Impact2020: October 13, 2020

In today’s Impact2020 briefing, President Donald Trump follows up his Florida rally with an event in Pennsylvania, both parties are fighting over drop boxes for absentee ballots as early voting picks up steam, and Thom Tillis’ doctor clears him to return to D.C. for the Supreme Court hearings.

On the Ground

Playing for Pennsylvania

President Donald Trump will hold his second public event outside of Washington since his COVID-19 diagnosis with a rally in Johnstown, Pa., today, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Julia Terruso, Sean Collins Walsh and Jonathan Tamari report.

They note: “The occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue increasingly looks as if it could be decided by voters in Pennsylvania towns like this one.” With 21 days until Election Day, both Trump and Joe Biden “are zeroing in on the state, where 20 Electoral College votes could push either one to victory.”

As Trump returns to in-person campaigning after more than a week of relying on campaign surrogates, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said: “He’s our best asset and he’s going to be a big shot in the arm for the campaign.”

President Trump tosses face masks into the crowd at the Orlando Sanford International Airport on Monday. Credit: Evan Vucci, AP

Biden is also slated to be in Pennsylvania on Thursday for a televised town hall from Philadelphia now that the Miami presidential debate is canceled. He has already visited Gettysburg, Erie, and Johnstown in the last three weeks.

Drop box drama

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla filed cease and desist orders against Republican officials after the party began collecting mail ballots for the November election with drop boxes at churches, gas stations and gun stores, saying that such ballot boxes are not permitted under the state elections code, Lara Korte and Kate Irby report for the Sacramento Bee.

The order was filed against GOP officials in Fresno, Orange and Los Angeles counties. “While ballot collecting is permitted in California, Padilla said voters must authorize collectors, and the collectors must sign the envelopes and state their relationship to the voter,” Korte and Irby write. “Unofficial drop boxes do not constitute ballot collecting, he said, because there is no identified person that is authorized by the voter to take their ballot to be counted.”

But state Republicans like Hector Barajas, spokesperson for the California GOP, disagree. Barajas said the unofficial ballot boxes are permitted under the state’s ballot-collecting laws.

He added that the party has no intention of removing the drop boxes, but said they would discuss removing the word “official” from their drop boxes.

Battles over drop boxes are brewing in other parts of the country as well. In Texas, a federal appeals court ruled that the state can limit counties to one mail ballot drop-off site, the Dallas Morning News’ James Barragán reports. And in Kansas, Democrats criticized Wyandotte County election officials for having only two early voting drop boxes, Steve Vockrodt and Jonathan Shorman report for the Kansas City Star.

All clear

Sen. Thom Tillis, the North Carolina Republican who announced he tested positive for coronavirus on Oct. 2, returned to Washington today to participate in the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, Brian Murphy reports for the Raleigh News & Observer.

Tillis, who took part in the first day of the hearings on Monday remotely, is hoping the high-profile event will provide him with a boost in his re-election race against Democrat Cal Cunningham. During his opening remarks, Tillis said “this nomination is important because it’s going to have a lasting impact on our republic.”

Despite recent revelations of an extramarital affair, Cunningham has maintained a lead in the polls over Tillis.

Murphy writes: “A new Morning Consult poll released Tuesday morning shows Cunningham with a 47%-41% lead in the race. A WRAL poll released Monday found Cunningham with a 49%-39% edge.

Trail Mix

Battleground state watch

• “Hospitalized and knocked from the trail for more than a week by the coronavirus, an exuberant … Trump returned to campaigning Monday in Central Florida as if little had changed.” Francesca Chambers and David Smiley have the dispatch from the Sanford rally for the Miami Herald.

• Biden said he’s “not a fan of court packing” during an interview with WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, McClatchy’s Summer Lin writes.

• Trump plans to hold a rally in Macon, Ga., on Friday at the same airport he visited in 2018 in support of Gov. Brian Kemp, the Macon Telegraph’s Caleb Slinkard reports.

Election disruption

• “Groups seeking to allow late-arriving absentee ballots to be counted in Wisconsin are taking their case to the U.S. Supreme Court,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Patrick Marley reports.

• In Franklin County, Ohio, election officials are replacing the nearly 50,000 incorrect absentee ballots they sent out earlier by mailing out new ones to voters, Marc Kovac reports for The Columbus Dispatch.

• Early voting kicks off in Texas today, where nearly 17 million voters are now registered, which is close to 2 million more than in 2016, Patrick Svitek reports for the Texas Tribune.

• About 128,000 Georgia voters went to the polls Monday, marking the highest turnout on the first day of in-person early voting in state history, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mark Neisse writes.

Battle for Congress

• The Lexington Herald-Leader’s Daniel Desrochers reports that the (likely only) debate between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic challenger Amy McGrath was largely an exchange of talking points, though McConnell was on the defensive through much of the night.

• While other polls have shown a virtually tied Senate race in South Carolina, a new Morning Consult survey found Republican Lindsey Graham leading Democrat Jaime Harrison 48% to 42%, The State’s Joseph Bustos reports.

Number of the Day

11.3 million

That’s roughly how many Americans have already voted early three weeks out from Election Day, according to University of Florida professor Michael McDonald.

“Nah”

Jimmy Kimmel’s crew explored where Trump’s promise to “get over 95% of the African American vote” at the end of his first term stands now with the help of a few New Yorkers.

For Planning Purposes

Oct. 13

President Donald Trump travels to Johnstown, Penn.

Vice President Mike Pence visits Waukesha, Wis.

Joe Biden visits Broward County, Fla.

Oct. 14

Trump travels to Des Moines, Iowa

Pence visits Grand Rapids, Mich.

Oct. 15

Trump visits Greensville, N.C.

Biden participates in an ABC News town hall in Philadelphia

Kamala Harris travels to Charlotte and Asheville, N.C.

A new episode of the Beyond the Bubble podcast is available on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts.

Oct. 16

Trump visits Macon, Ga.

Oct. 17

Trump travels to Janesville, Wis.

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This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 12:00 AM.