Abortion, voting rights, other key issues on the ballot in states this election
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(WASHINGTON) — While the presidential race may be getting the spotlight this election season, key regulations, laws and policies are on the ballot in several states.
And those ballot measures could have huge ramifications for the rest of the country.
Forty-one states have a combined 147 ballot measures in the 2024 election. While some measures are hyperlocal, some state initiatives dovetail with national topics.
Here are some of the major ballot initiatives in this election.
Reproductive rights
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in 2022, voters in a handful of states have turned to ballot measures to enshrine or expand reproductive access in the face of abortion bans.
Ten states in this election season will give their voters a chance to change their laws on the topic.
Arizona, Florida, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska and Nevada all have measures that would amend their state constitutions with specific language to protect or recognize the right to an abortion for all constituents.
Nebraska also has another ballot measure that would change the state constitution to prohibit abortions in the second and third trimesters except for cases of “medical emergency or when the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest.”
New York state has a ballot measure that would change the constitution’s equal rights amendment to protect against discrimination for pregnancy outcomes, including abortion.
South Dakota voters will decide on a measure that would establish a right to an abortion and add an amendment to the state constitution that would determine when the state may regulate abortions.
Vice President Kamala Harris has repeatedly called for the restoration of the reproductive rights established by Roe v. Wade.
Former President Donald Trump, who has taken credit for helping overturn Roe v. Wade, has said on the campaign trail that the states should decide abortion access and indicated he will vote “no” on Florida’s ballot initiative.
Illinois voters will decide on a measure that would advise state officials on whether to provide for medically assisted reproductive treatments, including in vitro fertilization, to be covered by any health insurance plan in Illinois that provides full coverage to pregnancy benefits.
Immigration, voting rights
Even though it is already illegal for non-documented immigrants to register to vote and cast a ballot in federal and state elections, some leaders in states have been pushing laws and measures to prohibit those groups from casting ballots in local elections.
A handful of municipalities have passed laws allowing some noncitizens to vote in certain local races. For example, non-U.S. citizens who have children attending public schools can vote in school board elections in San Francisco, following a 2016 ballot measure.
This year, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin have ballot measures that would prohibit noncitizens from voting in state and local elections.
Proponents have argued these laws would secure elections and prevent localities from allowing non-Americans to vote.
However, opponents have emphasized that non-American citizens cannot vote in state and federal elections and the ballot measures are moot.
Six states have already passed ballot measures banning noncitizens: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota and Ohio.
Ranked choice voting
Under a ranked-choice voting system, or RCV, voters cast a ballot ranking their candidates. If a candidate receives more than 50% of the No. 1 ranking, they win the election.
If no candidate receives that 50% majority, the election goes into an instant runoff.
Election officials will look at the ballots and eliminate candidates with the fewest number of No.1 rankings. The ballots that listed the eliminated candidate as the top choice are then re-examined.
The candidates ranked No. 2 on those ballots are tallied, and those votes are transferred to the remaining candidates. The process continues until one candidate reaches the 50% majority.
Alaska and Maine are the only two states in the nation that hold their state and federal elections using RCV, but that could change after this election.
Nevada and Oregon have ballot measures to change their state and federal elections to RCV. The District of Columbia also has a ballot measure that would change local elections to an RCV method.
Missouri would ban the method if its voters pass a ballot measure that also includes banning noncitizens from voting.
A ballot measure in Alaska would repeal its laws that mandate RCV for state and federal elections. Voters approved a measure in the 2020 election with 50.55%. Two years later, the method came under the national spotlight when an instant runoff decided the Senate race.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the incumbent who did not have the support of Republicans following her vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, went on to win the election following the first elimination round.
Republican-controlled legislatures in 10 states -Tennessee, Florida, Idaho, South Dakota, Montana, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Oklahoma- have passed laws in the last four years banning RCV from all elections.
LGBTQ+ rights
Voters in a few states will decide on state changes for laws and regulations concerning LGBTQ+ rights.
Colorado and Hawaii voters will vote on a ballot measure that would change their state constitutions to change language and allow same-sex couples the right to marry.
A measure in South Dakota would change male pronouns in the state constitution to gender-neutral terms or titles.
California voters will decide whether to repeal Prop 8, the 2008 voter measure that banned same-sex marriages. The law became invalid after the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that same-sex marriages were constitutional.
Other major ballot measures
Marijuana laws are potentially up for change in two states this election season.
Florida and South Dakota both have ballot measures that would legalize recreational marijuana for adults over the age of 21. This is South Dakota voters’ third time deciding on the matter in four years.
Voters approved a measure in 2020 to legalize recreational cannabis, but it was struck down by a lawsuit a year later. In 2022, a ballot measure to legalize marijuana failed to pass.
Arizona has a voter initiative that would change state laws to allow for state and local police to arrest noncitizens who cross the border unlawfully and allow for state judges to order deportations.
