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A federal judge has denied a motion to extend voter registration in Florida after its website crashed just before the deadline, potentially preventing tens of thousands of people from casting their ballot in November’s presidential election.The judge accused the state of failing its citizens.The development on Friday came after the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, had extended the deadline from Monday to Tuesday this week after the state’s online system had stopped working for seven hours on the final day of registration.Voting rights and minority rights advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit, saying voters needed more time, but DeSantis disagreed.On Thursday, US district court judge Mark E Walker held a hearing to decide whether or not to grant a preliminary injunction to reopen and extend the deadline.But in a 29-page overnight ruling on Friday he rejected calls for an extension. He said the decision was “an incredibly close call” but that “the state’s interest in preventing chaos in its already precarious – and perennially chaotic – election outweighs the substantial burden imposed on the right to vote.”Walker said: “Every man who has stepped foot on the moon launched from the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida. Yet, Florida has failed to figure out how to run an election properly – a task simpler than rocket science.”And in a critique of the state’s historic elections issues, he said, “I feel like I’ve seen this movie before” and said the state had “failed its citizens”.“Notwithstanding the fact that cinemas across the country remain closed, somehow, I feel like I’ve seen this movie before. Just shy of a month from election day, with the earliest mail-in ballots beginning to be counted, Florida has done it again,” he wrote.He added: “This case is not about Floridians missing registration deadlines. This case is also not a challenge to a state statute. This case is about how a state failed its citizens.”Data filed by the state indicates that 50,000 people registered during the extended time period. Based on previous trends, the judge noted, perhaps more than 20,000 additional people might have also registered to vote, if they had been able to access the system.He also took aim at the secretary of state, Laurel Lee, who he said had implemented a “half measure” after the public had raised the alarm.“She hastily and briefly extended the registration period and ordered Florida’s supervisors of election to accept applications submitted by the secretary’s new ‘book closing’ deadline,” he wrote.He also criticised her for failing to notify the public of the new deadline until noon on the date of the new deadline.“This left less than seven hours for potential voters to somehow become aware of the news and ensure that they properly submitted their voter registration applications, all while also participating in their normal workday, school, family, and caregiving responsibilities,” Walker wrote.With less than a month to go until the 3 November election, it is the latest issue to potentially prevent people from voting in Florida. In September, a court ruled that people with felony convictions could not vote unless they repaid all outstanding debts – potentially blocking an estimated 744,000 people from voting. More

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The pandemic has led to a surge in postal ballots but mail posted on the reservation has to travel as much as 244 miles further than mail posted off-reservation More

Welcome to Poll Watch, our weekly look at polling data and survey research on the candidates, voters and issues that will shape the 2020 election. Follow our daily updates on the latest presidential election polls.You know the story well: Not a single public poll in 2016 showed Donald J. Trump beating Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin, and forecasters suggested he had almost no shot. FiveThirtyEight gave him less than a one-in-six chance of winning the state.But after the votes were counted, with turnout down in key Democratic areas, Mr. Trump eked out a victory by fewer than 30,000 votes.This year, again, virtually every poll has shown the Democrat, Joseph R. Biden Jr., with at least a slight edge over Mr. Trump. A New York Times/Siena College survey last month gave Mr. Biden a five-percentage-point advantage among likely voters. Polls taken since then by CNN and NBC News/Marist College have each given Mr. Biden an outright, 10-point lead.And with the coronavirus now raging in Wisconsin, particularly in the politically competitive northeastern region, Mr. Trump faces an uphill battle toward repeating his victory from four years ago.“Certainly, with the sharp rise in cases here, it’s on the agenda for voters,” said Charles Franklin, a political scientist who runs the Marquette Law School poll, which is seen as the definitive political survey in the state. “His handling of Covid does appear to be having a bigger effect on people’s vote than either the economy or his handling of the protests.”Marquette has released a Wisconsin poll each month since June, and in every one Mr. Biden has held a single-digit lead among likely voters that was within the margin of error. This reflects the steadiness of a race in which Wisconsinites largely know where they stand: Roughly four in five voters have consistently expressed a strong opinion of Mr. Trump’s leadership, whether positive or negative, according to Marquette’s data.But if there are any small signs of momentum, it appears to be breaking Mr. Biden’s way. His 48 percent approval rating in the poll released this week was his best in a Marquette survey all year, capping a 14-point rise since February. Mr. Trump, meanwhile, was seen positively by 42 percent of Wisconsin voters, leaving his net favorability rating more than 10 points in the red, where it has languished since