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      These Uncommitted Voters Finally Made Their Choice for President

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      Over the last four months, these voters have struggled with their decision. Now, with time short, they explain who’s getting, or not getting, their vote.Over the last four months, The New York Times has been speaking with undecided voters after some of the most dramatic moments of the presidential campaign, to learn how those events were shaping their choice.The people we talked with live in states where the polling is tight, and voters like them will play an outsize role in determining the outcome. They are concerned about the cost of living, former President Donald J. Trump’s volatility and Vice President Kamala Harris’s vision for the country.They are sporadic voters, disaffected former partisans, Republicans and Democrats. Some of them shifted their decisions over the course of the campaign. Others will decide when they step into the booth.While a lot has happened over the last few months, poll numbers have remained largely stable. The vast majority of American voters have made up their minds, adding even more weight to what persuadable voters ultimately decide.Kristen Morris voted for Ms. Harris.In the spring, Kristen Morris, 60, a former Republican, was feeling deeply pessimistic about her two choices for president. She felt troubled by Mr. Biden, whom she had voted for in 2020: She worried about his cognitive abilities and was unhappy with his handling of the country’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. And she was stunned that Mr. Trump continued to express no remorse over the Jan. 6 riot.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Judge Allows Iowa to Challenge Voters It Suspects of Being Noncitizens

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      A federal judge ruled on Sunday that Iowa may continue challenging hundreds of potential ballots cast in the election on the basis that the voters might be noncitizens, a move that critics say could disenfranchise legitimate voters.Iowa’s secretary of state, Paul Pate, a Republican, issued a letter to county commissioners last month challenging the status of 2,176 people on voter rolls, saying that they had previously identified themselves to a state agency as noncitizens. The plaintiffs in the case were four recently naturalized U.S. citizens whose voting status was challenged, despite being eligible to vote. They had asked the court for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to rescind the letter and restore the status of any voters removed from the rolls.But Judge Stephen H. Locher of the Southern District of Iowa, who was appointed by President Biden, said that a small minority of the 2,176 registered voters — about 12 percent, or about 250 people — “are indeed registered voters who are not United States citizens,” and that granting an injunction “effectively forces local election officials to allow ineligible voters to vote.”It is a felony for a noncitizen to vote in a federal election, potentially resulting in jail time, a fine and deportation.Judge Locher also pointed to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that allowed Virginia to purge about 1,600 people from its voter rolls in supporting his decision to allow the challenge to go forward.But he also expressed concern at some of the directives in Mr. Pate’s letter, which he said directed local election officials to challenge the legitimacy of a voter on the list “even when the local officials themselves do not suspect the person is ineligible to vote” and “require voters on the list to file provisional ballots even when they have proven citizenship at the polling place.”In a statement, Mr. Pate said that the ruling was “a win for Iowa’s election integrity,” adding that his role “requires balance — ensuring that on one hand, every eligible voter is able to cast their ballot while ensuring that only eligible voters participate in Iowa elections.” More

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      1 Dead and 4 Are Missing After Boat Capsizes Off California

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      A search began after reports of six overdue boaters Saturday. Officials said a child was rescued and in stable condition and the body of a teenager was recovered.The U.S. Coast Guard recovered the body of a teenager and rescued an 11-year-old boy as it pressed its search for four boaters missing after their vessel capsized on Saturday off California, the authorities said.The U.S. Coast Guard received a report about six overdue boaters at about 11:40 p.m. on Saturday from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, said Levi Read, chief petty officer with U.S. Coast Guard District 11.Three of those on board were adults, and the others were ages 11, 14 and 17, Petty Officer Read said.The group set out on a 21-foot blue-and-white motorized vessel from the Westside Marina in Bodega Bay around 3 p.m. for recreational crabbing, Petty Officer Read said.The boaters were supposed to be home by 7 p.m. the same day. When they didn’t return, family members alerted the authorities.Crews from several agencies, including the Coast Guard, the Sheriff’s Office and the California Air National Guard, searched a large area on Sunday that stretched from Bodega Bay south toward Point Reyes in Marin County and 20 miles offshore, Petty Officer Read said.It was unclear on Sunday where the group went crabbing, where and when the boat capsized or what led up to it overturning.The last cellphone ping the authorities received was around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and about seven nautical miles west of Bodega Bay, Petty Officer Read said.An 11-year-old boy was found alive off South Salmon Creek Beach at around 8 a.m. on Sunday. He was taken to a hospital and was stable.The body of another child, a male, was recovered from the waters within the search area at about 10:15 a.m. on Sunday, Petty Officer Read said. It was unclear whether it was the 14-year-old or 17-year-old who was recovered.He said the group was from the Corning, Calif., area, and that five are family members, though their relationship was unknown. One is a family friend, Petty Officer Read said.“The search is ongoing,” he said. “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the family that is missing.”The water on Sunday was about 52 degrees, the average year-round temperature for the Pacific Ocean, Petty Officer Read said.Winds were about 20 miles per hour, creating choppy seas and white caps, but the sky was otherwise clear and visibility was good, he said.Bodega Bay, about 70 miles north of San Francisco, is a fishing hamlet of about 1,000 year-round residents where Dungeness crab is trapped several months of the year. More