A North Dakota ballot includes an initiative that would require future ballot measures to be passed by voters in two consecutive elections before it’s approved.
Colorado voters will decide on a measure that, if passed, would levy a 6.5% excise tax on the manufacture and sale of firearms and ammunition. Tax money would go “to fund crime victim services programs, education programs, and mental and behavioral health programs for children and veterans.”
Kentucky has a ballot initiative that would amend the constitution to enable the General Assembly to provide state funding to students who attend private schools.
Photo Credit: Prince Williams/WireImage/James Devaney/GC Images
(WASHINGTON) — The race for the White House remained essentially a dead heat on Friday — with 11 days to go until Election Day.
Kamala Harris was headed to Texas to highlight abortion access and Donald Trump was set to appear on Joe Rogan’s highly-popular podcast.
McConnell, Johnson rebuke Harris for calling Trump ‘fascist’
In a rare joint statement, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell strongly condemned Harris calling Trump a “fascist” and comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
The two Republican leaders say Harris’ remarks have “only fanned the flames beneath a boiling cauldron of political animus. Her most recent and most reckless invocations of the darkest evil of the 20th century seem to dare it to boil over. The Vice President’s words more closely resemble those of President Trump’s second would-be assassin than her own earlier appeal to civility.”
McConnell and Johnson say they have been briefed on the “ongoing and persistent threats to former President Donald Trump.”
Harris quickly seized on John Kelly’s comments to The New York Times this week that he believed Trump fit the description of a fascist. Kelly served as Trump’s chief of staff and is a retired general.
Trump has claimed for months that Harris is a “fascist” or “communist” or “Marxist.”
-ABC News’ Lauren Peller
Virginia judge strikes down voter purge that impacted 1,600 people
A federal judge issued a partial ruling finding that Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order to conduct a daily voter purge process violated the National Voting Rights Act of 1993.
A total of 1,600 voters removed from the rolls since August must be added back within the next five days.
The judge said the process left no room for individualized inquiry, which violated the act’s requirement that “when in the 90-day provisional, it must be done on an individualized basis.”
-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson
Trump zeroes in on ‘blue wall’ states
Trump will embark on a rigorous schedule making his final pitch to voters. The former president is focusing on the “blue wall” states this weekend and early next week, specifically targeting Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
After stops in Michigan and Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump will culminate his weekend campaigning with a rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, in which the former president has coined as a “celebration of the whole thing” with his nine years of campaigning coming to close.
-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Lalee Ibssa and Soorin Kim
Americans accused of noncitizen voter fraud face doxxing
Eliud Bonilla, a Brooklyn-born NASA engineer born to Puerto Rican parents, was abruptly purged from the voter rolls as a “noncitizen.”
Bonilla later voted without issue, but the nuisance soon became a nightmare after a conservative watchdog group published his personal information online after obtaining a list of the state’s suspected noncitizen voters.
“I became worried because of safety,” he told ABC News, “because, unfortunately, we’ve seen too many examples in this country when one person wants to right a perceived wrong and goes through with an act of violence.”
Bonilla’s story highlights a real-world impact of aggressive efforts to purge state voter rolls of thousands of potential noncitizens who have illegally registered. Many of the names end up being newly naturalized citizens, victims of an inadvertent paperwork mistake or the result of a clerical error, experts say. Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections.
Read more about Bonilla’s story and a fact check of noncitizen voting claims here.
Half of Americans see Trump as fascist, Harris viewed as pandering: POLL
A new poll from ABC News and Ipsos found half of Americans (49%) see Trump as a fascist, or “a political extremist who seeks to act as a dictator, disregards individual rights and threatens or uses force against their opponents.”
A majority of voters (65%) also said Trump often says things that are not true.
But Harris also faces perception headwinds, though far fewer Americans (22%) said they viewed her as a fascist.
Fifty-seven percent of registered voters said Harris is making proposals “that just are intended to get people to vote for her,” not that she intends to carry out. Just more than half (52%) said the same about Trump.
Trump to appear on Joe Rogan podcast in play for young male voters
Former President Donald Trump sits down with podcast host Joe Rogan for the first time Friday, appearing on the highly popular “The Joe Rogan Experience,” as he reaches out to an audience of mostly young males as potential voters.
The podcast, which boasts approximately 15.7 million followers, a Spotify representative confirmed to ABC News, is greater than the population of any of the seven election battleground states.
Bridget Bennett for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The race for the White House is heading into the final stretch with most polls showing Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump neck-and-neck in key states with just about two weeks to go.
Over 19M Americans have voted early as of Tuesday afternoon
Over 19 million Americans have voted early as of Tuesday afternoon, according to data from Election Lab at the University of Florida.
Roughly 7.1 million votes have come in through early in-person methods while the remaining votes have been cast through mail ballots, the data showed.
