Supreme court rejects Republican argument on Pennsylvania ballot counting: AP
The supreme court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal from Republicans that could have led to thousands of provisional ballots not being counted in Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reports.
The justices left in place a state supreme court ruling that elections officials must count provisional ballots cast by voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected.
As of Thursday, about 9,000 ballots out of more than 1.6 million returned have arrived at elections offices around Pennsylvania lacking a secrecy envelope, a signature or a date, according to state records.
Pennsylvania is the biggest presidential election battleground this year, with 19 electoral votes. Donald Trump won the state in 2016, then lost it in 2020.
Key events
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Meanwhile, in Traverse City, Michigan, Tim Waltz is hammering home that same message of unity – appealing to independent and Republican voters.
“We’ve got independents and Republicans coming over to this campaign. People who are adhering to the old Republican party values that added to this country. That’s not Donald Trump,” he said.
When Kamala Harris asked the rally crowd how many of them had voted already, she heard a roar of cheers and applause in response.
“Oh, my goodness, that’s great! Thank you,” she said.
Wisconsin has seen a record number of people voting early this year, with officials in some municipalities already reporting that more than 50% of registered voters in their region have cast early ballots.
In her closing pitch, Harris is once again emphasizing that she is looking to be a political consensus builder.
“Here is my pledge to you. Here is my pledge to you as president. I pledge to seek common ground and commonsense solutions to the challenges you face,” she said. “I pledge to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make. I will listen to experts. I will listen to the people who disagree with me. Because, you see, unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy.”
Repeating a line she’s been using often lately, she added: “He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at the table.”
Harris takes stage in Wisconsin for latest rally
Kamala Harris is taking the stage in Little Chute, Wisconsin.
She was introduced by the senator Tammy Baldwin, who told the crowd: “We are the battleground state in this election.”
Here’s footage of the line of people before the event:
Supreme court rejects Republican argument on Pennsylvania ballot counting: AP
The supreme court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal from Republicans that could have led to thousands of provisional ballots not being counted in Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reports.
The justices left in place a state supreme court ruling that elections officials must count provisional ballots cast by voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected.
As of Thursday, about 9,000 ballots out of more than 1.6 million returned have arrived at elections offices around Pennsylvania lacking a secrecy envelope, a signature or a date, according to state records.
Pennsylvania is the biggest presidential election battleground this year, with 19 electoral votes. Donald Trump won the state in 2016, then lost it in 2020.
“November 5 will be the most important day in the history of the country,” Trump says, leading the crowd as they shout together: “We will make America great again.”
The rally has concluded. Trump spoke for about two hours, with some brief pauses for videos and cameos from other speakers.
“I will prevent world war three from happening,” Trump tells a Michigan audienceas he appears to be wrapping up his closing arguments here. He is due to speak at another rally a few hours from now in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“We will teach our children to love our country and to honor our history and to always respect our great American flag,” Trump says.
He says he will support legislation that would impose a penalty of one year in prison for burning the American flag. (The US supreme court ruled in 1989 that flag-burning is constitutionally protected speech under the first amendment.)
“We will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our schools,” Trump adds.
As Trump is still speaking in Michigan, Kamala Harris will be speaking again soon in Little Chute, Wisconsin. You can watch here:
Trump revisits criticism of Liz Cheney, calling her a war hawk and a coward
After facing intense criticism for suggesting at an Arizona rally that Liz Cheneya former Wyoming representative and major Republican critic, should have guns firing at her, Trump talked about her again at his rally in Warren, Michigan, calling her a warmonger who was not brave enough to fight herself, and accusing her father, Dick Cheneyof being responsible for massive losses of live across the Middle East when he was George W Bush’s vice-president and one of the major architects of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Kamala is campaigning with warmongers like Liz Cheney … she picks Liz Cheney, whose father virtually destroyed the Middle East,” Trump said.
In his first term, Trump said, Cheney was always telling him: “We should attack this nation, that nation, nations that people have never even heard of we should attack … but if you give Liz Cheney a gun and put her into battle facing the other side with guns facing at her, she wouldn’t have the courage or the strength … to even look the enemy in the eye: ‘Oh, we ought to go attack Iran, Iraq, everybody.’ That’s why I broke up with her. All she wanted to do is to go to war with everybody … .”
Despite advocating for other people to go to war, Trump said, Cheney herself stays comfortably at home, or at “her father’s lavish home, he got from killing a large portion of the Middle East … these war hawks, they want to draft your kids to fight in wars, and they will never fight themselves.”
The Michigan pro-Trump audience was largely silent during these remarks about Cheney, which are strikingly more in line with leftist criticism of the Bush-Cheney administration, and the aftermath of the Iraq war, than typical Republican views on these conflicts.
Trump himself, as the child of a wealthy New York family, famously got a deferment for bone spurs that allowed him to avoid serving in the Vietnam war.
Trump touts ‘overwhelming support’ from Arab Americans in Michigan
As he approaches the end of his speech in Warren, Michigan, Trump is touting his support from Muslims and Arab Americans in Michigan.
“Now the most amazing thing is happening, we’re also wining overwhelming support from your Muslim community right here in Michigan. Muslim and Arab right here in Michigan, that’s something, that’s progress,” Trump said.
“And I just came from an incredible meeting with the Lebanese community in Dearborn. Last week I was honored to be endorsed by a group of some of the most important imams and Muslim leaders in your state.”
Trump also talks about being grateful to Bill Bazzi, the mayor of Dearborn Heights, and Dr Amer Ghalib, the mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan, who have both endorsed Trump, and says Bazzi is in the audience at the rally.
“I need every Muslim American in Michigan to get the hell out and vote, please, Mr mayors,” Trump says.
“Kamala’s closing message to the American people is that she hates you,” Trump says. “She’s from San Francisco, she’s a Marxist.” (Harris did serve as district attorney of San Francisco, but is definitely not a Marxist.)
“My closing message is that I love America.”
Big cheers and whistles from the Michigan audience as Trump once again promises to carry out the largest deportation in American history.
Even bigger cheers as Trump promises the death penalty for any immigrant who kills a US citizen or a law enforcement officer.
Here’s an in-depth look by my colleague Lauren Gambino about how Trump’s mass deportation plan would affect immigrants across the US: