Reuters
Some US voters head to court before they head to the polls
By Tom Hals
October 15, 20248:40 PM GMT+6Updated 7 hours ago
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WILMINGTON, Delaware, Oct 15 (Reuters) – For Erika Worobec of Cecil, Pennsylvania, mail-in voting is a family ritual. For a primary election in April, she researched the candidates and issues with her young son before making her selections.
“My son gets really excited when that envelope comes,” said Worobec, 45, who is in technical product marketing.
Two months after that election, she learned she had inadvertently marked her ballot with an incomplete date and that hers was among the 259 mail-in ballots in her county that were not recorded because of a ballot error.
“I felt it was un-American,” said Worobec, who votes by mail because she suffers from an autoimmune disease and doesn’t want to risk a trip to a crowded polling place. “How could primary results be accurate if so many ballots were not cast?”
In July, Worobec, who declined to say which presidential candidate she supported, joined a growing number of voters going to court to ensure that they have access to the polls and their ballots are counted in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election.
There are roughly 95 election-related lawsuits filed in the seven battleground states that will decide the 2024 election, according to Democracy Docket, a website founded by Democratic lawyer Marc Elias that tracks election cases.
Those states are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In general, Democrats and their allies sue to make it easier to cast a ballot, which the Republicans claim can open the door to fraudulent votes. Republicans sue to assert what they call election integrity, which critics call voter suppression.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, her Republican challenger, locked in a tight race with both parties fighting for every vote.
As a result, voters, advocacy groups and the two main political parties have filed lawsuits over everything from the location of polling places to voter registration procedures.
Worobec, after being approached by the state’s branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, agreed to join six other voters from Washington County, near Pittsburgh, who sued their election board. The Republican Party intervened to defend the case and in August a judge ruled that voters must be notified if a mail-in or absentee ballot has an error so voters can mount a challenge or cast a provisional ballot at their polling place.
The case has been appealed to the state’s supreme court.
A Republican spokesperson said the party is committed to ensuring fair and secure elections in Pennsylvania. “Democrats continue to try to dismantle election safeguards, and we continue to stop them,” said Claire Zunk of the Republican National Committee.
The county election board did not respond to a request for comment.
CHALLENGES FACE MIXED SUCCESS
Item 1 of 5 Erika Worobec, who successfully sued to compel Washington County officials to notify voters if their mail-in or absentee ballot had a clerical error, poses for a portrait near the stables at her home in Cecil, Pennsylvania, U.S. October 11, 2024. REUTERS/Quinn Glabicki
[1/5]Erika Worobec, who successfully sued to compel Washington County officials to notify voters if their mail-in or absentee ballot had a clerical error, poses for a portrait near the stables at her home in Cecil, Pennsylvania, U.S. October 11, 2024. REUTERS/Quinn Glabicki Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
Other voters have had less success.
Tyler Engel, 35, a research project manager in Madison, Wisconsin, has a form of muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair that makes it difficult to access his polling place. To cast an absentee ballot, he would need assistance because he can’t mark a ballot with his hands.
“I have to have someone do it for me, which is kind of unnerving that people know how I vote,” he said.
Engel, who declined to say which presidential candidate he supports, said the advocacy group Disability Rights Wisconsin learned he was researching polling place accessibility and asked him to join a lawsuit that sought to allow voters like him to mark ballots electronically without assistance. The group is funding a pilot project for his research.
A lower court judge ruled that voters who are unable to see or mark a paper ballot should be emailed an electronic version, but the ruling is on hold and will not be resolved before the election.
In Michigan, the Republican National Committee and its allies sued after the governor designated Veterans Administration and Small Business Administration offices as official voter registration agencies.
Vet Voice Foundation, a nonpartisan group which advocates for U.S. military veterans, sought to intervene.
“Oftentimes the first place a veteran is touching down is at the VA healthcare center, because they need to get their medications,” said Brian Stone, a 37-year-old U.S. Navy veteran who volunteers with the group and said he supports Harris. “But more importantly, there’s a lot of veterans who unfortunately are homeless and do struggle with voter registration.”
A judge denied Vet Voice’s request and the case remains unresolved.
“These agencies should be 100% focused on supporting our veterans and small businesses, not spending our tax dollars to influence the election in Michigan,” said Zunk of the RNC, who called the case an overt attempt by the governor and Harris to keep the Democrats in power.
Michigan’s secretary of state did not respond to a request for comment.
A DISTANT POLLING PLACE
In Montana, a state which traditionally votes Republican and which could determine control of the U.S. Senate, some members of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes live more than 20 miles (32 km) from the nearest election office.
Some tribal members sued election officials on Sept. 30. They asked for registration and early voting satellite offices near where they live to be open daily in the six-week run-up to the election. Settlement talks are under way. The Fort Peck Reservation encompasses most of Montana’s Roosevelt County, as well as parts of Valley and two other counties.
Dylan Jensen, a Valley County attorney, said the county lacked resources but as in past years would provide a satellite office for up to two days which had been used by as few as four voters. A Roosevelt County lawyer said discussions were under way.
“We have tiny towns out in the middle of nowhere, you know? Does it mean that we can’t be heard?” said Joseph Dolezilek, 38, one of the plaintiffs in the suit.
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Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Howard Goller and Leslie Adler
November 5, 20249:16 AM GMT+6Updated 4 hours ago
Item 1 of 2 Oct 20, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Joe Rogan talks to fans in the paddock at the Formula 1 Pirelli United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Mandatory Credit: Aaron E. Martinez-Imagn Images/File Photo
[1/2]Oct 20, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Joe Rogan talks to fans in the paddock at the Formula 1 Pirelli United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Mandatory Credit: Aaron E. Martinez-Imagn Images/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Popular podcaster Joe Rogan, who recently interviewed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for nearly three hours, said on Monday he has endorsed the former president in the race to the White House.
Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 U.S. election in what polls show to be a tight race. Harris has got multiple celebrity endorsements.
“For the record, yes, that’s an endorsement of Trump,” Rogan said on X while posting a clip of his interview with billionaire Elon Musk, who has also endorsed Trump. Rogan said in his post that Musk made the “most compelling case for Trump.”
Trump’s recent interview with Rogan lasted about 3 hours and was released on YouTube and Spotify in late October. The two discussed a range of topics and the interview got over 45 million views on YouTube.
The former president criticized Rogan in August on Truth Social, his social media platform, after the podcaster praised then-independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. Kennedy has since pulled out of the race and endorsed Trump. Trump later called Rogan a “good guy.”
Trump and Harris have courted voters with appearances on podcasts, in addition to more traditional rallies and media interviews.
Spotify (SPOT.N), opens new tab said in March “The Joe Rogan Experience” had 14.5 million followers, almost triple the platform’s second most popular program. Rogan also has more than 19 million followers on Instagram and 18 million followers on YouTube.
A poll by YouGov last year found that 81% of his listeners are male and 56% are under 35 years old, a demographic that tends to support Trump over Harris.
Harris’ team had been in touch with Rogan’s program about a possible appearance but her campaign said in late October she will not appear on his podcast.
Rogan joins a list of celebrities like Musk and wrestler Hulk Hogan to have endorsed Trump.
Harris has a much bigger list of celebrity endorsements – ranging from basketball superstar Lebron James and actress Meryl Streep to comedian Chris Rock and former talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Superstar singers Beyonce and Taylor Swift have also endorsed her.
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Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan
By Kanishka Singh and Sheila Dang
November 5, 20249:52 AM GMT+6Updated 4 hours ago
WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) – False or misleading claims by billionaire Elon Musk about the U.S. election have amassed 2 billion views on social media platform X this year, according to a report, opens new tab by non-profit group Center for Countering Digital Hate.
The platform is also playing a central role in enabling the spread of false information about the critical battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential race, election and misinformation experts said on Monday.
A spokesperson for X said the company’s Community Notes feature, which lets users add additional context to posts, is more effective at helping people identify misleading content than traditional warning flags on posts.
Since taking over the company formerly known as Twitter, Musk has curtailed content moderation and laid off thousands of employees. He has thrown his support behind former President Donald Trump, who is locked in an exceptionally close race against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Musk’s massive reach with nearly 203 million followers helps enable “network effects” in which content on X can jump to other social media and messaging platforms such as Reddit and Telegram, said Kathleen Carley, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and expert on disinformation. “X is a conduit from one platform to another,” she said.
At least 87 of Musk’s posts this year have promoted claims about the U.S. election that fact-checkers have rated as false or misleading, amassing 2 billion views, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s report.
In Pennsylvania, one of the seven key swing states, some X users have seized on instances of local election administrators flagging incomplete voter registration forms that would not be processed, falsely casting the events as examples of election interference, said Philip Hensley-Robin, Pennsylvania executive director at Common Cause, during a press briefing on Monday.
Common Cause is a nonpartisan organization that promotes accountable government and voting rights.
Some X accounts implied “that there was voter fraud, when in fact, we know very clearly that election officials and election administrators in all of our counties were following the rules and … therefore only eligible voters are voting,” Hensley-Robin said.
Cyabra, a firm that uses AI to detect online disinformation, said on Monday that an X account with 117,000 followers played a key role in helping spread a fake video purporting to show Pennsylvania mail-in ballots for Trump being destroyed.
X’s spokesperson said the platform took action against many accounts that shared the video.
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Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Sheila Dang in Austin; Additional reporting by Stephanie Burnett; Editing by Lincoln Feast
By Reuters
November 5, 20244:36 AM GMT+6Updated 9 hours ago
- A person picks up a sticker while voters head to a polling station as Georgians turned out a day after the battleground state opened early voting, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., October 16, 2024. REUTERS/Megan Varner/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) – The top court in the battleground state of Georgia ruled on Monday that Cobb County cannot extend the deadline for counting about 3,000 absentee ballots that were sent out shortly before Election Day, handing a victory to the Republican National Committee and presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Siding with the RNC, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned a judge’s ruling extending the deadline until Friday in Cobb County, located in suburban Atlanta. The court decided that only absentee ballots that arrive by 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday (0000 GMT Wednesday) can be counted.
Civil rights groups had sued last week seeking to extend the deadline, arguing that the county violated state law by failing to promptly send out about 3,000 absentee ballots. County officials said they were overwhelmed by a surge in requests.
The Republican National Committee had argued that extending the deadline would violate state law.
“Election Day is Election Day – not the week after,” RNC Chair Michael Whatley wrote in a post on social media.
Cobb County is a large and racially diverse area in Atlanta’s northern suburbs. The county voted for Democrat Joe Biden over Trump by 14 percentage points in the 2020 election. Biden defeated Trump in Georgia in 2020.
A spokesperson for Cobb County did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The state high court ordered that ballots received after Election Day be separated from other ballots and set aside. Voters who did not receive an absentee ballot or did not have enough time to mail it can vote in person on Tuesday.
Georgia is one of seven closely contested states expected to decide the outcome of the race between Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Will Dunham
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