There is a large showing of early votes in the swing state of Georgia which has seen record early vote turnout since early in-person voting began last week.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1.84 million Georgians, roughly one in four registered voters, have cast their ballot, with over 1.74 million votes cast at early voting polling places across the state according to Georgia’s Secretary of State office.
-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd and Ivan Pereira
Trump to appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast Friday: Sources
Trump is set to tape an interview for the popular “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast Friday at Rogan’s Austin, Texas, studio, multiple sources told ABC News.
Rogan’s podcast garners a vast amount of viewership each week and ranks as one of the most-listened-to podcast on Spotify.
The interview comes as Trump has been engaging in more long-format media appearances and podcasts and works to appeal to young male voters, a key group of Rogan listeners.
Earlier this cycle, Rogan and Trump got into a back-and-forth spat on social media after Rogan expressed his support for then-candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during on an episode over the summer.
“He’s the only one who makes sense to me,” Rogan said of Kennedy in an August episode.
“He doesn’t attack people. He attacks actions and ideas, but he’s much more reasonable and intelligent.”
In response, Trump posted on his social media platform that “it will be interesting to see how loudly Joe Rogan gets BOOED the next time he enters the UFC Ring??? MAGA2024.”
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Cheney keeps up fire on Trump over Jan. 6
Former Rep. Liz Cheney tore into Trump on Tuesday over the Jan. 6, mob attack on the U.S. Capitol and his tariff policies.
Speaking with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Cheney excoriated Trump as unfit for office and a threat to American democracy for his role in sparking the mob, echoing an argument she’s been making on the campaign trail with Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate.
“I believe he’s unfit, and he’s dangerous, but I made the decision beyond that to endorse Vice President Harris. And it is certainly the case that there are policies on which we disagree, but she is somebody who’s devoted her life to public service. She is somebody who, even if you disagree with her, and maybe especially if you disagree with her, I can tell you, she will listen,” Cheney, of Wyoming, said at the Detroit Economic Club.
“You all in business, when you think about, what are you looking for in somebody you hire, you’re looking for somebody that you can trust, you’re looking for somebody who’s going to be responsible, who’s going to operate in good faith,” she told the audience. “You certainly wouldn’t hire somebody who was unstable and erratic. And we need to think about this election in those terms.”
-ABC News’ Tal Axelrod
Bruce Springsteen to headline concerts at events with Obama, Harris, campaign says
Bruce Springsteen is bringing his greatest hits to the campaign trail as he is set to headline concerts in key swing state cities with Harris and former President Barack Obama, a senior campaign official told ABC News.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician will perform in Atlanta on Thursday with Harris and Obama as part of a get-out-the-vote event followed by another show in Philadelphia with Obama in attendance, the official said.
More concerts will be announced, the official said.
“The Boss” announced his support for Harris saying she and Gov. Tim Walz have “a vision of this country that respects and includes everyone, regardless of class, religion, race, your political point of view or sexual identity, and they want to grow our economy in a way that benefits all” and that former President Donald Trump, “doesn’t understand the meaning of this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American.”
Campaign advisers see these major mobilization events as massive opportunities to harness voter enthusiasm to get out the vote before Election Day.
–ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Fritz Farrow
Trump takes questions from vocal supporters at Latino event, attacks Harris’ intelligence
Trump took friendly questions from Latino supporters during a roundtable aimed at courting minority voters in Florida on Tuesday.
The questions came from many longtime supporters including Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue, pastor Apostle Guillermo Maldonado and “Sound of Freedom” actor Eduardo Verastegui, who spent a lot of their time praising the former president.
Trump talked about immigration for the first time about 30 minutes in, and used false claims about immigrants crossing into the country, calling them a “military supreme.”
The crowd was relatively calm given the ballroom set-up; however, Trump did get applause when he brought up “men in women sports,” where he doubled down on more transphobic rhetoric.
“So there’s a sickness going on in our country. We have to end the sickness, and we have to start because she’s a radical left,” Trump said of Harris.
Trump also repeatedly made racial and ethnic jokes and attacks during the event.
The former president also went after Harris’ intelligence, calling her “slow” and “stupid.”
He also continued to make his baseless claim that there might not be another election if Harris wins.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Trump hits Harris as ‘lazy as hell’ for not being on the trail
Trump returned to his Doral, Florida, golf club to host a roundtable with Latino community members Tuesday and used the opportunity to criticize Harris for not having any campaign events that day.
The roundtable was supposed to be focused on Trump’s appeal to Latino Americans, but during his opening remarks, Trump gave a generic, rambling stump speech where he complained about his heavy campaign schedule compared to Harris’. The vice president is off the trail on Tuesday and taping interviews for NBC News and Telemundo.
“She’s sleeping right now. She couldn’t go on the trail. You know, you think when you have 14 days left, you wouldn’t be sleeping. She’s not doing anything today,” Trump said, not mentioning her TV interviews scheduled for Tuesday.