June.Concern about the pandemic has ticked upward recently. More than six in 10 Wisconsin voters in the Marquette poll described themselves as at least fairly worried — including 27 percent who said they were very worried, up from 21 percent last month. Fully 50 percent of Wisconsin voters said they did not expect the virus to be under control for at least another year, running counter to Mr. Trump’s insistence that it is already being handled effectively.And that’s not the only issue where he’s hurting. While Mr. Trump has made Wisconsin a focal point of his “law and order” messaging, particularly after protests broke out over the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., 54 percent of Wisconsin voters said in the Marquette survey that they disapproved of how he had handled this year’s unrest. Just 37 percent approved.Republicans’ rise among white men without college degreesSince the rise of the Tea Party movement a decade ago, white men without college degrees in Wisconsin have shifted toward the Republican Party in large numbers — a development that predated Mr. Trump’s rise, but that he certainly accelerated. Dr. Franklin cited Marquette numbers showing that in 2012, non-college-educated white men in Wisconsin were just five points more likely to be Republicans than Democrats. By this year, the difference had grown to 23 points.Dr. Franklin said that former Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, had introduced a newly working-class political lexicon in the early 2010s, when he waged an attack on public-sector unions.“Walker didn’t spend as much time emphasizing pro-business messages in a way that you would’ve heard previous generations of Republicans saying, ‘What’s good for business is good for the state,’” Dr. Franklin said. “Walker was saying: ‘They’re hard-working taxpayers who need their money, and these unions are taking money from them.’”But as much as Republicans’ appeals have resonated with many working-class white men, there has not been commensurate movement among women without college degrees. And while Democrats haven’t notched big gains in their vote share among any particular group, they have avoided losing ground among demographics that are growing more quickly — such as college graduates, Latinos and voters in cities.In Democratic strongholds like Milwaukee and Madison, the state’s two biggest municipalities, the margins actually improved slightly for Democrats between the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections. Dane County, which includes Madison, is the state’s fastest-growing county, and is probably the No. 1 area where Democrats will be looking to run up the score.Election 2020 More

Somewhere under the cornfields and backyard hoop courts of Indiana is a small black box holding the conscience of Vice President Mike Pence. He buried it four years ago, when a tape emerged of Donald Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women.Pence and his wife, Karen, whom he reportedly calls “Mother,” had rushed home to pray during the biggest campaign crisis of 2016. Ever since an evangelical conversion in college, Pence had been a beacon of Hoosier holiness, using his talk radio show and his political perch to preach biblical values in the public sphere.But, of course, he buried them in a heartland moment. And by 2017, Pence would have this to say about Trump to religious conservatives: “This is somebody who shares our views, shares our values, shares our beliefs.”As we saw in Wednesday night’s debate, Pence is not just the great enabler of Trump’s awfulness, but the man who puts a godly sheen on it. In that sense, he’s more dangerous, and arguably more evil, than Trump.You have to think that he knows better, that he knows the man he serves is rotten to the core. But his sycophancy is not all connivance and cunning. No — he’s simply playing his role in God’s plan.It’s taking potshots at a three-legged moose to note that if God planned to put kids in cages, to destroy much of creation with wildfire and flooding, to send more than 210,000 Americans to an early grave from a pandemic, such a plan would call for some dissent with the master architect.Not from Pence. In the earthly realm, nobody expects the vice president to stand up to his president. Nor, even, to not do his bidding in the dark arts of Trumpism. But it’s putting a moral — and to Pence, religious — gloss on this American nightmare that makes his deep complicity so chilling.His task on Wednesday was to lie and dodge with civility and aw-shucks earnestness. With his flat Midwestern accent and his silver-haired gladhandedness, Pence is the silk to Trump’s sandpaper. He has the mien of a man trying to sell you dog food laced with Ambien. By the grace of God, both you and your pet will sleep soundly!Trump is bulldozer blunt about violating norms, decency and the truth. He may not honor election results if they don’t go his way. He wants to put his political rivals in jail. Household disinfectants are good for Covid-19. Pence is the one to say, Gosh and gee willikers, he doesn’t really mean this stuff. He’s cleanup on the aisle of atrocities at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.Indiana gave us Kurt Vonnegut and David Letterman and was a cradle for early African-American jazz recordings. But for a time in the 1920s, no state had more members of the Ku Klux Klan than Indiana — nearly one in three native-born white males. And this uniquely American domestic terror group was soaked in the rituals and piety of rural conservative values.Pence doesn’t seem like a hater or a race-baiter, but he certainly makes his boss, who is one, more palatable to those who profess to live by godliness. When Trump gave the neo-Nazis at Charlottesville a pass, Pence was quick to the rescue, saying that under Trump, “We’re going to continue to see more unity in America.”When the world was appalled at the cruelty of family separation at the