The latest on the 2020 election

Early voting in Arizona is scheduled to end Friday, but elections officials in Phoenix’s Maricopa County said that, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the county Board of Supervisors decided to keep around 90 voting centers open on Saturday, about 20 on Sunday and 150 on Monday.

The decision to allow for emergency voting was made back in September, anticipating it would be needed. 

Maricopa County is the state’s most populous county, with about 2.6 million registered voters.

Each county decides whether to open locations from Saturday through Monday, Arizona’s “emergency voting” period.

Any voter who has an issue preventing them from voting on Election Day may vote at those locations over the weekend. 

Voters who received ballots by mail also may return their ballots at those locations.

Voting by mail? USPS says it needs seven days to safely deliver ballots.

We're five days to the election.

Bottom line: If you've got a mail-in ballot, you probably shouldn't mail it. If you haven't requested a mail-in ballot, it may be too late to count on one arriving in time, even though some states still allow those asks.

Kathy Boockvar, the secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday that even though Pennsylvania can count mail-in ballots received up until Nov. 6 (three days after Election Day), she'd rather people just drop their ballots off.

So what are your options? Voters in most places can also deliver their ballots directly to their election offices to sidestep any potential mail delays. There's usually also the option to vote early or on Election Day.

In states that allow the counting of ballots received after Election Day — including the battleground states of Ohio, Iowa and Nevada — it's still possible to use the postal system and be outside that seven-day recommended time period. But the mail-in window is about closed. There are other options.

You can read more from CNN's voter guide is here, and see a list of which states will accept mail-in ballots after Election Day is here.

Joe Biden’s campaign says they are keeping their “foot on the gas” and “aggressively” courting Latino voters in the final stretch before Election Day as the Democratic nominee visits Florida to make his closing argument to the community Thursday.   

Following the release of a new ad highlighting Biden’s plan to issue an executive order to reunite separated children from their families, the Biden campaign’s Cristobal Alex called the subject a “top priority” for Biden if he were to be elected. 

Across every state, the campaign is launching Latino-specific get out the vote efforts, including bilingual phone banks and text banks and hosting car caravans that end at polling locations.  

Volunteers are launching socially distant rosarios, or prayer circles, in East Las Vegas, and the campaign is holding horse parades in Las Vegas and socially distanced rallies in Pennsylvania and Florida with well-known DJs.  

The campaign’s pollster, Matt Baretto, pushed back on publicly available polling that show Biden underperforming with Latinos compared to Hillary Clinton in 2016, arguing that the campaign’s own polls have consistently shown a strongly consistent lead that is "right on track" with Barack Obama’s numbers in 2012.  

Christian Ulvert, the campaign’s senior advisor in Florida, shared that the campaign has forty events planned between today and Election Day to drive turnout in the state.

It’s hosting community-specific events and harnessing star power to encourage early voting, including hosting an event with actress America Ferrera in central Florida and “parties at the polls” with DJs and food trucks at polling locations in the Tampa area.

In the Miami market, which also includes Broward County, Ulvert says they are hosting 25 events alone.  

In Arizona, the campaign highlighted the recent trip by Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, and shared that it recently hosted a “Low Riders for Biden” event in their efforts to encourage Latino voters to cast their ballot early.  

More than 8.4 million people have cast their vote in Texas, including the first 16 days of early voting, according to data posted on the Texas Secretary of State website Thursday morning.

That represents 49.84% of registered voters. The state could eclipse the 2016 overall vote in the 2020 early vote.

So far, the number of early votes this cycle is 94% of the overall vote in Texas in 2016 — with two days of early voting plus Election Day remaining. In addition to the enthusiasm in the state, the number of registered voters has grown 12% since 2016 or almost 1.9 million people.

If this trend holds, the state is on track to far surpass the 59% of registered voters who cast a ballot in 2016.