As the topic of exhaustion came up into the final stretch of the campaign, Trump kept going after Harris for taking days off as he talked about how much he was campaigning.
“Who the hell takes off? You have 14 days left, and she’ll take a couple of more days off too. You know why she’s lazy as hell, and she’s got that reputation,” he said.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
DOJ launches voter assistance site for hurricane victims
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division launched a webpage on Tuesday that compiles information to help voters in states impacted by recent hurricanes Helene and Milton to have access to the ballot.
The resources are aimed to help voters in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.
“The site identifies and provides links to various state changes made to accommodate voters who have been displaced, lost their identification documents, have had polling sites moved or who are unsure where or how they can vote. It also provides contact information so that voters can reach local voting officials who can provide the most specific and up-to-date guidance,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
Harris highlights key tie-breaking vote over prescription drugs
Vice President Kamala Harris, who cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, called Tuesday’s Health and Human Services report on cost-savings for prescription drugs evidence of the administration’s mission to deliver accessible health care to everyone.
The report showed 1.5 million Medicare enrollees saved almost $1 billion on prescription drugs in the first half of 2024 as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act.
“All Americans should be able to access the health care they need — no matter their income,” Harris said in a statement.
The Inflation Reduction Act for the first time put a cap on what Medicare enrollees spend on out-of-pocket costs for their medications and a lower cap that goes into effect next year ($2,000) and is estimated to impact 19 million people.
The administration estimated that this year’s cap saved impacted Medicare enrollees an average of $1,802, and that when the cap lowers further, the savings will be higher.
Harris highlighted the combination of other efforts the administration is also making to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, like capping insulin at $35 and negotiating on contracts with pharma companies so the government pays less for drugs.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Senate Dems release report on early voting
Democratic senators, led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Rules Committee Chair Amy Klobuchar, released a report Tuesday urging Americans to cast their ballots as soon as possible and warning that election results may not be known on Election Day.
“Just like 2020, Donald Trump and his allies continue to refuse to commit to accepting the results of the election if he loses while pushing dangerous and divisive rhetoric to sow discord and undermine confidence in our election process. Americans losing faith in the results of our elections doesn’t just risk another January 6th but puts our very democracy at risk,” Schumer said in a statement with the release of the report. “Senate Democrats remain committed to ensuring all Americans can vote without fear or intimidation.”
The report details the early voting and mail-in ballot count procedures, including details on how and when some swing states count their ballots.
Using these details, the report asserts that “early vote counts may create the appearance that one particular candidate is ahead but that may change depending on whether in-person or mail-in vote totals are reported first. Americans should be prepared to reject misinformation and be patient about results in places where counting ballots may take longer.”
Trump still refuses to accept that he lost the 2020 election and has encouraged voters to cast ballots for him on Nov. 5 so that his margin of victory is “too big to rig.”
-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin
ABC News’ John Karl to speak with Liz Cheney
Former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney will sit down with ABC News’ Chief Washington Correspondent and Co-Anchor of “This Week” Jonathan Karl at the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday afternoon.
Part of the event will be streamed on ABC News Live.
Karl’s discussion with Cheney comes a day after she hit the campaign trail with Harris for a series of moderated conversations in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, in which they sought to appeal to white suburban women who vote Republican.
Trump courts Latino voters, Harris off the trail
Trump will hold a roundtable at the Latino Summit at his Doral golf club in Miami. The event was postponed because of Hurricane Milton and comes as the former president seeks to eat away at Harris’ edge with Hispanic voters, particularly males.
Trump will later head to Greensboro, North Carolina, for a rally.
Harris, notably, has no public events scheduled for Tuesday, spending her afternoon instead doing interviews with NBC News and Telemundo.
Former President Barack Obama joins Minnesota Gov. and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz for a rally in Madison, Wisconsin.
Trump and Harris prepare for flood of legal activity around election
Harris and Trump are preparing for a flood of legal activity before and after the election after the former president launched an avalanche of lawsuits seeking to overturn his loss in 2020.
Earlier this year, the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign announced what they described as an “historic” “election integrity” program that an RNC official said in recent months has engaged in over 130 election lawsuits across 26 states, and recruited approximately 5,000 volunteer attorneys who are ready to be activated on Election Day.
Democrats, for their part, have intervened in “dozens of baseless Republican lawsuits to debunk their lies and defeat them in court,” according to an internal memo prepared by Harris’ chief attorney, Dana Remus.
Read more here from Olivia Rubin, Will Steakin and Lucien Bruggeman.
Nevada Republicans outpace Democrats in in-person early voting, trail in mail-in voting
Republicans are outpacing Democrats in in-person early voting in Nevada while Democrats are outpacing Republicans in mail-in voting, the Nevada Secretary of State Office’s latest report shows.
