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      Voting proceeds smoothly across US despite fears of unrest

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      Across America millions of people went to the polls amid an election campaign fraught with anxiety over the prospect of voter intimidation and the chance of civil unrest after a historically divisive election.But as polls started to close on the east coast of the US, reports from across the country reflected a day of peaceful voting with only sporadic reports of incidents of intimidation or misinformation or technological problems with voting machines.The leader of a group of 42,000 legal volunteers deployed for the election said so far there had not been “major, systemic problems or attempts to obstruct voting”.Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said early voting, voter education efforts and earlier litigation had made for “a relatively smooth election day across the country”.The committee operates the Election Protection hotline, which provides information and assistance to Americans who encounter problems while voting. Clarke said there was an increase in complaints about voter intimidation and electioneering compared to past elections, but those problems were at a smaller, less intense scale than had been expected.“While we have seen these complaints, in many instances they are lone wolfs, individuals, maybe two people, but not large groups that would otherwise have a stark chilling effect on the electorate,” Clarke said. “And I think many voters this season have come out determined.”Clarke cautioned that this could be the “calm before the storm,” and that the committee was bracing for issues over whether absentee ballots were properly handled and counted in the coming days. More

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      in US Politics

      Joe Biden returns to childhood home in Scranton: 'From this house to the White House'

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      Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden came to his home town of Scranton on election day in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, talking of “restoring decency to the White House” if he wins.
      He pledged to unite a riven country and rebuild a middle class hollowed out by economic inequality.
      Biden was cheered by 200 or so supporters as he visited his modest childhood home in Green Ridge, a leafy suburb just outside the city centre.
      There, he signed a living room wall with “From this house to the White House with the grace of God. Joe Biden 11-3-2020”, before coming outside – wearing a black face mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus – to greet neighbours and bump elbows with voters.
      Janet Evans, a retired teacher who lives opposite, said she was confident that the former vice-president would win Pennsylvania and the White House. “He truly cares about average people. And as he often says, he’s not from Park Avenue. He’s from Scranton, North Washington Avenue, and we the people love him and trust him.”
      “He’s the only one that can lead us out of this pandemic safely and save hundreds of thousands of lives. It’s certainly going to be a fight, but at the end of the day, I believe Joe will pull it off,” said Evans, 64.

      Sarah Mucha
      (@sarahmucha)
      Photo of the signature Joe Biden left on the wall of his childhood on Election Day. https://t.co/QyVAvryTtc pic.twitter.com/Lb2TJNy2q6

      November 3, 2020

      Katherine Hose, 25, a student, added: “I’m voting for Biden because of the education system and because he cares about women. But I think it’s going to be a close election.”
      The importance of prevailing in Pennsylvania cannot be overstated.
      Trump’s path to the White House was guaranteed in 2016 after collecting Pennsylvania’s 20 precious electoral college votes by beating Hillary Clinton by just 44,292 votes in the state, out of more than 6 million cast.
      Both candidates have made multiple campaign stops across Pennsylvania over the past week, culminating in a star-studded election eve for the Democrats when Lady Gaga, an anti-fracking activist, performed in Pittsburgh with Biden, and singer John Legend joined Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, in Philadelphia.
      Meanwhile, Trump issued a thinly veiled threat to the state’s Democratic governor, claiming that he and his supporters would be “watching him” while making baseless claims that Tom Wolf was implicated in cheating in Pennsylvania.
      Trump has made fracking a campaign issue in Pennsylvania by falsely claiming Biden will destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs by banning fracking. In 2016, Trump carried 57 of the state’s 67 rural and suburban counties where the Democrats have been accused of abandoning white, blue-collar voters.
      But in Green Ridge, Karen Zuton, 76, a retired factory worker, said: “The Democrats didn’t abandon anybody, the Republicans are liars. If Trump wins again he’ll make it a dictatorship. I hope it goes for Joe, but it’s a wait-and-see.”
      Despite rapidly rising Covid-19 cases in Pennsylvania and across the midwest, Zuton voted in person to ensure her vote was counted in tonight’s tallies. Statewide, more than 2.4 million out of 9.1 million eligible voters cast their ballots early, but the full count may not be completed until Friday.
      As polling booths opened on Tuesday, an average of national polls showed Biden leading Trump by 8.4 percentage points, but only 4.7 points in Pennsylvania, according to the website FiveThirtyEight.
      Earlier on Tuesday, Biden visited the Carpenters and Joiners Union on Scranton’s industrial south side, where a small group of supporters chanted “Let’s go Joe” and “we love Joe”.
      Bill Rafalko, 68, a retired technician who voted by mail, said: “I’m convinced that Scranton and Pennsylvania will vote for Biden because we cannot tolerate four more years of the current administration, it’s chaotic, at least he has a plan for the pandemic. And he’s a good, honourable, decent man.”
      Maureen Lyons, 70, a former teacher, added: “This election is the most important in my lifetime. We need to bring normalcy back to the country. We need a human being in the White House, bottom line.” More

