The latest on the 2020 election

By Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes and Veronica Rocha, CNN

Updated 10:34 PM ET, Mon October 19, 2020
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12:59 p.m. ET, October 19, 2020

A record number of people are voting early in Georgia, secretary of state says

From CNN’s Jason Morris

Jessica McGowan/Getty Images
Jessica McGowan/Getty Images

The state of Georgia continues to see record turnout, expecting 1.5 million votes to be cast by the end of the day, the Georgia Secretary of State said. 

“We are setting records with every passing hour,” Georgia Secretary Brad Raffensperger said at a morning press conference at the State Capitol.   

Raffensperger called the lines seen in some areas in the state “smooth, but strong lines.” 

Last week, the state experienced issues with the system that provided voter data to the counties that lead to some of the slow down. That system, called eNet, experienced what the Secretary said was bandwidth issues. Today the secretary reported that the bandwidth issues have been fully fixed.  

He also reminded people to “please only vote once.” 

Raffensperger estimates that 2.5 million people may vote early with an additional 2 million voting on election day.  

10:36 a.m. ET, October 19, 2020

Numerous ballots stolen from mailboxes in Washington, police say

From CNN's Artemis Moshtaghian 

Police in Sammamish, Washington, were informed by the city’s postmaster on Friday that numerous ballots were stolen from mailboxes and placed in other mailboxes, according to Sammamish Police Department.

During this time, police were also responding to reports that several garbage bags were found full of mail and contained ballots, police say.

Officers later found that there was no evidence that the acts were politically motivated or that ballots were specifically targeted. Sammamish is an area where there are frequent mail and package thefts, the police department said. 

Sammamish Police are working on returning stolen pieces of mail to their rightful owners and urge people to check with the King County Election Office if they haven’t received their ballots by Monday October 19. 

The United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General’s office was unable to issue a comment at the time of the incident on Friday. 

Some context: Early voting in Sammamish County began on October 16 and runs through election day, November 3. According to the King County Election Office, 60,000 ballots were collected as of Sunday— three days after ballot boxes opened. By comparison, 16,000 ballots had been collected after 5 days in 2016, King County Election Office reports. 

10:58 a.m. ET, October 19, 2020

Florida GOP Rep. Rooney, who is yet to endorse a candidate, says Biden has the right approach on Covid-19

From CNN's Aditi Sangal

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images

Florida Republican Rep. Francis Rooney criticized President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden “has the right approach.”

“I don't think there's any doubt that Vice President Biden has the right approach. And there's a lot of Republicans that would agree with that as well,” he told CNN.

He agreed that President Trump let Americans down in the way he handled the pandemic response.

“My understanding is that he was briefed by the intelligence services on this as early as the third of January and 11 other times in January and February. And the fact that we didn't act on it, while countries like Singapore and South Korea were acting on it… is a little troublesome, because we had the information," he said.

With these concerns along with his existing policy disagreements with Trump, Rooney says he’s “still ruminating” about whether or not to support the President in the 2020 election.

“I'm going to study everything the next couple of weeks,” he said, adding that he probably has enough information to make a decision at this point “but I'd prefer not to say what it's going to be, and I want to see what happens.”

Regardless of how he votes, he says he is sure President Trump will do well in Rooney’s constituency.

“It's a very strong Republican area. I think he has a lot of support. For whatever reason, they turned out 57,000 more votes for Trump in 2016 than they had for Mitt Romney in 2012. So it's going to be very interesting to see how much enthusiasm there is this time," he said.

Watch the interview:

11:52 a.m. ET, October 19, 2020

More than 4 million votes have been cast in Texas through the first six days of early voting

From CNN's Kay Jones

People cast their ballots at a polling location on October 13 in Austin, Texas.
People cast their ballots at a polling location on October 13 in Austin, Texas. Sergio Flores/Getty Images

More than 4 million votes have been cast in Texas through the first six full days of early voting, according to the Texas Secretary of State.

The total number of voters so far represent nearly 24% of all registered voters. 

The SOS website shows that over 580,000 votes were submitted by mail, with over 3.4 million votes cast in person since early voting started on October 13. 

In 2016, there were over 4.4 million votes cast during the early voting period, according to the historical data posted on the Texas SOS website. 

Correction: This post has been updated to reflect that in 2016 there were over 4.4 million votes cast in the early voting period, not 9.7 million as previously stated.

12:58 p.m. ET, October 19, 2020

Early voting starts in Florida today. Here's what voters are telling us about the experience so far. 

From CNN's Paul Murphy and Paul LeBlanc

Voters lined up before sunrise today as early voting began in Florida, including in the critical counties of Broward, Duval, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach.

More than 27 million ballots have already been cast in the US, according to a survey of election officials by CNN, Edison Research, and Catalist.

Here's what voters are telling CNN about what the scene is like on the ground:

Southwest Ranches, Florida
Southwest Ranches, Florida Source: Doris Gonzalez

Pembroke Pines, Florida, resident Doris Gonzalez says Broward County voters had to weather a rainstorm this morning while waiting for the polls to open.

Port Charlotte, Florida
Port Charlotte, Florida Source: Donald Hutchins

"It’s the first day of early voting, I didn’t think it would be so popular," Donald Hutchins told CNN while in line at the Charlotte County Library Administration in Port Charlotte, Florida. "Thought I could be in and out."

Melbourne, Florida
Melbourne, Florida Source: Susan Eaton

Susan Eaton was in line to vote at the community center gym in Melbourne, Florida.

She's voting today to "ensure [she] got it done and got counted."

"Plus it’s my son’s first general election (he voted in the March and July primaries) and was excited to do it in person with him for the experience," she told CNN.

