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Jockeying is already underway for jobs in a would-be Biden administration

InternationalNov 01. 2020

By The Washington Post · Annie Linskey, Sean Sullivan · NATIONAL, POLITICS
Joe Biden remains locked in a bitterly fought race for the presidency, but the Congressional Black Caucus is nonetheless already gathering résumés for jobs in his would-be administration. Pete Buttigieg’s fans are pitching him as ambassador to the United Nations. And Republicans who backed Biden are being eyed for their own possible roles. 

As Biden hopscotches around the country in the campaign’s final weekend, his allies are jockeying over Cabinet appointments, ambassadorships and other plum positions, while Biden’s advisers have quietly begun mapping out an administration, according to people familiar with the activities. 

That’s igniting tensions among various factions, tensions that are poised to erupt into ferocious fights should Biden win, since the appointments would dictate the direction and shape of a Biden presidency. Liberals, who are demanding rewards after muting their criticism of Biden’s centrism during the campaign, are scrutinizing the records of more-moderate potential picks in hopes of derailing them, while longtime Biden allies are looking for work. 

“There are a lot of mouths to feed,” said one person familiar with the dynamic, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment frankly. “Finding space for them will be a challenge.” 

The stakes are higher than usual. Biden’s appointees, if he wins, will determine the United States’ response to the Trump era – whether it is a return to traditional centrism or a plunge into liberal activism. And they will be tasked with repairing what Democrats see as the severe damage of the Trump era, as many federal agencies have departed from long-held practices and norms.

Biden is also eager to break barriers by appointing African Americans, Latinos and women to high-level posts, according to people familiar with his thinking. Those groups have been instrumental in Biden’s political successes this year or are seen as key to his path to the White House. 

“In their early announcements, they’re going to set tones and demonstrate the commitment to the diversity that he cares about – and the priorities that he cares about,” said Hilary Rosen, a Democratic consultant and a close ally of the Biden team. Rosen said Biden’s aides have “cast a very wide net.” 

But don’t expect bomb-throwers, she said. “He is not somebody who is coming in to disrupt Washington. He’s coming in to heal Washington,” Rosen added.

This article is based on interviews with 22 Democratic aides, strategists and advisers to Biden’s campaign, as well as outside allies with knowledge of the process, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private deliberations that could distract from the campaign’s final push. They stressed that final decisions have not been made and the situation is fluid. 

“The Biden-Harris transition team is not making any personnel decisions pre-election,” said Cameron French, a transition spokesman.

Biden’s team hopes to quickly name a White House chief of staff, according to allies with knowledge of the situation. An early favorite is Ron Klain, who was Biden’s chief of staff when Biden was vice president and also served as Obama’s “Ebola czar,” which means he has experience dealing with pandemics.

A second, if less likely, possibility is Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., according to two people familiar with the talks. Richmond would be the first African American to be chief of staff, and if he is not chosen, he is likely to be given another role with broad responsibilities in the White House, Biden allies said. 

Richmond received a recent boost from Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., a highly influential figure in Biden’s orbit, who said in a Washington Post Live interview that Richmond has “one of the best political minds that I’ve encountered” and that he thinks Richmond should have a big role in a Biden administration.

Other top White House staffers also could be named quickly, in part because they don’t require Senate confirmation, unlike Cabinet secretaries and agency heads. Biden allies have floated several possibilities for press secretary, for example, including Symone Sanders, a senior Biden adviser who would be the first African American to hold the job. 

If Biden wins, he will face demands from an unusually broad range of political camps, having forged a campaign coalition of Republicans, centrists, liberals and socialists who set aside their differences in an effort to defeat Trump and will want to be represented. 

Despite Democrats’ desire not to show arrogance or take a win for granted, competition among them has heated up early amid growing optimism that not only will they capture the White House but they also will win a Senate majority, giving them wide latitude on appointments. 

“I’ve seen a ton of names and, you know, for every one of these positions, there are anywhere from five to ten A-plus potential people,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “I think Biden will want diversity as well as excellence in his Cabinet, and people he can trust.”

Some of the biggest fights are over economic posts, given the fierce disagreement between liberals whose power has surged in the Trump era and traditional Republicans who are quietly supporting Biden in the expectation of a steady, business-friendly presidency.

Several organizations have sent letters to Biden transition officials asking them to reinstitute Obama’s policy of banning lobbyists from top jobs, which the transition has largely done (though, unlike Obama’s rules, waivers can be issued).

A particular focus is Biden’s pick for treasury secretary. Federal Reserve governor Lael Brainard is a leading possibility, according to Biden allies; another is Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, a former finance executive who angered liberals by raising the retirement age and overhauling the pension system in her state. Either would be the first woman to fill the role. 

Also mentioned is Roger Ferguson, the president and CEO of the financial firm TIAA, who previously served as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, who would be the first African American in the job.

All three names upset liberals, who want a potential Biden presidency to aggressively tackle income inequality and similar issues and fear that a centrist would have other priorities.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal think tank, has formed a group called the Revolving Door Project, which seeks to torpedo such nominees. “Our relative expertise is researching the problematic people,” said Jeff Hauser, who directs the group, adding that it is “disentangled from long, ongoing interests so that we can be critical of people.”

Hauser and other liberals want Biden instead to name Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., or someone who shares her views, as treasury secretary. 

But Warren, a fiery liberal, would face opposition from business leaders. And it could be tricky for Biden to pluck Warren from the Senate for any job, since Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, would pick her replacement. (Still, Democrats have a supermajority in the state legislature and in theory could write a law requiring Baker to choose a Democrat).

One Biden ally cited three other economists who are well positioned for top economic positions in the White House: Ben Harris, Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey.

Another priority would be naming individuals to lead the fight against the pandemic, given Biden’s criticism of Trump as having botched the response. Though Biden is unlikely to name a covid-19 “czar,” according to people familiar with the deliberations, he is expected quickly to name a surgeon general and a secretary of health and human services to show urgency. 

Jake Sullivan, a top policy adviser to Biden’s campaign who has often been on the campaign trail with him, could be in line for a top job on health issues, said several Biden allies. Sullivan also is mentioned as a potential chief of staff.

Law enforcement jobs could also be extremely high-profile, after Trump’s challenges to an array of legal norms. Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, is being floated to head the Justice Department, and Alejandro Mayorkas, a former Obama administration official, could become secretary of homeland security.

Meanwhile, Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Ind., mayor who ran against Biden in the presidential primary and then endorsed him, has charmed Biden and impressed his top lieutenants with crisp appearances on Fox News and local television stations, according to several people familiar with the campaign’s thinking. 

Some see Buttigieg as a potential U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in part because Buttigieg, a former Rhodes scholar, speaks several languages and is one of the party’s most polished communicators. 

“I think Mayor Pete Buttigieg impressed virtually everybody, and it’s fairly clear he does not have a clear path forward in Indiana,” said Steve Westly, a top Biden fundraiser, referring to the conservative bent of Buttigieg’s home state. “I think for Biden and the country, I really hope they choose Mayor Pete for a role.”

Over the summer, one of Buttigieg’s top fundraisers, Bryan Rafanelli, made a similar pitch during a virtual fundraiser with Biden’s wife, Jill. “I think I’d love for him to be U.N. ambassador,” Rafanelli said.

Biden’s calculus could be affected by the Senate’s post-election makeup, according to several close allies. If Democrats win a comfortable majority in the chamber – where the GOP holds a 53-47 edge – Biden would have more latitude to weather resistance from Republicans and defections by Democrats.

A narrow majority, or a Senate that stays in Republican hands, might require nominees who appeal to a broader cross section of senators, potentially forcing Biden to decide which positions are worth a fight. As one ally put it, he would have to determine “where you take your bullets.”