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      in US Politics

      Joe Biden jokes about symbolic Dixville Notch victory – video

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      Joe Biden rallied supporters in his his home town of Scranton before moving on to Philadelphia on Tuesday morning.
      Biden celebrated his symbolic early victory this morning in the tiny New Hampshire village of Dixville Notch, where voters backed him by five to zero over Donald Trump.
      He said he felt good about the elections, but added: ‘You have to run through the tape’
      Biden sweeps board in tiny New Hampshire village Dixville Notch
      US election day – live updates More

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      in US Politics

      'The numbers floored me': hunger in Pennsylvania hits highest level since pandemic's start

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      [embedded content]
      Charles Bennicoff hasn’t worked since last winter. He’s an experienced landscape gardener but the mom-and-pop business he worked for in Allentown, Pennsylvania, cut its staff after losing most of their contracts during the pandemic.
      Bennicoff, 50, now relies on a food pantry for a few bags of groceries every couple of weeks to supplement the food stamps and social security his mentally ill wife receives. He still picks up the occasional odd job but doesn’t qualify for unemployment benefits because the landscaping job was cash in hand.
      It’s the first time the couple have needed food aid since recovering from drug addiction and homelessness about 20 years ago, and Bennicoff is struggling to stay positive.
      “Covid has taken a toll, emotionally and financially. There’s a thousand people dying every day because of the president’s lies, and I can’t just shrug that off. I have tears in my eyes every night,” said Bennicoff.
      Hunger is rising in Pennsylvania, with the demand for food aid at its highest level since the start of the pandemic, according to new figures obtained by the Guardian. More

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      ‘I’m not voting for personality’: why this Pennsylvania county is the one to watch

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      A steady stream of voters arrived to deliver their sealed ballots at an early voting drop-off box inside the courthouse in the Pennsylvania city of Easton, a diverse community in Northampton county which could be pivotal in deciding who wins the key battleground state – and the White House.
      Northampton county, a mixed rural-urban area with about 300,000 habitants, has backed the winning presidential candidate all but three times since 1920. As Northampton county goes, so do Pennsylvania’s precious 20 electoral votes, according to electoral history.
      It is the political bellwether county in a crucial swing state which helped deliver victory to Donald Trump in 2016. Northampton county was among just 206 out of 3,141 nationwide that backed Barack Obama twice and then flipped for Trump.
      But with less than a week to go before election day, the polls here are mixed and too close to call. The campaign signs scattered across the picturesque county seem pretty evenly spread between the president and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, and so do the votes being cast at the courthouse.
      Voting for Biden is Shelene Monroe, a 48-year-old business analyst. “Trump has divided us as a nation, severed relationships with our partners while aligning himself with dictators, and shown a total lack of leadership,” said Monroe, who voted for Democratic candidates in the down-ballot races. More

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      in US Politics

      'Thank you for all the love': Melania Trump returns to campaign after Covid diagnosis