The latest report, updated Monday night, reflects early in-person voting and mail-in voting turnout in the first three days. It showed 52% of in-person early voters so far have been Republicans, while 28% were Democrats. Of all mail-in ballots cast so far, 43% so far have been Democrats and 30% Republicans.
The pattern reflects trends from the 2020 presidential election, when Republicans outpaced Democrats in early in-person voting and Democrats outpaced Republicans with mail-in voting.
In total, 245,356 mail-in ballots and early in-person ballots had been cast as of Monday night, with just under 40% of them being Republicans and 36% of them being Democrats.
In-person early voting in Nevada began on Oct. 19.
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim
Elon Musk’s PAC pays out 3rd $1 million check to voter
Elon Musk’s America PAC said late Monday that it handed out a third $1 million check to a voter who has signed its petition backing the Constitution.
The PAC said in a post to X that the check was given to Shannon Tomei from McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, posting a photograph of Tomei holding the check.
“Every day until Election Day, a person who signs the petition will be selected to earn $1M as a spokesperson for America PAC,” it added.
Musk shared the announcement and congratulated Tomei. In other posts, he has been urging people to register to vote in Pennsylvania — a crucial battleground state in next month’s presidential election.
The first two winners were announced during a town hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, over the weekend, with Musk handing over the checks to the winners on stage. It’s unclear how the third check was delivered.
Musk has thrown his weight behind former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, describing Trump as the only candidate “to preserve democracy in America.”
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim
Harris takes jabs at Trump’s dance moves, calls him ‘increasingly unstable’
Vice President Kamala Harris and former Rep. Liz Cheney capped off their battleground tour in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in their bid to appeal to moderate Republicans and independents.
During the final event on Monday, Harris continued to draw a contrast between herself and former President Trump and even poked fun at his dance moves during his campaign rally last week.
Harris, who called Trump’s onstage dancing a “solo dance,” said that it was proof that the former president is “increasingly unstable.”
“What we see about him in public, whether it be his rallies or, as you said, the — what would it be called? — just a solo dance? I don’t know,” said Harris, drawing laughter from the crowd.
“I think it does lead us, and it should lead us, to observe that he is increasingly unstable,” Harris said.
Harris was referencing Trump’s town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, last week where two medical emergencies in the crowd interrupted the event, which eventually turned into what his campaign at the time called an “impromptu concert.”
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim
Tim Walz reacts to ‘Daily Show’ appearance with Jon Stewart while fundraising in NYC
Fresh off his taping of the “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” Gov. Tim Walz told a crowd at the Standard Hotel in New York City on Monday night that the experience was “great” but that the comedian’s monologue at the start of the show was filled with what he considered “doom.”
“I’m like, ‘Quit with the doom.’ You know?” Walz said.
“Yes, Donald Trump is horrible, and the stakes are incredibly high, and women’s lives are at risk, and they demonize immigrants. And then he goes to McDonald’s to try and distract us, even though, the day before that, he said, you know, ‘We need to do something against the enemy from within,’” he went on.
“But there’s an antidote to this,” he concluded, explaining that there was more than enough positivity in the support he has been receiving as he campaigns in battleground states.
At the fundraising event, Walz was introduced by New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Hochul told the crowd that she got to know Walz when they were both representing red districts as Democrats in Congress.
She said that she gives Vice President Kamala Harris “a lot of credit” for choosing Walz as a running mate, whom she called “a genuine human being.”
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Trump recalls assassination attempt while courting religious voters in North Carolina
At a Believers and Ballots event in North Carolina Monday, former President Donald Trump worked to court religious voters.
Trump talked about his spiritual journey with the crowd as he emphasized a faith background we don’t often hear him talk about.
“But as I look back at my life’s journey and events, I now recognize that it’s been the hand of God leading me to where I am today,” said Trump.
The former president reflected on the assassination attempt made against him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania over the summer.
“My faith took on new meaning on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, where I was knocked to the ground, essentially by what seemed like a supernatural hand,” Trump said.
“I would like to think that God saved me for a purpose, and that’s to make our country greater than ever before,” he added.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa
Judges in Michigan and North Carolina reject challenges to overseas votes
Judges in Michigan and North Carolina on Monday ruled against legal challenges that attempted to disqualify votes cast by eligible American voters overseas.
Republican plaintiffs claimed that election offices in those two states, as well as in Pennsylvania, had created loopholes that would allow ineligible people to vote through overseas absentee ballots.
In Michigan, the judge dismissed one of three suits filed, calling it in his opinion “an 11th-hour attempt to disenfranchise these electors.”
In North Carolina, the judge denied a request by plaintiffs to set aside the ballots of overseas voters until a time at which their individual eligibility could be verified. Superior Court Judge John Smith wrote in that instance that there was “absolutely no evidence that any person has ever fraudulently claimed that exemption and actually voted in any North Carolina election.”