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      California County to Pay $300,000 Over Butchering of Girl’s Goat

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      The girl and her family reached a settlement after accusing the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office of unlawfully seizing a pet goat that was sold and slaughtered.A California county’s sheriff’s office agreed to pay $300,000 after it seized a 9-year-old girl’s pet goat, which was later slaughtered, according to court documents made public Friday.Jessica Long, the girl’s mother, sued the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, the Shasta District Fair, which auctioned the goat, and some of its employees in 2022 for taking “a young girl’s beloved pet goat” to be sold and slaughtered, despite the family’s efforts to spare the animal, according to court records.Ms. Long bought the goat for her daughter, who called him Cedar or Cedes, so the girl could participate in a 4-H program, according to the family’s lawyer, Ryan Gordon.Ms. Long’s daughter, who is identified as E.L. in the lawsuit because she is a minor, initially raised the goat to be auctioned at the Shasta District Fair in Northern California.But as auction day approached, the girl, who had been feeding and walking with the goat on a leash everywhere, became attached to Cedar and did not want to sell him.The fair ignored the family’s pleas and sold Cedar for $902, of which the fair was owed $63 as part of the sale.The family offered to pay the fair the money it was owed, and as the dispute continued, offered to pay the full auction price. Fair officials refused to withdraw the sale, however, according to court documents.As the family attempted to keep Cedar, fair officials threatened criminal theft charges.During the dispute, Ms. Long took Cedar to a farm 200 miles away in Sonoma County to be kept safe, the lawsuit said.Two Shasta County sheriff’s deputies drove to the farm and seized the goat, though it remains unclear who got the deputies involved, Mr. Gordon said. Law enforcement did not have a warrant to search and seize Cedar from the farm, he added.Cedar was eventually slaughtered but where his remains ended up is still unknown, and the winning bidder never paid the $902, Mr. Gordon said.In settling with the girl and her family, Shasta County admitted no wrongdoing. The lawsuit against the Shasta District Fair and some of its workers remains pending. Representatives of Shasta County and the Shasta District Fair did not immediately return requests for comment.“They can never get justice for Cedar, he’s gone,” Mr. Gordon said. “But this is a good first step.”The money will be held in a trust until Ms. Long’s daughter, who is now 11, is a legal adult, he said.In a 2022 interview with The New York Times, Mr. Gordon, who is the co-director of Advancing Law for Animals, a nonprofit law firm specializing in complex cases of animal law, said the sheriff’s deputies were “not the judge” and had no right to deem who was Cedar’s rightful owner.When Ms. Long’s daughter learned of Cedar’s fate weeks after he was taken, she ran to her bed and cried under her covers, Ms. Long said. More

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      Daniel Romanchuk’s Pre-Marathon Routine Includes Sandpaper

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      Many of the 50,000 entrants in the New York City Marathon have pre-race routines — carbo-loading, plenty of liquids and so on — but only a few of these routines include wrenches, Allen keys and sandpaper.Daniel Romanchuk checks the contents of his utility pouch in Central Park ahead of the NYC Marathon, Manhattan, 2024.Clark Hodgin for The New York TimesThose are just a few of the tools that the 40 or so professional wheelchair racers rely on to prepare for New York’s hilly and rough roads.Before every race, they tighten the various nuts and bolts on their chairs to make sure nothing rattles lose on the city’s streets and bridges. Tires are doubled checked to ensure they are properly inflated. Adhesives are applied to customized racing gloves.Clark Hodgin for The New York Times“I have a nice long list of everything I need,” said Daniel Romanchuk, who became in 2018 the first American and youngest athlete ever to win the men’s wheelchair division in New York. “I travel with every tool that I could possibly need.”Clark Hodgin for The New York TimesClark Hodgin for The New York TimesUnlike at the Olympics, where there are fix-it shops to help Paralympians in a pinch, there is no dedicated wheelchair repair shop at the New York City Marathon. But by necessity, the racers and their coaches have an intimate knowledge of their wheelchairs and come prepared with an array of tools to allow them to make fixes on the fly.Clark Hodgin for The New York TimesIn addition to wrenches and screwdrivers, racers pay close attention to their tires, making sure they are ready for New York’s potholes and bridges. The organizers provide cans of pressurized CO2 because racers cannot bring them on planes when they travel to New York. Mr. Romanchuk recently switched to tubeless tires, but other racers carry sealant to repair any punctures.Clark Hodgin for The New York TimesRacers also apply adhesive to their gloves, but there is a balance between adding too much and too little, especially if it rains and grips become slippery.Clark Hodgin for The New York Times“I did that in one race when I was expecting it to rain a lot and it barely did, and my glove would stick to the wheel,” Mr. Romanchuk said.The night before the race, officials meet in the athletes’ hotel to inspect every chair to ensure it meets race standards for things like wheel size.Clark Hodgin for The New York TimesRomanchuk inspects the bottom of his racing bikeClark Hodgin for The New York TimesClark Hodgin for The New York TimesThe next morning, the chairs are brought to the hotel lobby and loaded onto trucks and taken to start line. The racers then travel by bus to Staten Island, where they do their final preparations, including packing a few essential tools like an Allen key and small CO2 can to carry during the race.Daniel Romanchuk poses for a photo for his mother at the finish line on Friday before the race.Clark Hodgin for The New York Times More