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      Melania Trump returned to the campaign trail on Tuesday afternoon, a week before election day and nearly a month after her positive test for coronavirus.The first lady, a reluctant campaigner at the best of times, postponed a planned return last week, citing a “lingering cough” and an abundance of caution. She has not appeared at a Trump rally since the president kicked off his re-election campaign in Florida in June 2019. But on Tuesday she headed for the suburbs of Philadelphia, for an event aimed at appealing to female voters.Pennsylvania, one of the post-industrial Democratic strongholds which Donald Trump won from Hillary Clinton in 2016, is emerging as perhaps the key battleground state in 2020. Joe Biden leads polling there by more than five points, according to the fivethirtyeight.com average, but results have narrowed as the president has returned to the state again and again.Speaking in Atglen, the first lady told a crowd: “Thank you for the all the love you gave us when our family was diagnosed with Covid-19. We are feeling so much better now thanks to healthy living and some of the amazing therapeutic options available in our country.”On Monday, Donald Trump staged rallies in Allentown, Lititz and Martinsburg. Melania Trump’s event on Tuesday was moderated by the former White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway.The president is seeking to make up ground with women, particularly in suburban areas, who have deserted him in droves. At one recent rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump pleaded: “Suburban women, will you please like me? Remember? Hey, please, I saved your damn neighborhood, OK?”The first lady appeared with her husband at the White House on Sunday, for a Halloween celebration, and on Monday night, for a ceremony marking the conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett’s controversial confirmation to the supreme court.Melania Trump in Pennsylvania: “Thank you for the all the love you gave us when our family was diagnosed with COVID-19. We are feeling so much better now thanks to healthy living and some of the amazing therapeutic options available in our country.” https://t.co/dlmHTmd8jP pic.twitter.com/w5N2oXBrLd— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 27, 2020
      A previous event for Barrett, on 26 September, has been called a “super-spreader event”, given that coronavirus prevention measures such as mask-wearing and social distancing were not observed and the president, first lady, senior advisers and leading Republicans all fell sick. Melania Trump’s son, Barron, also contracted the virus.Announcing her recovery, Melania Trump said she had been “very fortunate as my diagnosis came with minimal symptoms, though they hit me all at once and it seemed to be a rollercoaster of symptoms in the days after. I experienced body aches, a cough and headaches, and felt extremely tired most of the time.”In contrast to her husband, who was hospitalised and received treatment not available to the public, the first lady said she “chose to go a more natural route in terms of medicine, opting more for vitamins and healthy food”.The Trump administration has been strongly criticised for continuing to stage campaign events with minimal Covid mitigation measures, even as cases surge across the country and as an outbreak was detected among senior aides to Mike Pence, the vice-president.Pennsylvania is currently seeing rising case numbers, particularly around Philadelphia. More than 8.6m cases have been recorded in the US as a whole, and nearly 226,000 deaths. More

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      in US Politics

      Obama campaigns for Biden in Florida as Trump heads to battleground Ohio – live coverage

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      Key events

      Show

      5.00pm EDT17:00
      Alaska’s Murkowski will confirm Barrett for supreme court

      3.55pm EDT15:55
      Obama speaks in Florida: slams Trump, says Biden made Obama himself “a better president”

      3.50pm EDT15:50
      Sanders in PA, Booker in NC

      3.33pm EDT15:33
      Harris laments “hunger crisis”

      2.33pm EDT14:33
      Biden on fracking – no ban

      2.00pm EDT14:00
      Fauci supports national mask mandate

      1.40pm EDT13:40
      Trump coronavirus adviser plays down importance of case numbers and testing

      Live feed

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      5.53pm EDT17:53

      Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris is calling for an administration that is frank about racist police brutality in America.
      “There isn’t a Black man I know, be it a relative or friend, who has not had some sort of experience with police that’s been about an unreasonable stop, some sort of profiling or excessive force,” she said. More