His ruling also stated conclusively that, “This court has weighed the hypothetical possibility of harm to plaintiffs against the rights of the defendants and finds that on balance the equitable discretion of this court should not be invoked to treat an entire group of citizens differently based upon unsupported and speculative allegations for which there is not even a scintilla of substantive evidence.”
A ruling on a similar lawsuit in Pennsylvania is expected soon.
-ABC News’ T. Michelle Murphy and Ivan Pereira
Trump spends millions on anti-trans ads despite lack of voter interest
Donald Trump and his Republicans allies are aggressively pushing anti-trans messaging in the final stretch of his campaign — despite the fact that transgender issues are among the least important issues motivating voters to head to the ballot box, according to a Gallup poll.
The Trump campaign and Republican groups have spent more than $21 million on anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ television ads as of Oct. 9.
Additionally, in recent months, Trump-aligned political groups have flooded the airwaves with ads disparaging policies that support the transgender community.
Despite the small size of the transgender population in the U.S., these issues have played a key role in many Republican campaigns on both the state and federal levels.
Trump’s own political agenda, titled Agenda 47, is laden with transgender-based proposals, including a ban on transgender participation in women’s sports, an end to gender-affirming care funded by federal or state dollars, and more.
ABC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on his ad spending.
-ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca and Soo Rin Kim
Walz to travel to Kentucky, North Carolina and Pennsylvania later this week
After Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz campaigns in Wisconsin on Tuesday (where he’ll be joined by former President Barack Obama for a rally in Madison), he’ll remain out on the trail this week.
On Wednesday, Walz will speak at an evening fundraiser in Louisville, Kentucky.
On Thursday, he will spend the morning making political stops in Durham, North Carolina — just a week after he visited the city with former President Bill Clinton. He’ll then make local stops in Greenville, North Carolina, in the afternoon and hold a rally in Wilmington that night.
On Friday, Walz will campaign in Philadelphia, where he’ll speak at a fundraiser in the city around noon.
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Harris says she wakes up in middle of night from election stress
Harris said she finds herself waking up in the middle of the night from the stress of the final days of the election, when asked how she handles stress and anxiety during a discussion in Michigan on Monday.
“You know, I wake up in the middle of the night, usually these days. Just to be honest with you,” Harris told Maria Shriver, who moderated the discussion between the vice president and former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in Royal Oak. “But I work out every morning. I think that’s really important to just kind of, you know, mind, body and spirit.”
“Say more about that,” Shriver pressed Harris.
“I work out, I try to eat,” Harris responded. “You know, I love my family, and I make sure that I talk to the kids and my husband every day.”
“My family grounds me in every way,” she added.
The exchange started with Harris making something clear: She’s not taking edibles.
“Everybody I talked to says, you know, I have to turn off the news, I can’t read anything, I’m meditating, I’m doing yoga. I’m so anxious. I just don’t even know. I’m eating gummies, all kinds of things, you know?” Shriver said to Harris, asking, “What are you doing?”
“Not eating gummies,” Harris said to laughs from the crowd.
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie
Liz Cheney makes a case for conservatives to back Harris
Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a series of moderated conversations with former Rep. Liz Cheney in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday.
In those appearances, Cheney made a case for conservatives to vote Democrat in the upcoming election and support Harris’ bid for the White House.
“What I would say is that if people are uncertain, if people are thinking, ‘Well, you know, I’m a conservative, I don’t know that I can support Vice President Harris,’ I would say, I don’t know if anybody is more conservative than I am,” said Cheney, who was the third-ranking member of the House Republican Conference from 2019 to 2021.
Cheney also warned Republicans considering voting for Trump that Congress would not be a check on him.
“For anybody who is a Republican who is thinking that, you know, they might vote for Donald Trump because of national security policy, I ask you, please, please study his national security policy,” Cheney said. “Not only is it not Republican — it’s dangerous. And without allies, America will find our very freedom and security challenged and threatened.”
“And one final point on this: Don’t think that Congress can stop him,” Cheney added.
In Malvern, Pennsylvania, Cheney said she thought there would be Republican voters who would cast their ballots for Harris — even if they did not reveal it publicly.
In Michigan, she went further, encouraging voters to do just that, saying, “If you’re at all concerned, you can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody, and there will be millions of Republicans who do that on Nov. 5, vote for Vice President Harris.”
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow, Will McDuffie and T. Michelle Murphy
Trump pushes false claims that Democrats are trying to cheat in election
Rallying in Greenville, North Carolina, on Monday, Trump launched baseless claims about possible fraud in the 2024 election — despite earlier in the day saying he hadn’t seen evidence of it.
At one point during the rally, Trump turned to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley to ask him about election security.
“He’ll stop the cheating. He’s going to stop the cheating,” Trump said to Whatley. “Are they cheating? Michael, they’re trying, but are they? They’re not going to get away with it, right? … They got away with it in plenty of places.”