Some Biden allies, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity, cited former national security adviser Susan Rice as someone whose fate could be determined by the Senate balance. Well-regarded in Biden’s orbit and seen as a potential short-lister for secretary of state, Rice has attracted criticism in conservative circles for her comments in the aftermath of the deadly 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya.

If Republicans control the Senate, the allies said, Biden might not be able to get Rice confirmed, despite his high regard for her. Another name frequently mentioned for secretary of state is Antony Blinken, a longtime Biden foreign policy aide.

The secretary of defense position could also break a barrier, with many close to the process saying Michèle Flournoy, a former department official, is being carefully considered. She would be the first woman to lead the Department of Defense. 

For education secretary, Biden’s team is focused on finding someone with experience in primary or secondary education, according to one Biden ally familiar with the search process. Democrats have criticized Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, for reasons including that she lacks a background as an educator.

One possible Biden pick is Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers. Weingarten, saying in an interview that she is “fixated” on electing Biden, declined to comment on the speculation.

Weingarten endorsed Warren in her personal capacity during the primary, but she has played a major role in uniting the party, and undertook a 30-plus-day bus tour to support Biden’s candidacy. 

Lily García, a former head of the National Education Association, also is being considered, according to two people familiar with the discussions. 

The Biden team is also expecting to include Republicans in the administration if he’s elected. “I know for a fact, just because I’m on the transition team, they said they are considering all – not just Democrats, but Republicans and all people as part of the administration,” said Cindy McCain, the widow of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

McCain demurred when asked if she’d be interested in a post. “I’m very superstitious, so let’s get past Tuesday,” she said with a laugh.

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The end of campaigning as we knew it

InternationalNov 01. 2020Attendees wait to hear former Vice President Joe Biden speak in Detroit on March 9. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Carolyn Van Houten 

By The Washington Post · Holly Bailey · NATIONAL, POLITICS 
Joe Biden spent the early weeks of 2020 trudging across the frozen landscape of Iowa, wading into crowds to shake the hands of strangers, hug star-struck grandmothers and pose for countless selfies in a grueling quest for support.

Within weeks, there would be no more big rallies, no more hand shaking, no more physical touch – at least not for Biden and most Democrats. An election season, in its most traditional sense, was over, felled by an unpredictable virus that would upend virtually every aspect of normal life, killing nearly a quarter of a million Americans and threatening the health of citizens and of the nation’s economy and its democratic institutions.

Yet the campaign, like American life, has forged ahead in unprecedented ways amid the threat of the coronavirus, which has dangerously surged again in recent weeks. In April, thousands of people across Wisconsin risked their health to cast primary ballots in the early weeks of the pandemic – a preview of the long lines to come even in the final days before the general election.

In early summer, President Donald Trump, 74, resumed his massive campaign rallies against the advice of health experts and sent Republican organizers back into the field, downplaying the risks of covid-19 even after he became infected. Democrats, meanwhile, moved most of their campaigning into the virtual world – hosting organizing events and rallies on Zoom.

When Biden eventually returned to in-person campaigning, his schedule was limited, the guest list sparse. The 77-year-old candidate, who once stood close enough to touch foreheads with voters, now stood far away from them – proof, his advisers said, that he cared enough about Americans to do anything to keep them safe.

– – – 

March madness

March 3: In late February, Biden celebrates a comeback victory in South Carolina’s Democratic primary, just as the U.S. reports what was believed to be the country’s first death from the coronavirus. By Super Tuesday, when voters across 14 states hit the polls, leaders scramble to put covid-related protections in place. California adds curbside drop-off to limit exposure. In Virginia, officials scramble to make sure they have enough hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes.

March 8: With coronavirus cases rising, Sen. Bernie Sanders’s campaign places hand sanitizer dispensers throughout an event in Grand Rapids, Mich., where thousands of unmasked supporters turn out to see him win the endorsement of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.

March 9: Democrats and Republicans begin to cancel their in-person campaign events amid reports of rising cases. Even when gatherings go forward, precautions are put in place. At one event, a Biden staffer dispenses hand sanitizer to hundreds of people attending a unity rally in Detroit, where the former vice president appeared with former rivals Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.

March 10: Biden and Sanders cancel dueling evening rallies they had planned in Cleveland to await primary results from Michigan and several other states because of the coronavirus.

March 12: Biden and Sanders shutter campaign offices around the country and cancel plans to travel to Arizona for a planned primary debate. The two men later spar in a CNN studio in Washington from podiums spaced six feet apart.

March 14: Biden holds his first virtual event – a town hall with Illinois voters – but it is marred by technical difficulties. The campaign later posts an edited version on YouTube. A few days later, Sanders hosts a virtual “rally,” complete with surrogates and video performances from musical artists, including Neil Young, who was joined by his wife, Daryl Hannah, and his dog, who continually appeared at the bottom of the screen.

April 7: Wisconsin becomes the first state to hold an election amid the pandemic, forcing thousands of people to stand in hours-long lines to cast ballots in person after conservatives on the state Supreme Court blocked a Democratic effort to delay the primary for health reasons.

April 14: Trump hosts his longest coronavirus briefing to date. Trump spent the briefing, which clocked in at about 150 minutes, attacking Democrats and the media over their rhetoric on the virus.

April: Biden begins to host virtual events live-streamed from his basement in Wilmington, Del.

– – –

Summer slowdown

Primaries rolled on across the country, but they were often marred by technical challenges brought on by the coronavirus. In New York, a huge surge in mail-in voters significantly slowed counting, and thousands of ballots were tossed. In Pennsylvania, slow counts left many races undecided for days.

After an initial lull, the Trump campaign began to once again plan in-person events, mocking Biden for “hiding in his basement.”

The president’s inaugural post-pandemic event was a June 20 rally in Tulsa The campaign billed the event as a celebration of the nation reopening for business after weeks of coronavirus-related shutdowns. In a form that would be put into place for every event going forward, guests were asked to sign a waiver to “voluntarily assume all risks” related to attending the event.

In the lead-up to the event, Trump officials bragged about record-breaking applications for tickets. But turnout was lower than expected, marred by thousands of empty seats. In the wake of the event, viewed as an embarrassment inside Trumpworld, the campaign moved away from big rally-style events.

Biden spent much of his summer appearing at events and television interviews filmed at his home. He tried to draw a contrast with Trump by appearing in a mask at nearly every event, even when being interviewed on television.

He did make occasional public appearances. After the killing of George Floyd, Biden visited the site of protests in Wilmington, Del., where he knelt to speak to demonstrators. Soon after, Biden traveled to Philadelphia to deliver his first formal speech since the pandemic, calling out Trump for his divisive rhetoric and urging Americans not to “let our rage consume us.” He spoke to a mostly empty room save a handful of reporters. Biden later traveled to Houston to meet with Floyd’s family ahead of his funeral.

In August, Biden picked Harris as his running mate. Their first appearance was a socially distanced event inside a mostly empty high school gym. Nodding to a crowd of people who gathered outside to catch a glimpse of the Democratic ticket, Biden mourned for a campaign that could have been. “I wish we could talk to everyone outside,” Biden said. “But we’re social distancing and playing by the rules.”

Behind the scenes, the campaign launched an aggressive fundraising operation, meeting with groups of donors in Zoom events featuring high-profile surrogates. By September, Biden’s campaign was outraising Trump.

With much of the country still facing coronavirus-related restrictions, forcing the cancellation of summertime events and limiting some campaign events, Trump voters began to organize their own efforts to show support for the president with boat, tractor and pickup truck parades that often drew hundreds of participants. Biden fans mostly stuck with virtual campaigning, showing support for their candidate online.

– – – 

Unconventional conventions

Democrats cancel their in-person convention planned for Milwaukee, unveiling a slickly produced made-for-TV virtual event.