border, Pence paid a visit, and said nothing to see here, because “We spoke to cheerful children who were watching television, having snacks.”And just before the pandemic took a huge swing for the worse, Pence penned an essay in The Wall Street Journal in June saying no second wave was coming, because “the progress we’ve made is remarkable” and was “a cause for celebration.”Since then, another 100,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the United States. And a White House that refused to follow the basic medical advice expected of every other American has produced more new cases of the coronavirus over the last week than entire countries in that same period.Pence, as head of the White House pandemic task force, should be crawling under a rock in shame. Instead, he’s all bromides and excuses. That “super spreader” event in the Rose Garden, with all the hugs and only a handful of people wearing masks? Well, it was outdoors, Pence said. Tell that to the wedding planners now going under because they couldn’t have their own special rules.On health care, perhaps the biggest of the Big Lies of Trumpism, Pence said, “President Trump and I have a plan.” In fact, they have never unveiled a plan and are currently in court trying to dismantle Obamacare and its protections for pre-existing conditions. As with the pandemic, this is no mere policy difference, but blatant disregard for human life by an administration that professes to be “pro-life.”As important as it will be in the coming months to purge the country of Trump’s dehumanizing legacy — the hatred of “others,” the normalizing of lying, the rejection of science and reality — it will be equally important to confront the enablers and collaborators.And when historians go looking for answers as to how this country could go so bad so quickly, they will find all they need in the words of the 45th president’s chief enabler and collaborator.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: [email protected] The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.Timothy Egan (@nytegan) is a contributing opinion writer who covers the environment, the American West and politics. He is a winner of the National Book Award and the author, most recently, of “A Pilgrimage to Eternity.” More

Much of the point of the Republican alliance with Donald Trump was to establish control over the federal judiciary as a whole and the Supreme Court in particular. The deal was simple: Republicans would support him and his agenda, such as it was. He would nominate a cadre of reliably conservative judges, handpicked by the Federalist Society and backed by groups like the Judicial Crisis Network, to lifetime positions on the federal bench, where they would write conservative ideology into the Constitution under the cover of an “originalism” that conveniently and consistently aligns with Republican Party political preferences.That’s why they are desperate to elevate Amy Coney Barrett, whose confirmation would give Republicans a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court. She represents victory, the culmination of a generational struggle to reshape the courts in their favor. From the point of view of Mitch McConnell and his conservative activist allies, she is worth losing the White House and risking the Senate for. She is worth the chaos and disorder of the Trump administration, worth the scandal and controversy, worth the racism, cruelty and indifference to human life. She is worth his botched response to the pandemic, worth the death and deprivation that has followed from his refusal to govern the country and attend to the welfare of its people.Or rather, she will have been worth it, if Democrats win the White House, win the Senate and leave the judicial status quo untouched. If they do nothing, then Trump, McConnell and the Republican Party will have gotten away with nearly wrecking constitutional democracy — and inflicting needless suffering on millions of Americans — for the sake of ideology, partisanship and venal self-interest. What’s more, by refusing to act, Democrats will have crippled any agenda they had hoped to accomplish.To allow the American people to govern themselves, to rein in the judiciary and break a would-be reactionary super-legislature — to show Republicans that they cannot keep the ill-gotten gains of the Trump years — Democrats will need to expand the courts.Having said all of that, there are actually several straightforward, nonpartisan reasons for increasing the entire federal judiciary and adding additional Supreme Court justices. The last major expansion was 30 years ago with the Judgeship Bill of 1990. Since then, the population of the United States has grown from roughly 249 million to just over 330 million. With ever more litigants and ever more cases, the country needs more judges.The judiciary itself said as much in a report released this summer as a statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “The effects of increasing caseloads without a corresponding increase in judges are profound,” wrote Judge Brian Miller of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas on behalf of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He continued:Delays increase expenses for civil litigants and may increase the length of time criminal defendants are held pending trial. Substantial delays lead to lack of respect for the Judiciary and the judicial process. The problem is so severe that potential litigants may be avoiding federal court altogether.Using a formula tied to caseload per court, Miller recommended an additional 65 district judgeships. This, he said, was “far fewer judgeships than the caseload increases and other factors would suggest are now required” but would represent a substantive improvement over the status quo.In addition, a growing and diversifying country should see itself reflected at every level of the federal judiciary. More judges means more opportunities