Earlier in Asheville, North Carolina, Trump told his supporters that he hasn’t seen any evidence of cheating in the election thus far, but added, “I know the other side and they are not good.”
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Kelsey Walsh and Soo Rin Kim
More than 1.5M have voted early in battleground Georgia
The office of the Georgia Secretary of State announced Monday that more than 1.5 million voters have voted early in person in Georgia as of Monday afternoon.
“Georgia voters know we’ve made it easy to cast a ballot. It’s really that simple,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement.
In-person early voting started in the key battleground state on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
As of Monday afternoon, more than 15 million early votes have been cast nationally, including almost 5 million in-person early votes, according to an analysis by the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim
Harris reiterates she worked at McDonald’s after Trump stunt
On her way to her moderated conversation in Michigan, Harris was asked if she had worked at a McDonald’s while deplaning Air Force 2.
“Did I? I did,” she said.
Her past experience at McDonald’s has become a fixation of Trump’s, who over the weekend worked the fryer at one of the chain’s restaurants in the Philadelphia area.
Trump has claimed Harris never worked at the fast food giant. Harris, in introducing herself to voters this campaign, has told the story of working there between her freshman and sophomore years at Howard University in an effort to contrast her working-class roots with Trump’s background.
-ABC News’ Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim
Cheney gives Harris backup on abortion
Harris got backup on a hot-button cultural issue from an unlikely source Monday — conservative former Rep. Liz Cheney.
Cheney — who has broken with Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot — still boasts a conservative record. But Monday, she waded into an issue that Democrats hope will help them win over voters on Election Day.
“I think there are many of us around the country who have been pro-life but who have watched what’s going on in our states since the Dobbs decision and have watched state legislatures put in place laws that are resulting in women not getting the care they need,” Cheney said, referencing the Supreme Court decision that scrapped federal abortion protections.
“In places like Texas, for example, the attorney general is talking about suing, is suing, to get access to women’s medical records. That’s not sustainable for us as a country, and it has to change.”
The remarks, made in a Philadelphia suburb, were notable as Harris looks to cement support among suburban female voters.
Harris works to earn Pennsylvania’s Republican votes alongside Liz Cheney
Harris is doing a series of moderated conversations with former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in suburban cities in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday.
While in Pennsylvania, Harris and Cheney worked to pick off Republicans disaffected with their party’s nominee who may vote for the vice president and focus on the dangers Trump poses to the country and to democracy.
“There are months in the history of our country which challenge us, each of us, to really decide when we stand for those things that we talk about, including, in particular, country over party,” Harris said.
Cheney, a staunch Trump critic who endorsed Harris in September despite their party and policy differences, said “every single thing in my experience and in my background has played a part” in her supporting Harris.
“In this race, we have the opportunity to vote for and support somebody you can count on. We’re not always going to agree, but I know Vice President Harris will always do what she believes is right for this country. She has a sincere heart, and that’s why I’m honored to be in this place.”
Read more about Harris and Cheney’s events here.
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Fritz Farrow
Trump appears on The Undertaker’s podcast
Trump continued his alternative media outreach effort by sitting down for a podcast interview with retired pro wrestler Mark Calaway, also known as “The Undertaker.”
During the podcast, Trump repeated his anti-trans rhetoric, promising to not allow “men playing in women’s sports” as Calaway brought up his teenage quarterback daughter.
“You don’t want to go and wrestle a guy like if you were doing that, because people do that — like your father — right? He’s a little too much to handle,” Trump said to Calaway’s daughter, who was present for the interview, after Calaway asked him about Title IX..
“I will get rid of it fast. Men playing in women’s sports is insane,” Trump said.
Republicans have invested heavily in ads targeting the transgender community this cycle.
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh
Walz on what he’d do differently from the Biden admin and appealing to voters
Tim Walz joined ABC’s “The View” on Monday, where he discussed what he would have done differently than the Biden-Harris administration — a questioned that Harris herself struggled with in her own appearance on the talk show.
The governor said that he wished one of their ticket’s proposals — an expansion on Medicare — “would have been proposed sooner.” He argued their campaign is focusing heavily on things like the care economy and child care affordability.
Walz also discussed how they can appeal to men and Black voters, two voting blocks where Trump is having success.
“As as vice president says, we have a responsibility to earn the votes from everyone and not make the assumption that men or women are going to be with us. I hear oftentimes about the Black community. Why would we assume that they were with us, unless we’re putting out proposals that positively impact their life?” Walz said.
He argued that they are trying to make voters aware of their proposals on housing, child care, small businesses and more.
Trump won’t denounce violence against FEMA workers during North Carolina stop
Trump toured devastation caused by Hurricane Helene just outside Asheville, North Carolina, and later delivered remarks to the press where he began by slamming the job from the White House for their hurricane response, continuing to push false claims about FEMA assistance in the wake of violence against FEMA workers.