Over the course of the four-day events, the Democrats highlight their party’s diversity, featuring voters from across the country. During the party’s roll-call, a fisherman in Alaska, a nurse in New York and a tribal activist in South Dakota declare their delegation’s support for Biden. Former president Barack Obama urges Americans to make a plan to vote, warning, “Do not let them take away your power. Don’t let them take away your democracy.” Harris introduces herself to voters with a deeply personal speech about her family.

On the last night of the convention, Biden delivered his acceptance speech inside a mostly empty convention center and, afterward, he and Harris and their spouses appeared masked and distanced before a drive-in rally of supporters in their cars. Democratic voters mostly followed along on TV and online, though some local parties in Iowa and Oklahoma hosted events to allow voters to watch Biden’s speech at drive-in movie theaters.

Trump moved the Republican convention from Charlotte, to Jacksonville, Fla., before much of the event was ultimately scrapped because of coronavirus concerns.

The event ultimately had a mix of taped and in-person events featuring several members of the Trump family who spoke from inside an empty Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C. Trump appeared every night for “surprise” segments that featured, among other things, an immigration and naturalization ceremony hosted by the president. The attendees later said they were not told that they would be part of the political convention.

In a Rose Garden address, first lady Melania Trump offered her “deepest sympathy” to Americans suffering from the coronavirus. Trump accepted his nomination for reelection at a controversial event on the South Lawn of the White House, promising, “We will make America safer. We will make America stronger. We will make America prouder. And we will make America greater than ever before.”

Experts said the Trump campaign had violated the Hatch Act by using the trappings of the White House for what amounted to a multiday campaign event.

– – – 

Fall finale 

September: The Trump campaign continues to knock on doors, boasting that its volunteers visit a million homes a week. In yet another symbol of the bifurcated approaches to campaigning, the Biden campaign eschews the practice completely until early October, focusing instead on virtual campaign efforts by phone and text, along with virtual events featuring top surrogates like Harris, who pops up in TikTok videos and taped interviews across the internet with celebrities like actress Mindy Kaling. In battleground states like Wisconsin and Iowa, the Biden campaign sets up “supply centers” for supporters to pick up campaign signs and literature.

Sept. 8: Trump leans into live events, hosting boisterous rallies in airplane hangars across the country. Few attendees wear masks, and there is no social distancing or other safety protocols. On one day in September, Trump hosted events in Florida and North Carolina.

Sept. 18: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies, sparking a huge outpouring of donations from Democrats to Senate candidates across the country, leading to a record-breaking haul for candidates made through ActBlue, a Democratic organizing app. “In this moment it is vital to give to Senate candidates,” reads an ActBlue fundraising page called “Protect RBG’s Legacy.”

Sept. 29: Biden and Trump meet for their first debate in Cleveland, where members of the Trump family flout rules requiring masks to be worn inside the venue. The next day, Trump travels to Minnesota for events, including a large rally in Duluth that violates the state’s public health rules requiring limited crowd sizes and social distancing rules because of the pandemic. Hope Hicks, one of Trump’s closest advisers, begins to show symptoms of covid-19 on the trip and later tests positive for the coronavirus.

Oct. 1: The Trump campaign announces that the president has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, throwing the campaign into chaos. A day later, the president is hospitalized as questions swirl about when he first knew he was sick and whether proper safety precautions were followed.

Oct. 3: Jill Biden stumps in Minnesota, delivering a scathing attack of Trump’s coronavirus record to an audience standing in hula hoops, spaced six-feet apart. One of the campaign’s most active surrogates, Jill Biden made more than 25 live appearances in October, and her husband visited eight battleground states over the month.

Oct. 6: Biden expands his in-person campaigning, traveling to battleground states including Florida. Standing on the tarmac near his campaign plane in Delaware, Biden was speaking to reporters when his wife, Jill, whispered to him about social distancing and gently moved him back a few steps. “I’m sorry,” he said and continued talking.

Oct. 10: Trump makes his first public appearance since being discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, addressing a crowd of several hundred people on the South Lawn of the White House. Two days later, he traveled to Sanford, Fla., for his first rally since his coronavirus diagnosis.

Oct. 11: Biden delivers a speech in Gettysburg, using the Civil War battlefield as a backdrop for a speech on American division and discord. “A century and a half after Gettysburg, we should consider again what can happen when equal justice is denied and when anger and violence and division are left unchecked,” Biden said in rural Pennsylvania.

Oct. 21: Obama makes his first appearance on the campaign trail at a drive-in rally, now a hallmark of the Biden campaign. Sanders; Warren; former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg; and others also hosted in-person, socially distanced events in the final days before Election Day, a sign of the campaign’s shifting strategy in the final stretch.

Oct. 22: At the final debate, Trump and Biden face off from a distance, sparring over the coronavirus, race and the future of the country.

Oct. 27: In his final push, Trump launches an aggressive schedule of large, outdoor rallies across the battleground states – including in Wisconsin, now a covid-19 hotspot. After taking a lap in the presidential limo around a racetrack in La Crosse, Wis., the site of one rally, Trump downplays the threat of the virus, even as the state reports a record 5,262 new cases. “We’re turning the corner. We’re rounding, like this racetrack,” Trump tells several thousand mostly unmasked supporters.

In Omaha, Neb., thousands of Trump supporters are left stranded in freezing temperatures for hours after there were not enough buses to transport people back to their cars after a nighttime airport rally there. Seven people were hospitalized, according to Omaha police.

In the first few weeks of early voting, at least 69 million Americans cast a ballot. It’s a historic figure, equal to roughly half of the total turnout in 2016. The overwhelming demand to vote – reflected in long lines nationwide – highlights the widespread sense of urgency Americans feel. “This is about preserving our democracy,” said one voter in Texas. “This feels like the last thing we have left to preserve civil society.”

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Bangladesh 8th most remittance receiving country in world in 2020: World Bank

InternationalNov 01. 2020

By The Daily Star

World Bank, in one of its reports, projects that Bangladesh will see increased remittance flow and secure eighth position in the world in terms of it in 2020.

WB revealed the prediction in the report titled “COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens” published on October 29.

According to the projection, two South Asian countries will see increase in remittance flow despite the pandemic.

Also read: Remittance inflow defies grim forecast

Bangladesh will gain eight percent more remittance this year, according to the report. The total remittance flow will be USD 20 billion, WB projected.

Mainly, remittance flow will pick up through official and unofficial channels due to restrain in travelling, the report said.

The other South Asian country with increased remittance flow would be Pakistan. It will be in the sixth position with nine percent more remittance flow.

Although, India will be the first on the list in terms of total remittance flow, it’s projected to be nine percent less than the previous year.

South Asia will lose four percent of the total remittance flow compared to last year and the world will lose 14 percent, the WB also mentioned in its projection.

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India, USA, Japan, Australia to hold joint naval exercise in Bay of Bengal from Nov 3

InternationalNov 01. 2020

By The Daily Star

India, United States, Japan and Australia will hold a joint naval exercise from November 3 in the Bay of Bengal, appearing in it for the first time in a decade.

The Indian Navy, in a statement, said yesterday that the 24th edition of Malabar naval exercise is “scheduled in two phases in November. While the first phase involving participation by Indian Navy, United States Navy, Japan Maritime Self Defence Force and Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is set to commence off Visakhapatnam in Bay of Bengal” from November 3 to November 6, the second phase will be held in the Arabian Sea in the middle of next month.

The Malabar series of maritime exercises had commenced in 1992 as a bilateral India-US event and Japan joined it in 2015. The 2020 edition will now witness participation of Australia, the Indian Navy said.

