Trump supporter is raising questions among some who say it’s a violation of the law.Read More
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America PAC lawyer Chris Gober speaks with members of the media ahead of a hearing at a City Hall courtroom in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
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Elon Musk speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner arrives for a hearing at a City Hall courtroom, in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
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America PAC lawyer Chris Gober speaks with members of the media ahead of a hearing at a City Hall courtroom in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
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Elon Musk speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, third from right, arrives for a hearing at a City Hall courtroom, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
BY MARYCLAIRE DALEUpdated 4:19 AM GMT+6, November 5, 2024Share
Follow live: Updates from AP’s coverage of the presidential election.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes that Elon Musk ‘s political action committee is hosting in swing states can continue through Tuesday’s presidential election, a Pennsylvania judge ruled Monday.
Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta — ruling after Musk’s lawyers said the winners are paid spokespeople and not chosen by chance — did not immediately explain his reasoning.
District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, had called the process a scam “designed to actually influence a national election” and asked that it be shut down.
Musk lawyer Chris Gober said the final two recipients before Tuesday’s presidential election will be in Arizona on Monday and Michigan on Tuesday.
“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,” Gober said Monday. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”
Chris Young, the director and treasurer of America PAC, testified that the recipients are vetted ahead of time, to “feel out their personality, (and) make sure they were someone whose values aligned” with the group.
Musk’s lawyers, defending the effort, called it “core political speech” given that participants sign a petition endorsing the U.S. Constitution. They also said Krasner’s bid to shut it down under Pennsylvania law was moot because there would be no more Pennsylvania winners before the program ends Tuesday.
Young also acknowledged that the PAC made the recipients sign nondisclosure agreements.
“They couldn’t really reveal the truth about how they got the money, right?” Summers asked.
“Sounds right,” Young said.
In an Oct. 20 social media post shown in court, Musk said anyone signing the petition had “a daily chance of winning $1M!”
Summers grilled him on Musk’s use of both the words “chance” and “randomly,” prompting Young to concede the latter was not “the word I would have selected.”
Young said the winners knew they would be called on stage but not specifically that they would win the money.
Musk did not attend the hearing. He has committed more than $70 million to the super PAC to help Trump and other Republicans win in November.
“This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” Krasner testified Monday. “That’s what it is. A grift.”
Lawyers for Musk and the PAC said they do not plan to extend the lottery beyond Tuesday. Krasner said the first three winners, starting on Oct. 19, came from Pennsylvania in the days leading up to the state’s Oct. 21 voter registration deadline.
Other winners came from the battleground states of Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan. It’s not clear if anyone has yet received the money. The PAC pledged they would get it by Nov. 30, according to an exhibit shown in court.
More than 1 million people from the seven states have registered for the sweepstakes by signing a petition saying they support the right to free speech and to bear arms, the first two amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Krasner questioned how the PAC might use their data, which it will have on hand well past the election.
“They were scammed for their information,” Krasner said. “It has almost unlimited use.”
Krasner’s team called Musk “the heartbeat of America PAC,” and the person announcing the winners and presenting the checks.
“He was the one who presented the checks, albeit large cardboard checks. We don’t really know if there are any real checks,” Summers said.
Foglietta presided over the case at Philadelphia City Hall after Musk and the PAC lost an effort to move it to federal court.
Krasner has said he could still consider criminal charges, as he’s tasked with protecting both lotteries and the integrity of elections.
Pennsylvania remains a key battleground state with 19 electoral votes and both Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris have repeatedly visited the state, including stops planned Monday in the final hours of the campaign.
Krasner — who noted that he has long driven a Tesla — said he could also seek civil damages for the Pennsylvania registrants. Musk is the CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla. He also owns the social media platform X, where America PAC has published posts on the sweepstakes, and the rocket ship maker SpaceX.
Dale covers national legal issues for The Associated Press, often focusing on the federal judiciary, gender law, #MeToo and NFL player concussions. Her work unsealing Bill Cosby’s testimony in a decade-old deposition led to his arrest and sexual assault trials.
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