On Wednesday, at least 243,350 people voted in person, bringing the total in-person votes to 7,543,086. Cumulative ballots-by-mail so far this cycle were 906,772.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden tested negative for Covid-19 Wednesday night ahead of his trip to Florida today. 

“Vice President Biden underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 last night and COVID-19 was not detected," the campaign said, according to pool.

Biden is holding a drive-in event in Broward County at 1:30 p.m. ET and will then head to Tampa for another drive-in event at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Vice President Pence has tested negative for coronavirus again, according to his office.

He’s been cleared by the medical unit to continue traveling. Pence is scheduled to have rallies in Iowa and Nevada today.

From the economy to the coronavirus pandemic, six voters discussed what they believe are the biggest issues in the 2020 election.

The panel did not use the voters’ last names. The voters have all been on previous “Pulse of the People” voters panels on CNN’s “New Day.” 

Jimmy, who is voting for Trump, said that the biggest issue is the economy. 

“By this time next year, we will be talking about the economy. If Biden gets in, it's going to be a disaster; if Trump stays in, it will probably be as good as it was,” he said to CNN’s Alisyn Camerota.

Stephanie, who is voting for Biden, said she thinks the issues of education and health care largely intertwines with the coronavirus pandemic as well. She said she’s been waiting for four years to see Trump’s health care plan. 

Trump still has not presented a plan to replace Obamacare.

Voter Jimmy said he’s confident that Trump will not leave out people with pre-existing conditions. 

Voter Vanity said there are other “interlocking” issues along with the pandemic. “There are epidemic rates of police brutality against Black Americans, there are epidemic rates of violence against black transgender women,” she said.

Bobby, an undecided voter, said that the country will adapt no matter who the victor is.

Watch:

At least 3,867,846 ballots have been cast in North Carolina as of 5:00 a.m. this morning, according to data provided by the North Carolina State Board of Elections. 

That means almost 53% of all currently registered voters in the state have already voted in the 2020 election. 

Put another way, five days before Election Day, North Carolina voters have cast than more than 80% of the total number of votes cast in the entire 2016 Election. 

In North Carolina, a resident can register to vote and cast a ballot on the same day during the early in-person voting period at a “One Stop Absentee” Early Voting location. The early voting period runs through Saturday in North Carolina. 

Voters can no longer request an absentee by mail ballot in North Carolina.

North Carolina law requires ballots be postmarked before or on Election Day by 5:00 p.m. ET. The US Supreme Court allowed on Wednesday the state’s ballot receipt deadline extension. That means ballots postmarked by Election Day can be counted as long as they arrived by 5:00 p.m. ET. on Nov. 12.

An absentee ballot can be returned in person at an early voting site through Saturday. It can also be returned in person to the voter’s county board of elections office by 5:00 p.m. ET on Election Day. North Carolina does not have ballot drop boxes. 

Here's a breakdown of early vote totals as of 5:00 a.m. ET:

The Biden campaign is flooding the digital airwaves in the final days of the campaign, making an eight-figure investment on Covid-related ads as the pandemic remains a top issue on the ballot, a campaign aide confirms to CNN. 

The ads will run across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The campaign will also run ads on the YouTube masthead nationally.

It's also running takeovers on sites like Hulu, Pandora, Univision and BET that highlight the contrast between President Trump and Joe Biden in their approach to the coronavirus, the aide says.

This is a new buy in addition to the campaign's previously announced $280 million paid media investment for the fall. 

The digital ads will target voters in 16 states: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, Georgia, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia, Texas and Nebraska's second congressional district.

Details of the Covid-related digital ad push were first reported by Axios.  

This last push also includes a new television ad, Under Control, focused on Biden's plan to tackle Covid-19 that will air on digital and nationally on television. 

Additionally, the campaign is releasing two new ads targeting young voters focused on climate change, the aide tells CNN.

One ad, titled "Climate Change," will air on Comedy Central and Adult Swim in the final week, while Melanie, a climate change testimonial featuring a firefighter from Colorado, will air on MSNBC.