Australia’s presence for the first time is viewed with significance as all the four countries are members of a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with an eye on China with which India has been involved in a nearly six-month old military standoff in eastern Ladakh, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

The phase-1 of Malabar will see the US coming with a guided-missile destroyer, Australia with a long range frigate with integral MH-60 helicopter, Japan with a destroyer with integral SH-60 helicopter and India with a destroyer, frigate, off-shore patrol vessel, fleet support ship and a submarine, Sindhuraj.

The first phase “would witness complex and advanced naval exercises including surface, anti-submarine and anti-air warfare operations and weapon firing exercises,” the Indian Navy said.

In view of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Malabar exercise will be conducted as a “non-contact, at sea only” event and “will showcase the high-levels of synergy and coordination between the friendly navies which is based on their shared values and commitment to an open, inclusive Indo-Pacific and a rules-based international order,” the Indian navy said.

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Filipino DOH stresses COVID-19 curbs as 1 million people pack storm shelters

InternationalNov 01. 2020

By Inquirer

Authorities on Saturday evacuated nearly 1 million people in the path of the world’s strongest typhoon this year and health officials reminded the public to maintain pandemic safety measures despite being crammed in storm shelters.

Typhoon Rolly (international name: Goni) was raging toward southern Luzon at 25 kilometers per hour, packing sustained winds of 215 kph and gusts of up to 265 kph. It was about 345 km east northeast of Virac, Catanduanes, around 4 p.m. on Saturday.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said the typhoon was forecast to hit Catanduanes and the Camarines provinces on Sunday morning and then barrel through Quezon province.

As it moves toward the South China Sea to the west, it will bring heavy to intense rains accompanied by violent winds to Metro Manila, the Southern Tagalog region and Central Luzon, but will weaken after slamming into the Sierra Madre mountains.

ABOVE THE WATER A group of men raise a boat way above the water on the shores of Legazpi City on Saturday in preparation for Typhoon “Rolly,” (international name: Goni) which is expected to hit nearby Catanduanes province on Sunday with near supertyphoon strength that could generate over 3 meters of storm surges. —MARK ALVIC ESPLANA

Monitor evacuees

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire urged local officials to deploy safety officers who would regularly monitor evacuees who may be crammed in enclosed and tight shelters, which are conducive to the transmission of the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The safety officers will help ensure that evacuees comply with the minimum health standards—physical distancing, wearing masks and washing hands frequently—to prevent increasing the number of infections, she said.

The safety officers will also regularly check COVID-19 symptoms among the evacuees, who will have to be isolated, Vergeire said.

“We are reminding everyone to be vigilant, aware and cautious. We know the risk when people congregate,” she said.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said nearly 1 million people had been evacuated by Saturday.

According to Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad, executive director of the NDRRMC, most of the evacuees were from the Bicol region where the Office of Civil Defense had prepared to evacuate 2.5 million people, or about 570,000 families, by early Sunday.

COVID-19 facilities

In Camarines Sur, the provincial government moved about 20,000 families before noon on Saturday.

Camarines Norte officials expected to evacuate at least 35,000 families, or 159,000 people.

In Albay, thousands from villages prone to floods, lahar, landslide and storm surges were evacuated, according to the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Jalad said positive and suspected cases of COVID-19 in “mega” treatment facilities in Metro Manila and nearby Bulacan had been transferred to hospitals and hotels.

He said the tents where they were being housed on the grounds of the Philippine International Convention Center and the Philippine Arena Complex might not survive the typhoon’s winds.

Weather forecaster Ariel Rojas told reporters that the eyewall of the storm would be passing Sunday night or early Monday near Metro Manila, which will experience winds that are strong enough to break trees and damage houses made of light materials.

Pagasa also warned of moderate to high risk of storm surges. In the northern coastal areas of Quezon and Polillo Island, Catanduanes and the Camarines provinces, storm surges of over 3 meters are expected.

Palace: Stay calm

In coastal areas of Manila, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bataan, southeastern Batangas and southwestern Quezon, the sea level could rise to up to 3 meters, it said.

Rojas said Rolly will likely not gain supertyphoon strength as it was already close to land.

Pagasa categorizes a storm with sustained winds of 220 kph and above as supertyphoon. Supertyphoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), which packed sustained winds of 235 kph and gusts of up to 275 kph when it made landfall in November 2013, left more than 6,000 dead and missing. 

Sen. Bong Go said President Duterte was in Mindanao monitoring the typhoon and could quickly fly back to Manila anytime the weather permits.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque urged the public to monitor government weather bulletins and to “stay calm yet vigilant … and keep their family members and loved ones dry and safe.”

In Daet, capital of Camarines Norte, a 55-year-old member of a rescue group who wanted to be identified only as Dong, was busy securing the roof of his house on Saturday morning.

He remembers the devastation caused by Typhoon “Rosing” (international name: Angela) which tore through his town 25 years ago as one of the worst typhoons to hit the country since 1945.

Rosing caught them unprepared, Dong said. He had to walk for more than 3 kilometers across flooded streets and toppled trees to reach home after he was trapped in a shop that he was managing.

Keeping animals safe

This time, Dong was not taking any chances and even secured three hens, 10 chicks and eight roosters he was keeping as pets in a room in his house to keep them safe.

“We are preparing because we are in the direct path of Rolly. Whether it is strong or weak, as long as you are in the path of the typhoon, you would really have to prepare,” he said.

Bishops Joel Baylon of Legazpi and Rolando Tria Tirona of Naga asked the faithful to pray for the people’s safety.

Santiago Mella, Daet’s disaster management officer, said the initial evacuation plan was to house one family per classroom but increased the number to three on Saturday because there were too many evacuees.

However, he said barriers would be installed to separate each family as a COVID-19 safety measure.

By late Saturday afternoon, streets in Legazpi City were deserted after small and large businesses were ordered closed by 4 p.m. by Albay Gov. Al Francis Bichara to allow residents to prepare for the typhoon. Shops in Albay will remain closed on Sunday.

Hundreds of residents packed department stores before they closed to buy provisions, particularly food and bottled water.

SM City Legazpi allowed owners of cars and motorcycles to leave their vehicles on its third level parking space free of charge to keep them safe from floodwaters, according to Claire Hariri, the mall’s spokesperson.

In Ligao City, also in Albay, farmers harvested their still to mature rice to save them from the expected floods, said farmer Analyn Parco.

In Nueva Ecija province, rice farmers were advised by the Department of Agriculture to harvest their crops that were 70 percent mature.

In Isabela province, farmer Rolly Nicolas, harvested his still young corn, which he would use to feed his cattle.

Other farmers in province, like Gloria Bartolome, herded cows and carabaos to higher ground away from a river that was swelling due to discharges from the Magat Dam.

—Reports from Nikka G. Valenzuela, Jovic Yee, Patricia Denise M. Chiu, Mar S. Arguelles, Rey Anthony Ostria, Michael Jaucian, Ma. April Mier-Manjares, Delfin Mallari Jr., Villamor Visayas Jr. and Armand Galang

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Jokowi condemns Macron’s statements on Islam, calls for global unity

InternationalNov 01. 2020President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo delivers his address at the United Nations General Assembly ,which was broadcasted virtually on Sept. 23. (Presidential Secretariat Press Bureau/Lukas) 

By Alya Nurbaiti
The Jakarta Post

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has condemned a statement made by French President Emmanuel Macron on Islam, calling it insulting and offensive to Muslims the world over.

The President claimed that Macron’s statement could spark division among different faiths at a time when the world needs unity to face the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Freedom of expression should not be exercised in ways that tarnish the honor, sanctity and sacredness of religious values and symbols,” Jokowi said during a virtual press conference on Saturday.

He also condemned the deadly attacks that took place in Paris and Nice.

“Indonesia asks the world to put forward unity and religious tolerance to build a better world.”

Read also: Indonesia condemns France for ‘disrespectful’ statement on Islam

He was joined by Vice President Ma’ruf Amin and representatives from various religious organizations after a meeting at the State Palace on Saturday.