Tampa, Florida
Tampa, Florida Source: Cam Koubek

"I’ve been enthusiastic about voting and waiting to do it for months now, so I wanted to do it the first opportunity I got," Cam Koubek told CNN while in line at the Platt Library in Tampa, Florida.

The mayor of Parkland, Florida, tweeted a video this morning saying it is "the longest line I have ever seen at early voting in Parkland."

James Harcup, who is in line to vote today in Key West, Florida, the southernmost location in the continental US and the southernmost polling place in the continental US, described why he was planning on voting early.

"I was counting down the days till early voting started in Florida," he told CNN. "I don’t trust mail-in ballots...I usually always early vote anyway, but this was the first time I ever committed to coming bright & early on the first day! This is just too important of an election."

CNN's Rosa Flores is on the scene in Miami speaking to voters:

9:44 a.m. ET, October 19, 2020

Free shuttle service for voters begins today in Dallas County

From CNN's Kay Jones and Devon Sayers

A free shuttle service to take voters to the Dallas County Election Department begins today, according to a release from Dallas Area Rapid Transit.

The shuttle service, which is a joint venture by DART and the Dallas County Election Department, will be available from today through Election Day.  

The shuttle will be available seven days a week through November 3. 

 

9:34 a.m. ET, October 19, 2020

Tucson mayor calls for President Trump to follow city's mask mandate at his rally later today

Tucson, Arizona, Mayor Regina Romero is calling for President Trump to follow the city's mandatory mask ordinance at his rally later today, saying she is "very concerned" about community spread of Covid-19.

She said cases of the virus in Tucson and Arizona have declined 75% but she is worried the rally could cause a spike in infections. She said she wrote a letter to the Trump campaign asking the President to be careful and comply with the local mask ordinance and CDC guidelines.

"We welcome the President to Tucson, but we do ask them to comply with CDC guidelines and the mandatory mask ordinance in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19. It's very serious. We're very concerned," Romero said.

"We do not want to see a super spreader event," she added, saying the campaign said they are expecting 10,000 people to come to the rally.

She also called on people attending the rally to "practice their judgement" and wear masks. Romero added that the city is working with the Health Department to conduct contact tracing and "make sure that people are following CDC guidelines."

"We've been in this spot before in Arizona, and in Tucson, and we don't want to get back to massive spread of covid-19 in our community," Romero said.

9:06 a.m. ET, October 19, 2020

Trump and Biden's final presidential debate is Thursday. Here are the topics they will be grilled on.

From CNN's Dan Merica and Kate Sullivan

The Commission on Presidential Debates released the topics for the final presidential debate between President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden that will take place Thursday in Nashville, Tennessee.

The debate will start at 9:00 p.m. ET and run for 90 minutes without commercial breaks.

The six topics are:

  • "Fighting COVID-19"
  • "American Families"
  • "Race in America"
  • "Climate Change"
  • "National Security"
  • "Leadership"

The format is the same as the first debate: Each segment will last about 15 minutes, and the candidates will have two minutes to respond after the moderator, NBC's Kristen Welker, opens each segment with a question. Welker will then use the rest of the time in the segment to facilitate further discussion on the topic.

In Friday's announcement, the commission did not explain any further rule changes for the final contest, something it said it would do after the first debate between the presidential candidates devolved into a chaotic affair with the President flouting the rules and repeatedly interrupting the former vice president. 

Remember: Trump and Biden were supposed to debate last Thursday, but that debate was canceled after Trump declined to participate in a virtual debate. The commission changed the format to a virtual debate due to the President's positive coronavirus diagnosis earlier this month, which left him hospitalized for three days.

Both candidates instead participated in town halls on the night the debate was originally scheduled to take place. Biden appeared on ABC for an hour and a half town hall, and Trump appeared on NBC for an hour-long town hall.

8:54 a.m. ET, October 19, 2020

Here's where early voting opens this week

From CNN's Paul LeBlanc

More than 27 million ballots have already been cast, according to a survey of election officials by CNN, Edison Research, and Catalist.

Voters in the 45 states and the District of Columbia that make pre-Election Day data available are already setting records. The ballots cast so far represent almost 20% of the more than 136 million total ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election.

Some of the voter information comes from Catalist, a company that provides data, analytics and other services to Democrats, academics and nonprofit issue-advocacy organizations and is giving new insights into who is voting before November.

Attention shifts to Florida on Monday, when some early polling locations open across the state — including in critical counties like Broward, Duval, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach. It's pretty clear that President Donald Trump has very few paths to the White House without winning the state. It's possible, but it isn't really realistic. (Build your own electoral map here.)

In Wisconsin, early voting begins on Tuesday. The state played a central role in Trump's victory in 2016, with rural and working class voters leading the rejection of Democrats throughout the Upper Midwest. Four years later, however, the state remains a key battleground, but one where Trump is trailing in the most recent polls.

Here's the full rundown of where voting expands across the country in the coming days, plus some deadlines:

Monday

  • Early voting begins in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho and North Dakota.
  • Drop boxes open to accept mail ballots for the general election and Voter Services and Polling Centers open in Colorado.
  • Early voting begins in some Florida counties, including Broward, Miami-Dade, Duval and Palm Beach.

Tuesday

  • Deadline to apply for mail/absentee ballot in Maryland, Nevada and New Mexico.
  • Early voting begins in Hawaii, Louisiana, Utah and Wisconsin.

Wednesday

  • Deadline to apply for mail/absentee ballot in Missouri (request by mail).
  • Early voting begins in West Virginia.

Thursday

  • Deadline to apply for mail/absentee ballot in Indiana.

Friday

  • Deadline to apply for mail/absentee ballot in Arizona, Idaho, Nebraska (ballot by mail), New Jersey, Virginia (ballot by mail), Texas and Utah.

Visit CNN's Voter Guide to learn about registration deadlines and local voter resources.