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      Polio Vaccination Underway in Gaza

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      Aid agencies said that children in some areas of northern Gaza where Israel is mounting an offensive against Hamas will miss the doses, compromising the effectiveness of the campaign.Thousands of children in Gaza City were receiving a second dose of polio vaccine this weekend in an effort that was delayed by intense Israeli bombardment and mass evacuation orders in northern Gaza, the United Nations and other aid agencies said.The second phase of the vaccination campaign was originally set to begin on Oct. 23 across the north of the territory, but it was postponed due to a lack of assurances about pauses in the fighting and bombardment to ensure the safety of health workers, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said in a statement on Friday.The first round of vaccinations in September took place across northern Gaza. Since then, the Israeli military has launched an intense offensive in northern Gaza against what it has said is a resurgence of Hamas in the area.A humanitarian pause for the second phase of the vaccination campaign was only assured for Gaza City, according to the U.N. agencies. They said that around 15,000 children under 10 in northern towns where the Israeli military has been carrying out the offensive over the last few weeks “remain inaccessible and will be missed during the campaign, compromising its effectiveness.”COGAT, the Israeli government agency that oversees policy in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, said on Sunday that 58,604 children under 10 had been vaccinated in northern Gaza since the second phase of the campaign began a day earlier. It added that Israel would continue to work to “facilitate an effective vaccination campaign.”The Gazan Health Ministry confirmed the number of vaccinations, and the campaign was expected to continue through Monday.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Which Celebrities Are Running the New York City Marathon?

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      Among those running the marathon are people who, in addition to being talented and famous, are apparently in great shape, too.Here are a few of the recognizable faces that may dash by. (We will be updating this post with their finish times later in the day.)The professional actors heading out include Randall Park (“Fresh Off the Boat,” “Always Be My Maybe”); Jennifer Connelly (“Labyrinth,” “Top Gun: Maverick”); Claire Holt (“The Vampire Diaries,” “Aquarius”); and Greg Rikaart (“The Young and the Restless,” “Days of Our Lives”). Broadway-goers might spot Carrie St. Louis, who played Glinda in “Wicked.”Nev Schulman, the host of MTV’s “Catfish,” will race, as will Vinny Guadagnino of “Jersey Shore” fame.Fans of “The Bachelor” may recognize Peter Weber, who also competed on “The Traitors,” and Matt James, as well as the “Bachelorette” contestants Zac Clark and Joe Amabile. The host of two seasons of “The Bachelorette” and a one-time contestant, Tayshia Adams, will also run.News fanatics can keep an eye out for Jacob Soboroff, an NBC News correspondent. Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes, former “Good Morning America” anchors who co-host a podcast, will be running.Other big names include Casey Neistat, a YouTube star; Karen Sarahi Gonzales, a beauty influencer; Phoebe Robinson, a comedian; Sebastián Yatra, a Colombian singer; and Haley Kalil, a model. More

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      20/20 Foresight

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      We’re covering the strategic risks that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are taking.Once an election is over, hindsight can make the winner’s strategy look perfect and the loser’s seem doomed. As my colleague Jonathan Swan said recently on “The Daily”: “The winning campaign, everything they did was genius, and then the losing campaign are just a bunch of idiots. And the truth is that neither is necessarily true.”The truth instead tends to be that presidential campaigns make strategic decisions that come with benefits as well as costs. And those decisions aren’t guaranteed to succeed or fail.In today’s newsletter, I’ll analyze a core strategy that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have each pursued. After Tuesday, I suspect we will come to see both as crucial, albeit in different ways.Harris’s cautionOn paper, Harris is the underdog. In rich countries around the world, incumbents are doing badly; the ruling parties in Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan have all recently lost power. In the U.S., President Biden has a 40 percent approval rating, and less than 30 percent of adults are satisfied with the country’s direction.Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst, points out that voters appear eager for change and specifically seem skeptical of progressivism. (I recommend his essay on the subject.)Given this backdrop, Harris has run a strikingly cautious campaign. Game theorists would describe it as a low-variance strategy. She and her aides avoided moves that might have gone very well — and might have gone very poorly.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More