Jokowi also regretted Macron’s statement, which linked religion with terrorism, calling it “a big mistake”.

“Terrorism is terrorism. Terrorists are terrorists. Terrorism does not have any connection with any religion,” he said.

Macron has been at the center of global criticism from the Muslim community following his controversial statements insulting Islam and Prophet Mohammad. His comments have sparked protests and calls for a boycott of French products by some Muslim countries.

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Breach of Anonymous Voting Practices and Possible Instances of Voter Manipulation and Voter Suppression Reported Nationwide in Myanmar

InternationalNov 01. 2020Photo credit: Eleven Media 

By Eleven Media

After advance voting began nationwide, there have been cases where the anonymity of voting has been breached as well as possible instances of voter manipulation and voter suppression. 

The Union Election Commission (UEC) announced that advance voting will begin from October 29 to November 5. After two days of advance voting, possible instances of vote manipulation and voter suppression has been reported. 

Kyun Yin Village, Pakokku District, Pauk Township saw an altercation between the local villagers and the local election commission. 

This altercation arose after villagers claimed that the staff from the polling station were registering votes that were contrary to the wishes of the elderly that had come to vote.

“There were around 40 elderly persons that casted advance votes. Around 25 out of those had issues with voting. Family members wanted to get into polling booths to help but representatives from the other party complained. So the commission (local commission head) member did not address that but instead went inside to help out. When some elders saw this happening, they drew the conclusion that if he is doing that then he is writing in votes for the USDP (Union Solidarity and Development Party). Afterwards, the news that green (USDP) is being voted in instead of red (NLD), against the wishes of the voter, spread in the village. It became a clash with the commission after that,” said Ko Aung Khine Soe from Kyun Yin Village.

The incident between the villagers and comission staff on October 29 in Kyun Yin Village.

Regarding the incident on the night of October 29, members from the election commission and authorities from parties had to defuse the situation and that alleged polling station staff members have their duties put on hold, investigations will be launched and that over 40 votes will be taken as void and allowed to re-vote, according to Pakkoku’s election commission chair U Win Sein.

Mi Kun Chan, a Pyithu Hluttaw candidate from the National League for Democracy (NLD) representing Paung Township, Mon State, said that situations will arise at village-tract levels as the advance voting period is protracted during this election due to Covid-19. 

“It is not okay to make the advance voting period long. It is due to COVID-19 and it might be okay in towns but will definitely see daily problems in townships with many village tracts. Local commission staff are carrying things out as most convenient to them. So adding the danger of possible vote theft on top of inept activities from township level commission members mean that there is worry for vote manipulation. Everywhere, there are reports that the elderly are being conned because they don’t know how to vote. And it is a huge trouble to guard the votes overnight. I think that people should just come on November 8 to vote instead of casting advance votes,” wrote Mi Kun Chan on his social media page.

Along with the words, a picture of envelopes given out by the election commission for advance voting was uploaded. The envelopes were not brown to use for voting but general, everyday use envelopes. The UEC had already distributed special envelopes which were brown and had exact specifications of which parliament it was for. The advance ballot from voters will be put inside and glued shut. 

Voters and political party members have reported many cases of some envelopes being torn or opened.

USDP issued a statement, also on October 29th, that they had requested for only one person representing one party to follow along with advance voting processes, along with several complaints following several incidents; In (H)North Ward, Thingangyun Township, Yangon Region the People’s Pioneer Party (PPP) found that a huge crowd had gathered on the road outside of the polling station, D|E/8 Nga Moe Yeik San Pya wards saw many of the envelopes taken and cast into the ballot box was open, the 348th ward commission had also needed to announce that open envelopes were to be glued, over 50 NLD supporters gathered near the polling booth so the USDP had to bring 52 men and so on.

Similarly, Magway Region Chief Minister Dr Aung Moe Nyo had also written on his social media page that votes were supposedly being cast by scratching with a pen instead of the designated stamping procedure in places such as Zee Kyun and Kan Hla Kyaung villages.

“Is it purposely made for the vote to be void? Over 60 years old have to vote and they are being asked to doodle instead of stamping,” wrote the Magway Chief. He also uploaded screenshots of people informing of such incidents in his message box.

Also on October 29th, a photo of the advanced ballot box being carried on a NLD endorsed rickshaw in No.20 ward, Aung Theik Di 3 street, South Dagon Township, went viral on social media. 

On October 22nd, 58 advance votes that were open arrived in Dagon Township from the military engineering corp, which were decided to be void by the township election commission after discussing with candidates from multiple parties competing in the same township.

Many candidates had also pointed out that a person’s vote is supposed to guarantee anonymity as a personal freedom but it had since disappeared in advance voting. 

“What’s for sure is that the vote anonymity had disappeared day one into advance ballot casting. It is not happening in just one place but in many places,” said Pyithu Hluttaw candidate Ko Nay Yan Oo from People’s Party (PP) for Kamaryut Township.

No.38, Section 9 of the election law for both Pyithu and Amyothar Hluttaw(s) dictates that polling stations are to be built in a place where the people can easily access, to protect the anonymity of the voter and to announce in advance the locations of polling stations. 

Similarly, no.41 of Section 10 also says that staff responsible for any polling stations must give the voter the ballot paper must be given to the voter after clarifying that the eligibility of said voter is in the list and after the voter had either signed or imprinted a thumbprint on the list.

In no.42, it is also said that if the voter is not able to read or do not understand how to vote, the voter’s biological father, mother, wife, husband, son, daughter, sibling may cast a vote for him or her. If such persons are not available, the in-charge of the polling station must carry out the task. Afterwards, the voter himself/herself must cast the vote into the ballot box.

The polling stations have been allowed to be mobile (in light of the elderly voters and COVID-19), but have taken no precautionary measures to safeguard the anonymity of the voting with commission members standing and watching the voters closely.

Pictures have also been circulated on social media, which showed votes that were being carried in plastic bags due to the lack of ballot boxes.

Questions must be raised to protect the anonymity of the voters and to safeguard instances of  vote manipulation. 

There are 38 million eligible voters in Myanmar for the 2020 general elections. 

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Biden leads slightly in Pennsylvania with Florida a toss-up, polls show

InternationalNov 01. 2020Photo by: The Washington Post — The Washington Post 

By The Washington Post · Dan Balz, Scott Clement, Emily Guskin · NATIONAL, POLITICS 
As the presidential race enters its final days, competition remains fierce in two of the most important battleground states, with former vice president Joe Biden holding a slight lead over President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania and the two candidates in a virtual dead heat in Florida, according to two Washington Post-ABC News polls.

Among likely voters in Pennsylvania, Biden is at 51% to Trump’s 44%, and Libertarian Jo Jorgensen is at 3%. Biden was leading by 54% to 45% a month ago. While the shift is slight, Biden no longer holds a statistically significant advantage, given the four-point margin of sampling error that applies to each candidates’ support. Among all registered voters in the Keystone State, Biden is at 49% to Trump’s 45%, with Jorgensen at 3%.

In Florida, Trump is at 50% to Biden’s 48% among likely voters. Jorgensen registers at 1%. Last month, Trump was at 51% and Biden at 47 percent. Among registered voters in Florida, Trump stands at 49 percent with Biden at 47%. Last month among registered voters, Biden was at 48% and Trump at 47%. Those month-to-month shifts are not statistically significant.

Although there are other battleground states in play in these final days, many analysts see Florida and Pennsylvania as holding the keys to the outcome of the election. Trump won both states in 2016, but barely, taking Florida by just over onepercentage point and Pennsylvania by less than one point.

Florida is considered as close to a must-win for the president as there is, because without its 29 electoral votes, his path to the necessary 270 electoral votes becomes significantly more challenging.