for representation, both for district and appellate courts and for the Supreme Court. With two or four or even six additional justices, lawmakers could shape the court to look a little more like America as it is.But we can talk later about the exact shape of reform. The important point now is that consequences matter, and losing an election — even by a landslide, if that’s what happens — isn’t a big enough consequence for the Republican Party’s gamble with American democracy.Remember, although many Republicans support Trump unreservedly and share his sensibilities, many don’t. Judges were the glue that bound them to his administration and a key reason most Republican lawmakers said nothing as he trashed the rule of law and made a mockery of democratic governance. Judges are why, when faced with an unambiguously impeachable offense, the Republican Senate voted to acquit Trump of all charges. It was the tantalizing promise of a powerful, conservative judiciary that gave Republicans every incentive to act as if Trump was outside the bounds of the Constitution. The only way to avert moral hazard and keep this from happening again is to make Republicans pay a price for the dangerous risk they took with the country. Expanding the courts is that price.Joe Biden and Kamala Harris seem aware of the need to take this step, or at least seriously consider it, which helps explain why they have refused to answer one way or the other lately. But I think the country would benefit by having this argument out in the open, not least because the larger public is also interested in this sort of accountability, as it was when it gave Democrats a House majority in 2018, and when it backed impeachment at the start of this year.There’s an obvious concern here — tit-for-tat. What is to stop a future Republican majority from expanding — or shrinking — the courts in turn? The answer is nothing. And I’m not sure there should be. If Republicans win the White House and control of Congress, then they should have the right to govern, and if governing means changing the composition of the court, they should have the right to do so. Much more important than somehow constraining future Republicans is working to make our democracy more fair, with equal representation, where one person means one vote. Winning power in Washington should require as close to a popular majority as possible. If Republicans can win one, then it’s their ballgame, as long as the public sticks with them.It is also not clear that an 11- or 17- or even 27-member Supreme Court is necessarily a bad thing. With more members, individual confirmation battles would be less heated and consequential. And tied even tighter to ordinary politics, the court might be more circumspect about striking down laws by duly elected lawmakers. The promise of tit-for-tat may actually be the thing that lowers the temperature of court battles, which might make it possible for both sides to find a new equilibrium.I have no doubt that Republicans will confirm Barrett, if they can manage it. If the past four years have been a smash and grab, where Trump smashes our institutions and the Republican Party grabs as much political loot as it can carry, then an additional seat on the Supreme Court is too valuable a trophy to give up. But there is no rule that says you get to keep stolen goods, and the Barrett seat — like the Gorsuch seat — represents a theft.If Democrats make Republicans pay a political price in November for their rank and ruinous opportunism, then in January they should use their power to restore to the people what was taken from them.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: [email protected] The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has slammed Donald Trump for not condemning right-wing militias following the foiled kidnapping plot against Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Speaking from his campaign in Arizona, Biden criticised the president for not watching his words after Trump previously tweeted ‘Liberate Michigan’ in response to the state’s Covid restrictions. ‘You saw what the head of the FBI said a couple of days ago. He said the greatest terrorist threat in America is from white supremacists,’ Biden said. ‘Why can’t the president just say, stop, stop, stop, stop, and we will pursue you if you don’t”
Six people charged in plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer

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“We’ve paid too high a price already for Donald Trump’s chaotic, divisive leadership. More than 210,000 Americans have lost their lives to this virus. But on Tuesday, he announced he’s walking away from negotiations to provide additional relief for working people. Mom-and-pop businesses, schools, just go down the line. On Oct. 8, exactly two months since the emergency small business program was closed. Two months of small business owners in Arizona and across the country waiting and hoping for just a little bit of help to be able to stay open. More than 400,000 small businesses have permanently closed nationwide. 400,000. Millions are struggling to hang on. How many more have to go under? How many more dreams have to be extinguished because this president threw in the towel? Instead of focusing on your needs, he’s still trying to take away your health care. I mean, think about that. Just think about it. I mean if I, I’m not, but if I were a playwright and writing a play, there isn’t a single solitary outfit on Broadway that would take it. Because it sounds like ridiculous fiction. In the middle of a pandemic, when already 10 million Americans have lost their employer-based insurance because the employer went under, he’s trying to take away insurance from another 22 million people who got it for the first time. After all we’ve been through, all America’s accomplished, all the years we’ve stood as a beacon to the world, we cannot allow ourselves to remain divided. More