Impact2020: October 7, 2020
In today’s Impact2020 briefing, we have an interview with the head of a progressive group leading Democrats’ vote-by-mail strategy, examine what’s at stake for Mike Pence and Kamala Harris in tonight’s debate and go over the latest developments in North Carolina’s chaotic Senate race.
On the Ground
Should Democrats bank on mail voting?
Democratic and liberal leaders are continuing to urge their voters to cast ballots by mail for Joe Biden amid the coronavirus pandemic, despite concerns thousands of votes may be rejected.
To dig further into the strategy, McClatchy’s Alex Roarty interviewed Greg Speed, the president of America Votes, a nonprofit group that works to increase progressive voter participation and is at the center of voter turnout efforts in many battleground states.
For starters, Speed said that the strategy has been “misconstrued by some” as only encouraging voters to vote by mail: “The strategy from the beginning has been about not denigrating any one means of voting, but educating voters about the many safe, secure means [of voting].”
But Speed acknowledged the concern that some mail-in votes will be disqualified is “a very real concern,” especially after seeing issues in some primaries this summer. However, he said for the general election “that is being addressed through increased emphasis on voter registration, and in many states, programs to directly contact voters to cure those ballots.”
Speed also pointed out there are other problems: “The shortcoming of these analyses is that they assume we do not lose as many votes due to long lines and other issues at polling places, whether it be early voting in a limited number of locations in early states or Election Day voting. And those are enormous challenges in every single election, most especially in presidential election years, and those issues would be magnified tremendously in the pandemic.”
Read the full Q&A here.
VP showdown
Vice president Mike Pence “will be put on the spot” at tonight’s debate “to defend a president who has repeatedly rebuked the advice of his” coronavirus task force aides “and has led their campaign into the final stretch of the 2020 election with record disapproval of their leadership on the pandemic,” McClatchy’s Michael Wilner and Francesca Chambers report.
“His own legacy on the line, Pence prepared with aides for over a week for an onslaught of questions about his role as the head of the task force responsible for the White House response to the pandemic when he faces” Kamala Harris.
Wilner and Chambers note that Pence “will be the most senior administration official to be confronted with sustained questioning on a public stage since the White House crisis began.”
Credit: Jacquelyn Martin, AP
After the debate, Pence is scheduled to travel to Arizona and Nevada for campaign events. He will vote early in his home state of Indiana on Friday before he goes on a bus tour of Florida.
As for Harris, David Lightman writes for the Sacramento Bee that she “spent her presidential campaign trying to prove to her party she was a bona fide, enthusiastic liberal – not the ‘top cop’ the former prosecutor called herself during her time as California’s attorney general.”
Now heading into the debate, “Republicans are working to redefine her again – as a mean-spirited radical leftist eager to grow the government while shrinking police forces.” Lightman takes a closer look at the charges the GOP has leveled at Biden’s running mate.
More NC developments
Tara Copp, Brian Murphy and Ames Alexander have the latest chapter in the North Carolina Senate scandal for the Raleigh News & Observer: The U.S. Army Reserve Command is investigating Democrat Cal Cunningham after he sent suggestive messages to a woman who is not his wife.
Cunningham, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and married father of two, “sent text messages to Arlene Guzman Todd, a public relations strategist from California, and wife of Jeremy Todd, who was also assigned to Fort Bragg and severely injured his spine during a paratrooper proficiency jump several years ago,” they write. “Arlene Todd confirmed a physical relationship with Cunningham, the Associated Press reported.”
Cunningham has not committed further on the incident since issuing a statement last Friday. His opponent, GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, called on Cunningham to offer a “full explanation” for the texts, Murphy reports. Tillis, who tested positive for coronavirus, said he is no longer experiencing symptoms and plans to participate in next week’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett.
Still, if either Cunningham’s scandal or Tillis’ illness worsens between now and Election Day, neither could exit the race. An attorney for North Carolina’s board of elections said a candidate must withdraw more than 60 days prior to the election, the Charlotte Observer’s Tim Funk reports.
Coming tomorrow
Georgia is on the mind for the Beyond the Bubble podcast team. A brand new episode will break down all the action in the newly emerging battleground state. Download and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts
Trail Mix
Battleground state watch
Florida’s Amendment 4 was supposed to let thousands of felons vote, but most won’t be able to in 2020. Lawrence Mower and Langston Taylor explore what happened for the Miami Herald.
Florida election officials report no deliberate action of sabotage, just an “unprecedented” surge in traffic that caused the state’s voter registration online portal to go out for hours, Allison Ross, Ana Ceballos and Samantha J. Gross write for the Miami Herald.
A Florida health care union is suing the Postal Service over fears of delivery delays for mail ballots, Mary Ellen Klas reports for the Miami Herald.
Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania wants answers from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after he said postal workers concerned about efforts to delay the mail sent him photos of containers of priority mail dating back about a month, the Allentown Morning Call’s Peter Hall reports.
No fix is ready yet after many voters in Franklin County, Ohio received the wrong absentee ballots in the mail, the Columbus Dispatch’s Rick Rouan reports.
Battle for Congress
Kansas Democrat Barbara Bollier confused the Patriot Act with trade legislation during a call with state farmers two days before the Farm Bureau endorsed her opponent in the Senate race, Republican Rep. Roger Marshall. Bryan Lowry has more for the Kansas City Star.
Number of the Day
12
A new Monmouth University poll shows Biden leading Trump by 12 points, 54% to 42%, among registered voters in Pennsylvania.
He chose the third option
After a report that internet sensation and “Red Sweater Guy” Ken Bone was an undecided voter again in 2020, he took to Twitter to set the record straight.
For Planning Purposes
Oct. 7
The vice-presidential debate takes place in Utah
Oct. 8
Vice President Mike Pence, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris travel to Arizona
Oct. 9
Pence travels to Indianapolis, Ind.
Biden travels to Las Vegas, Nev.
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This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 12:50 PM.