Pennsylvania is seen by Democrats as vital to Biden’s hopes of preventing the president from replicating his path four years ago through the heartland. Democrats think a Biden victory in Pennsylvania would signal success in Michigan and possibly Wisconsin as well and mark the restoration of the parts of the party’s blue wall that crumbled in 2016.

Beyond the question of voting intentions, the two polls highlight the competitiveness of the two states and show some improvement for the president over the past month as the campaign has intensified ahead of Election Day on Tuesday.

Disapproval of the president has eased ever so slightly in both states since last month. In Florida, he is now in narrowly positive territory, with 51% of registered voters saying they approve and 47% saying they disapprove. Last month, 47% approved and 51% disapproved.

In Pennsylvania, his ratings remain negative, at 45% approving and 52% disapproving, a negative seven-point margin. Last month, Pennsylvania voters disapproved of Trump by a 12-point margin, so there has been a slight but potentially significant shift in his favor.

Trump’s approval rating on the economy is positive in both states. In Florida, 58% say they approve of the job he is doing with the economy, and 40% disapprove. Strong approval is 19 points higher than strong disapproval. In Pennsylvania, 54% approve, and 44% disapprove.

But voters in both states give him negative ratings on handling the coronavirus outbreak. In Florida, 51% disapprove to 47 percent who approve. In Pennsylvania, 54% disapprove, and 43% approve, with 52 percent saying they “strongly” disapprove of the way Trump is handling the pandemic.

Majorities of voters in both states say they are “very” or “somewhat” worried about they or someone in their immediate family catching the virus. In both states, those who are more worried strongly back Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), while those who are less worried slightly more strongly back the president and Vice President Pence.

Trump is trusted more than Biden to handle the economy by voters in Florida by 14 points – 55 percent saying Trump to 41 percent saying Biden. In Pennsylvania, the margin is six points – 49 percent to 43% in Trump’s favor.

The issue of fracking has been litigated intensively in Pennsylvania and is an important matter particularly in western Pennsylvania. Trump has alleged that Biden intends to ban or halt all fracking; Biden’s energy plan calls for no new oil or gas permits on federal lands but would not ban fracking on nonfederal lands. But the former vice president has made some confusing statements that have clouded the issue.

The Post-ABC poll in Pennsylvania finds that 46% say they trust the president more to handle fracking in the state, while 42% say they trust Biden. There is a big partisan split on this question, with independents narrowly favoring Biden.

The poll suggests fracking is a strong issue for Trump in western Pennsylvania, which swung sharply for him in 2016. Voters in this region trust Trump by a 24-point margin over Biden to handle fracking, 57% to 33%, while Trump holds a narrower edge in the area on trust to handle the economy and Biden roughly ties the president on handling the coronavirus.

Among all Pennsylvania voters, Biden has the advantage on trust to handle the pandemic, but his margin is nine points, down slightly from 14 points a month ago. He and the president are about even on that question in Florida; a month ago, Biden had a five-point edge on this issue among the state’s voters.

The polls were conducted during a week that saw the highest number of new daily cases of the novel coronavirus this year, with most states showing increases. Trump has said the country has turned the corner on controlling the virus and calls for opening up as much as possible to help revive the economy. Biden has criticized the president as lacking a plan to combat the virus and has laid out a multistep proposal that includes potential future closures of stricken areas if scientists think that is necessary.

The polls find that 53% of voters in Pennsylvania and 50 percent in Florida say it is more important to stop the spread of the virus, even if that means hurting the economy, while somewhat fewer prioritize trying to restart the economy at the expense of hampering efforts to control the spread of the virus. In both states, more than 8 in 10 Democratic voters favor controlling the virus while more than 2 in 3 Republicans say restarting the economy should be the priority. About half of all independents in each state support efforts to prevent the virus from continuing to spread, with slightly more in each case than those who favor prioritizing an economic restart.

Trump’s profile in Florida is better than in Pennsylvania when voters are asked about key attributes. He leads Biden by 10 points on who is the stronger leader and runs statistically even on who is more honest and trustworthy. Biden has a negligible advantage on who is the more empathetic candidate. In Pennsylvania, Biden is seen as more honest and trustworthy by eight points and has a nine-point advantage on empathy. On the question of who is the stronger leader, the two are statistically even in Pennsylvania.

Enthusiasm for the election is high all around, with more than 9 in 10 registered voters in both states saying they either have voted already or are certain to vote by Election Day. But the pattern of voting is strikingly different, with 82% of Florida’s likely voters saying they will vote before Election Day and 58% of Pennsylvania voters saying they will vote on Election Day. In Florida, 60% of likely voters say they have already voted; 32% say the same in Pennsylvania.

As of Saturday, more than 8 million Florida voters have cast their ballots, a striking tally that has already surpassed 80% of total 2016 turnout. The Post-ABC poll finds this group backing Biden by 53% to 45%. Likely voters in Florida who have not yet cast their ballot support Trump by an 18-point margin, including a 29-point advantage among voters who plan to vote on Election Day.

The schism between early and Election Day voting is even more stark in Pennsylvania, where 2.1 million votes have already been cast, representing more than one-third of 2016 turnout. Biden leads by 57 points among voters who say they have already voted, while Trump leads by 16 points among likely voters who haven’t cast ballots and by 26 points among voters who plan to vote on Election Day.

Florida’s vote count is normally relatively swift, with the outcome usually determined by late Election Day. That pattern was broken in 2000 when the state went through a 37-day recount before the election was decided by a Supreme Court decision. Pennsylvania will not start processing mail ballots until Election Day, and the counting is likely to go on for several days before full results are known.

In Pennsylvania, Biden pulls in a slightly greater share of his party than Trump does for his – 93 percent of likely Democratic voters support Biden while 87% of Republicans support Trump – similar to the breakdown in September. Biden also leads by 18 points among self-identified independents, a group that was closely divided in September. In 2016, Trump won independents in Pennsylvania by seven points, according to network exit polling.

Biden’s September lead among women has shrunk – at the time, he led by 23 points among female likely voters in Pennsylvania, 61 percent to 38%. Now he has a 14-point lead, 55% to 41%. Among men, Biden and Trump are running even, but a month ago, Trump had a seven-point edge.

Trump leads by 20 points among White voters without college degrees, a large margin but smaller than the more than 30-point advantage by which he won this group nationally and in Pennsylvania in 2016, according to network exit polling. White college graduates favor Biden by a 23-point margin among likely voters. This group split its support evenly between Trump and Clinton in 2016, according to Pennsylvania exit polling. Biden leads by 15 points among voters age 65 and older, a shift from 2016, when Trump won seniors by 10 points.

In Florida, Trump is splitting self-identified political independents 47% to 48% for Biden (compared with an 18-point deficit for Trump in Pennsylvania). The president leads by nine percentage points among seniors (54% to 45%), an important anchor on his support, though smaller than his 17-point advantage in the state in 2016.

The president splits Hispanic and Latino voters, who make up one-fifth of Florida’s electorate, 47 percent for Trump to Biden’s 51 percent, reflecting a weakness for Biden in comparison with past Democratic nominees. In 2016, Hispanic voters in Florida favored Clinton by 62% to 35% according to network exit polling.

Trump has a 12-point lead among male likely voters in Florida, 54% to 42%, while Biden has a slight edge among female voters, 52% to 46 percent. Those gaps are slightly wider than in 2016, when men supported Trump by nine points and women supported Clinton by four points, according to network exit polls.

In Florida, Biden leads by 84 percent to 8% among Black registered voters, identical to Clinton’s advantage in 2016 exit polls. Four% of Black voters back Libertarian Jo Jorgensen, compared with 2% of registered voters overall.

Trump leads by 20 points among White likely voters in Florida (59% to 39%), and garners majority support among both White men and women (64% and 56%, respectively).

