Impact2020: August 4, 2020
In today’s Impact2020 briefing, election officials in five states are trying to ensure voting is safe, the Trump campaign is targeting mail voters with TV ads, and Barack Obama unveils his first 2020 endorsements.
On the Ground
Another round of pandemic voting
It’s officially Election Day in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington state, though many voters have cast ballots early in key statewide and local primary races due to the pandemic.
In Kansas and Missouri, the Wichita Eagle’s Jonathan Shorman and Jason Hancock write that voters will “be at the center of a live experiment to help determine whether statewide elections can be held safely during a pandemic.” Today caps off a “months-long effort by officials in both states to strike a balance that allows voters to safely cast their ballot while holding down lines and minimizing the potential for testy confrontations over masks.”
Shorman and Hancock note that voters will find stickers on the floor keeping them socially distanced in line, plexiglass will separate them from election workers, and each will get their own pre-packaged stylus or pen to complete their ballot.
Elsewhere, the Arizona Republic’s Jessica Boehm reports that voters in Maricopa County won’t be required to wear a mask at the polls. But the county has 99 vote centers open with prioritization on larger facilities, “that can serve more voters while still allowing for physical distancing between voters and poll workers.” Boehm reports that it’s the first time the county has conducted an all vote-center election, “meaning voters can cast a ballot at any location and not only their assigned precinct.”
In Michigan, gloves, disposable masks, spray disinfectants, disinfecting wipes, hand sanitizer and face shields have been provided to clerk’s offices, as well as protocols for hygiene and social distancing. But while election workers are expected to wear masks, “voters are not required to wear masks under any state order,” MLive’s Zahra Ahmad reports.
Primary ballots were mailed to all registered voters in Washington more than two weeks ago and have to be in a drop box or postmarked by 8 p.m. local time today, the Spokesman-Review’s Jim Camden writes. As of Friday afternoon, only about one in five ballots had been returned, but that’s still “running significantly ahead of the 2016 state primary.”
Back on air
President Donald Trump’s campaign is returning to the airwaves in Florida, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia, battleground states where voting begins several weeks before November, the Miami Herald’s David Smiley reports.
“We’ve adjusted wisely our strategy on ad spending to reflect these voting dates, as voters have absentee ballots on their kitchen tables and the choice between Donald Trump or Joe Biden in front of them,” Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said. “We want to make sure these ads are ingrained and on their minds as they make these super important choices.”
Smiley writes that the new ads attack Biden as “an ‘empty vessel for the radical left’ who will raise taxes and give ‘amnesty’ to undocumented immigrants. One ad, which features a woman of color silently flipping cue cards with ominous messages about a Biden presidency, is intended to appeal to the ‘silent’ Trump voters.” Stepien said those voters are being “undercounted” by polls that show Trump losing to Biden several battleground states.
Spanish-language versions of the two ads are also running in Florida and Arizona.
Obama wades in
President Barack Obama released a list of his “first wave” of endorsements in races across the country, including in North Carolina and South Carolina.
The Raleigh News & Observer’s Will Doran notes that Obama’s endorsements of fellow Democrats “didn’t just focus on the big-name races like governor and U.S. Senate,” but also “15 races for seats in the N.C. Senate and House of Representatives.” Democrats are trying to flip the state legislature for the first time in a decade and to do that they “have to flip at least five Senate seats and six House seats if they want a majority.”
Credit: Barack Obama/Twitter
Obama also endorsed two Democratic candidates from South Carolina: Jaime Harrison for U.S. Senate and Rep. Joe Cunningham in the state’s 1st congressional district, The State’s Joe Bustos reports. Harrison is trying to unseat GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, while Cunningham is trying to fend off a challenge from Republican state Rep. Nancy Mace.
Trail Mix
Battleground state watch
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Andrew Seidman writes: “Trump is selling fear in America’s suburbs. But outside Philadelphia, even some Republicans don’t think voters are buying it.”
The Dallas Morning News’ Todd J. Gillman reports that Biden is staffing up in Texas.
Election disruption
A record number of absentee ballots have already been returned for Wisconsin’s primary next week, Alison Dirr and Mary Spicuzza report for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
A Missouri Republican consultant with ties to Gov. Mike Parson and Sen. Josh Hawley was listed as a campaign contact for Kanye West’s independent presidential campaign in Arkansas, Bryan Lowry reports for the Kansas City Star.
Battle for Congress
Conservative senators are revolting over the stimulus deal the White House and congressional leaders are trying to reach, putting pressure on vulnerable GOP senators three months out from the election, McClatchy’s Francesca Chambers and David Lightman report.
Democrats in North Carolina’s 8th congressional district say GOP Rep. Richard Hudson appears to have crossed the line in the use of taxpayer-funded mailings, the Charlotte Observer’s Jim Morrill reports.
Veepstakes
California Rep. Karen Bass says she now realizes her past comments about Fidel Castro were a mistake, but Biden’s Miami supporters are still raising concerns about choosing her as VP, Alex Daugherty reports for the Miami Herald.
Number of the Day
67%
Biden leads Trump 67% to 28% in California, according to a new poll from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, a 39-point margin. By comparison, Hillary Clinton won the state by 30 points in 2016. The Los Angeles Times’ David Lauter writes that while Trump was never likely to be competitive in the deep blue state, what’s notable “is the size of the gap and the degree to which approval of Trump’s work as president has declined among groups that until now have supported him.”
“Nobody has done more for Black Americans than I have”
Part of Trump’s reply when asked whether he found the late Rep. John Lewis “impressive” during an Axios interview.
For Planning Purposes
August 4
Primaries in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington
President Donald Trump signs The Great American Outdoors Act
Vice President Mike Pence leads a White House Coronavirus Task Force meeting and participates in the ceremonial swearing-in of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force
August 5
Pence travels to Tampa, Florida
August 6
A new episode of McClatchy’s Beyond the Bubble podcast explores the latest in 2020 election news. Download it on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts
August 7
Sen. Sherrod Brown participates in a virtual Biden campaign roundtable in Cleveland
August 9
Jill Biden delivers the keynote address for an Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund event
August 11
Pence visits Arizona
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This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 12:30 PM.