“The power of nature. Nothing you can do about it, but you got to get a little bit better crew in to do a better job than has been done by the White House. It’s been not good. Not good. I’m here today in western North Carolina to express a simple message to the incredible people of the state, I’m with you, and the American people are with you all the way,” Trump said.
Later, he pushed false claims about the allocation of FEMA assistance, once again falsely saying that money dedicated to hurricane relief was going to offer assistance to migrants unaffected by the storm.
“FEMA has done a very poor job … They had spent hundreds of millions of dollars doing other things, things that I don’t think bear any relationship to this money, there was, they were not supposed to be spending the money on taking in illegal migrants, maybe so they could vote in the election. Because that’s what a lot of people are saying. That’s why they’re doing it,” Trump falsely said.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Kelsey Walsh and Soorin Kim
Sen. Bernie Sanders to join Biden in New Hampshire
In a strategic visit to boost Democrats’ presence in the purple state ahead of the election, President Joe Biden will be joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Tuesday in New Hampshire to talk about lowering the cost of prescription drugs, a senior administration official told ABC News.
The president is also expected to stop by a New Hampshire Democratic Party campaign office to support Vice President Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the official said.
The economy and costs are a top issue to voters in New Hampshire, polling shows, and Sanders, who made the high price of U.S. health care a central point of both his presidential campaigns, is a popular figure in the state, which neighbors his own.
Sanders and Biden will discuss new data on savings brought about by the administration’s hallmark Inflation Reduction Act, the senior official said. The act implemented significant price caps for Medicare enrollees, including a $35 cap on insulin already in effect and a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket drug costs that kicks in in 2025. The White House estimates the caps will bring about cost savings of $400 per year for nearly 19 million seniors.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Tim Walz to join ABC’s ‘The View’
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Harris’ running mate, will join ABC’s “The View” on Monday.
His interview comes after Harris herself appeared on the show as part of a media blitz earlier this month.
Walz recently quipped on Trump’s visit to a McDonald’s on Sunday as part of his mockery of Harris’ past employment there. Walz said he took “full responsibility” for the campaign stop after he once joked he couldn’t imagine the former president working a McFlurry machine.
Harris, Cheney to make the case to disaffected Republican voters
Harris is stumping with former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney on Monday in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. The two will hold a moderated conversation in each of the “blue wall” states.
Cheney endorsed Harris in early September, warning Trump posed a threat to democracy after what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Donald Trump was willing to sacrifice our capitol to allow law enforcement officers to be beaten and brutalized in his name and to violate the law and the Constitution in order to seize power for himself,” Cheney said at her first joint appearance with Harris earlier this month.
“I don’t care if you are a Democrat or a Republican or an independent, that is depravity, and we must never become numb to it,” she continued. “Any person who would do these things can never be trusted with power again. We must defeat Donald Trump on Nov. 5.”
Trump to survey hurricane damage before rally in North Carolina
At noon, Trump will survey devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in Asheville, North Carolina.
He’ll later hold a 3 p.m. rally in Greenville before a 6:30 p.m. meeting with faith leaders in Concord.
Trump has criticized the Biden-Harris response to the storm, and spread misinformation about the federal government’s recovery efforts and assistance. Such misinformation, Biden and other officials have said, is harming those who need assistance and resulting in threats against FEMA workers.
Polls show close race between Harris, Trump
The latest polling averages from 538 show the two candidates running even in key swing states Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Trump, meanwhile, has a slight lead over Harris in Georgia and Arizona.
Overall, 538’s national polling average shows Harris ahead by just 1.8%.
(WASHINGTON) — For the better part of 2023 and 2024, President Joe Biden plotted a course to Nov. 5, 2024. As the incumbent, the veteran politician was the presumptive Democratic nominee, clinching enough delegates in March, and locked in a tight race with former President Donald Trump.
But instead of spending Election Day preparing for an evening speech, the president’s daily schedule is empty beyond his daily briefing by aides: No public events.
The president and first lady Jill Biden will spend election night watching the election results in the White House residence with “long time aides and senior White House staff,” according to a White House official.
“The President will receive regular updates on the state of races across the country,” the official added.
Monday night, Biden also held calls with Democratic state party chairs across the country. Ben Wikler, the chair of the Wisconsin state Democratic Party, told ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks that the call was “electrifying.”
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he wrote, in part, in a letter posted on social media. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
Biden created last-minute controversy on Oct. 29 when he seemed to call Trump supporters “garbage” during a campaign call hosted by the nonprofit Voto Latino.
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been,” Biden said.
Trump quickly seized on the comments, saying Biden “meant it,” though the president posted a clarification, saying his comment was about the comedian who made the joke and “referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage — which is the only word I can think of to describe it.”
“His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation,” Biden said in the post on X.