The Washington Post-ABC News polls were conducted by telephone Oct. 24-29 among random samples of 915 registered voters in Florida and 908 registered voters in Pennsylvania, including subsamples of 824 likely voters in Florida and 801 likely voters in Pennsylvania. In both states, the error margin among the sample of registered voters is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points and four points among the samples of likely voters. In Florida, 79% of respondents were reached on cellphones, and in Pennsylvania, 64% were; the remainder in both states were reached on landlines.

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Judges nominated by President Trump play key role in upholding voting limits ahead of Election Day

InternationalNov 01. 2020

By The Washington Post · Ann E. Marimow, Matt Kiefer · NATIONAL, POLITICS, COURTSLAW
Federal judges nominated by President Donald Trump have largely ruled against efforts to loosen voting rules in the 2020 campaign amid the coronavirus pandemic and sided with Republicans seeking to enforce restrictions, underscoring Trump’s impact in reshaping the judiciary.

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts arrive for the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 5, 2019. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Ricky Carioti.

An analysis by The Washington Post found that nearly three out of four opinions issued in federal voting-related cases by judges picked by the president were in favor of maintaining limits. That is a sharp contrast with judges nominated by President Barack Obama, whose decisions backed such limits 17% of the time.

The impact of Trump’s court picks could be seen most starkly at the appellate level, where 21 out of the 25 opinions issued by the president’s nominees were against loosening voting rules.

The pattern shows how Trump’s success installing a record number of judges in his four years in office has played a critical role in determining how people can vote this year and which ballots will be counted. The president’s imprint on the courts culminated this week with the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, the third justice he has successfully nominated to the Supreme Court.

Photo by: The Washington Post — The Washington Post

The opinions by Trump nominees have been among hundreds issued throughout the country as the courts have contended with a record number of cases related to voting and the administration of this year’s election.

The litigation has been driven by both efforts of Democrats and voting-rights groups to expand access to mail voting because of the public health crisis and challenges filed against the relaxation of some state rules by Republicans, who have argued that such actions open the door to widespread fraud.

Many judges have been skeptical of such claims by the GOP and Trump’s campaign, calling allegations about fraud speculative and hypothetical.

Trump nominees have not uniformly sided with Republicans. But many have ruled in favor of the GOP in major cases involving rules about mail voting, ballot deadlines and signature requirements that have affected millions of Americans, many of whom are casting votes by mail for the first time because of concerns about the health risks of in-person voting.

A central argument of the president’s picks on the bench: that state legislatures, not the courts, should set the rules for voting, even in a pandemic.

Wendy R. Weiser of the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit group that has advocated for expanded mail voting this year, said that judges nominated by Trump are “not uniformly against voting rights.”

But, she noted, “it is absolutely the case that Donald Trump has filled a lot of appointments, flipped a lot of courts and led to majorities on panels where a lot of the judges ruling against voting rights were his appointees.”

In a Texas case, three judges nominated by Trump unanimously upheld the Republican governor’s limit of one ballot drop-off location per county that state officials say is necessary to prevent voter fraud. In Georgia, a pair of Trump nominees reinstated an Election Day deadline for mail-in ballots to be counted at the urging of GOP officials.

In a Wisconsin case that reached the Supreme Court this week, a Trump nominee was part of the two-judge majority at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit that rejected an extension of the deadline for receiving mail ballots in the battleground state. And a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled Thursday night that a Republican lawmaker and GOP activist could challenge Minnesota’s plan to count ballots that arrive after Election Day.

A Trump nominee also joined the majority in a Tennessee case in October to uphold signature-match rules for mail ballots. That decision, rejecting a challenge from voting rights groups, drew a sharp dissent from Judge Karen Nelson Moore, a nominee of President Bill Clinton. She broadly criticized her judicial colleagues throughout the country, listing a series of cases in which she said courts “have sanctioned a systematic effort to suppress voter turnout and undermine the right to vote.”

“Many courts are chipping away at votes that ought to be counted. It is a disgrace to the federal courts’ foundational role in ensuring democracy’s function, and a betrayal to the persons that wish to participate in it fully,” Moore wrote.

“On its own, today’s ruling may not-likely will not-change the course of this election. But it is another drop in the bucket that is the degradation of the right to vote in this country. . . . I fear the day we come out from behind the courthouse doors only to realize these drops have become a flood.”

Nationally, the number of election-related lawsuits has nearly tripled in the years since the contested 2000 presidential election and Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore, according to Richard Hasen, an election law expert and professor at the University of California at Irvine School of Law who has tracked related litigation since 1996. The massive increase in legal action this cycle, more than 300 cases so far, is driven largely by coronavirus-related challenges to existing restrictions or to changes in the rules designed to make it easier to vote by mail because of the risks associated with in-person voting during a pandemic.

Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that there is a heightened risk of fraud with mail ballots and wrongly suggested again this week that it would be illegal for states to count ballots received after Election Day.

“Big problems and discrepancies with Mail In Ballots all over the USA. Must have final total on November 3rd,” he said in a tweet this week labeled potentially misleading by Twitter.

Even as he has reshaped the judiciary with 220 new judges since 2017 – and quickly filled vacancies particularly on the nation’s 13 circuit courts – some of Trump’s nominees have rejected his claims of fraud and allowed more time for mail-in ballots to be tallied after Election Day.

In Pennsylvania, one of the president’s picks, District Judge Nicholas Ranjan, rebuffed the Trump campaign’s allegations of potential fraud as “speculative.” The judge dismissed the campaign’s lawsuit seeking to prevent the use of drop boxes for mail ballots, impose a signature match requirement and allow nonresident poll watchers.

“While Plaintiffs may not need to prove actual voter fraud, they must at least prove that such fraud is ‘certainly impending,’ ” Ranjan wrote. “They haven’t met that burden. At most, they have pieced together a sequence of uncertain assumptions.”

All three judges Trump nominated to the Richmond-based appeals court rejected efforts by Republicans and the president to stop a six-day extension for mail-in ballots to be counted in North Carolina. Judges Marvin Quattlebaum, Julius Richardson and Allison Rushing joined nine other judges in upholding the extra time approved by the state’s Board of Elections. 

The Supreme Court this week allowed the extension favored by Democrats and voting-rights advocates to remain in place.

On the flip side, Quattlebaum and Rushing objected when the court left in place a pandemic-related order blocking South Carolina’s witness signature requirement. In that case, the dissenters said the federal court should not set the rules for state elections and called the requirement a sensible measure. The Supreme Court sided with South Carolina Republicans and reinstated the signature requirement.

The Trump nominees who are in the position to have the biggest impact are on the Supreme Court, typically the last stop for decisions on voting procedures. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have not embraced the president’s views about widespread fraud, even as they have turned down efforts to loosen voting rules in states including Wisconsin, Alabama and South Carolina.

The decisions from the two justices in election-related cases “have not been particularly Trumpian” in that the justices are not “indulging in fantasies about voter fraud,” said Justin Levitt, an election law expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Instead, the court’s conservative majority, including Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, has mostly been reluctant to interfere with state voting procedures so close to an election or to supersede the actions of state legislatures.

Kavanaugh’s opinion in the Wisconsin case, however, drew criticism from liberals for seeming to echo Trump’s concerns when he wrote that “states want to avoid the chaos and suspicions of impropriety that can ensue if thousands of absentee ballots flow in after election day and potentially flip the results of an election.”

Barrett did not participate in two election-related cases that came before the court this week, indicating through a court spokeswoman that she had not had time to fully review the legal arguments, having just started work on Tuesday.

It has been at the appellate court level where expanded voting rules have repeatedly been blocked by Trump nominees, according to the Post analysis, which examined 67 federal cases related to voting in the 2020 election cycle.

Voting-rights advocates challenging restrictions had a series of successes at the district court level – only to see those wins frequently reversed by the appeals courts. Especially on the regional circuit courts, which typically review district court decisions sitting in three-judge panels, those tapped by Trump overwhelmingly issued opinions rejecting efforts to loosen voting rules in response to the pandemic, the Post analysis found.

In the Texas case, a trio of judges nominated by Trump – Don Willett, James C. Ho and Stuart Kyle Duncan – reversed a more expansive district court ruling that would have allowed counties across the state to offer multiple drop-off locations for absentee ballots, instead of a single spot in each county as proscribed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor’s proclamation “does nothing to prevent Texans from mailing in their absentee ballots, as they have done in the past in election after election,” Duncan wrote for the panel.

Minnesota voters now must return mail ballots by Tuesday to ensure they are counted after a divided appeals court this week cast doubt on a lower-court decision approving a state plan to allow ballots to be counted up to seven days after the election. The 2-1 majority opinion, hailed by the Trump campaign, included the president’s nominee Judge L. Steven Grasz.

“The consequences of this order are not lost on us,” according to the unsigned opinion joined by Grasz and Judge Bobby Shepherd, a nominee of President George W. Bush. “With that said, we conclude the challenges that will stem from this ruling are preferable to a post-election scenario where mail-in votes, received after the statutory deadline, are either intermingled with ballots received on time or invalidated without prior warning.”

Judge Jane Kelly, a nominee of Obama, disagreed, saying the court’s order would “cause voter confusion and undermine Minnesotans’ confidence in the election process.”

“At this point, it is simply too late for any absentee voter who has not yet mailed their ballot to do so with confidence that it will arrive by Election Day.” The court is in effect telling voters, Kelly wrote, “that they should have mailed their ballots yesterday (or, more accurately, several days ago).”

Similarly, two Trump nominees formed the majority in a Georgia case blocking a three-day extension of the deadline for mail ballots to be counted. Judges Britt Grant and Barbara Lagoa, who was on Trump’s shortlist to succeed the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said in October that the District Court had “manufactured its own ballot deadline” after finding voters needed more time to cast absentee ballots in a pandemic.

“Voters must simply take reasonable steps and exert some effort to ensure that their ballots are submitted on time, whether through absentee or in-person voting. Contrary to the district court’s conclusion, then, no one is “disenfranchised,” wrote Grant, a former state Supreme Court judge and law clerk to Kavanaugh.

And the 2-1 decision, siding with the state and national Republican parties, took note of how the high court has handled such questions.

“That mantra has consistently pointed the Supreme Court in one direction – allowing the states to run their own elections,” Grant wrote, concluding that. “COVID-19 has not put any gloss on the Constitution’s demand that States-not federal courts-are in charge of setting those rules.”

Judge Charles Wilson, a nominee of Clinton, dissented, writing that the District Court judge had properly ordered the state to accept ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to three days later because “the public has an interest in ensuring votes are counted and that the right to vote is protected.”

On the same court in September, a total of five Trump nominees were part of a six-judge majority that blocked felons in Florida from voting if they owe fines and fees, curtailing the reach of a state constitutional amendment that had the potential to reenfranchise an estimated 1.4 million people with felony convictions. The 6-4 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit reversed a district court finding that the payment provision amounted to an unconstitutional poll tax that discriminated against poor former prisoners.

Voting rights advocates said the decision led to widespread confusion and fear among people with felony convictions that they would be prosecuted if they tried to register to vote, hampering their efforts to get more people on the voting rolls.

In the Wisconsin case, Judge Amy St. Eve, a Trump nominee, and Judge Frank Easterbrook, a nominee of President Ronald Reagan, reinstated the Election Day deadline for mail ballots to be returned that had been extended six days. The majority said federal courts should not alter voting rules so close to an election and that political officials, rather than judges, should decide whether a pandemic justifies such changes. The Republican National Committee, the state GOP and Republican-led legislature defended the original deadline, which was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Judge Ilana Rovner, a nominee of President George H.W. Bush, disagreed, calling the situation a “travesty” and warned that as a result of the court’s decision “many thousands of Wisconsin citizens will lose their right to vote despite doing everything they reasonably can to exercise it.”

“We cannot turn a blind eye to the present circumstances and treat this as an ordinary election,” Rovner wrote in her dissent. “Today, in the midst of a pandemic and significantly slowed mail delivery, this court leaves voters to their own devices. Good luck and G-d bless, Wisconsin. You are going to need it.”

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N.C. police arrest 8, spray ‘pepper-based vapor’ to disperse voter turnout march that included children

InternationalNov 01. 2020Marchers at a voter turnout event in Graham, N.C., on Saturday. (Barry Yeoman for The Washington Post) 

By Special To The Washington Post · Barry Yeoman · NATIONAL, POLITICS, COURTSLAW, RACE
GRAHAM, N.C. – Law enforcement officers fired a spray they described as a “pepper-based vapor” Saturday that left demonstrators – including children – coughing at an “I Am Change” march for voter turnout.

The racially diverse crowd of about 400 had stopped at a Confederate monument in front of the Alamance County Courthouse on their way to an early-voting site. The monument has been the site of months of clashes between anti-racism activists and self-proclaimed white nationalists.

Members of the march said they were listening to speeches about racial justice and the importance of voting when officers began to yell at them to disperse.

The officers then began firing the spray, according to witnesses. “All the marchers were doing was listening to the lady talk,” said Christopher McCauley, who participated in the event.

In a statement released late Saturday afternoon, Graham police said they made eight arrests. The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for information about its arrests.

The Rev. Greg Drumwright of nearby Greensboro, N.C., the march’s organizer, said on a Facebook video Saturday evening that he was among those arrested and that he had been released and ordered not to return to Graham for 72 hours.

“We’re shaken. We are tattered. We’re torn,” he said. “There are people that did not vote today because the police released tear gas and pepper spray.” 

One man was taken into custody after an officer told him to move off the sidewalk.

“Is that why you are going to arrest me – because I’m Black?” he shouted. The officer cuffed him and led him away as activists, watching from across the street, chanted, “Let him go” and “What did he do?” 

Kyesha Willis of Burlington, her mother, Angela Willis, and her 3-year-old son were all at the march and were sprayed. Kyesha Willis said her family had gotten to the monument 10 minutes before police started trying to disperse the crowd.

“I heard people screaming, ‘You can’t be in the road,’ but I wasn’t in the road,” she said. “We walked further and further away but it kept coming at us.” She said she vomited and tried to cover her son’s face.

Supporters of the Confederate memorial watched from outdoor tables at a soda shop on the court square.

One man shouted, “Get off the streets!” A truck with three Trump 2020 flags drove slowly around the courthouse during the rally.

The Graham Police Department said that traffic near the courthouse had backed up when marchers paused quietly at the monument to mark the length of time a police officer kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck after arresting him on a street in Minneapolis.

“The assembly reached a level of conduct that led to the rally being deemed unsafe and unlawful by unified command,” the statement said.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat up for reelection, called the incident “unacceptable.” 

“Peaceful demonstrators should be able to have their voices heard and voter intimidation in any form cannot be tolerated,” Cooper tweeted.

The march was organized by Drumwright, who planned to lead the group from a Black church to an early-voting site. Participants included relatives of Floyd and the parents of Christian Griggs, a Black man killed by his White father-in-law in North Carolina in 2013.

“I’m out here voting for those who cannot vote today: my son, Christian Griggs, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Trayvon Martin and all those others who have died at the hands of police or have had their lives impacted by an injustice,” said Griggs’s mother, Dolly.

The crowd invoked the name of Wyatt Outlaw, a Black town commissioner who in 1870 was kidnapped from his Graham home by the Ku Klux Klan and lynched outside the courthouse, not far from the present-day monument.