Politico: “Almost every Black Georgia voter queuing up at the polls has a story about 2018. Most waited for hours in lines that wrapped around their voting locations. Some were removed from the voter rolls arbitrarily, forcing them to fill out confusing provisional ballots on Election Day. Others stayed home altogether and — after watching Democrat Stacey Abrams lose the gubernatorial race by fewer than 60,000 votes — regretted that decision.”

“Now, voter enthusiasm among all races is at an all-time high in one of the most consequential battleground states in the country. So is voter anxiety. In the shadows of billboards along I-85 and I-20 encouraging Atlantans to ‘VOTE EARLY,’ barriers to that act loom large. There were reminders of this again during June’s egregious primary election: In populous, rapidly diversifying metro Atlanta counties like Fulton and Cobb, wait times extended up to six hours after polling locations were consolidated during the pandemic. The state’s new electronic voting machines also frequently malfunctioned, further slowing the ballot casting process. Voters interviewed by POLITICO said anger over perceived voter suppression tactics is fueling their eagerness to cast early ballots. And indeed, Georgians are voting in numbers never seen before in the state’s history. Since Oct. 12, the first day of early voting, a staggering 2.7 million voters have cast a ballot — a nearly 110 percent increase from 2016. Beyond that, Democrats are organizing caravans, volunteering as election workers and serving as poll watchers. This level of enthusiasm is also a reflection of apprehension about the election: Voters here are turning out in waves.”

Michigan: Biden 52 – Trump 42
Pennsylvania: Biden 52 – Trump 44
Wisconsin: Biden 53 – Trump 44
Read more here.

Amanda Carpenter: “On Saturday, President Donald J. Trump emerged from his West Palm Beach voting center, boasting he voted a ‘straight Republican ticket.’ A ‘straight Republican ticket’ in his congressional district—the Florida 21st—is one that includes House candidate Laura Loomer, a QAnon supporter who gained notoriety for being so bigoted that she became, according to herself, the ‘most banned woman on the planet.’ From there, Trump jetted off on Air Force One to dance to the Village People’s ‘YMCA’ at yet another rally amid the pandemic that has struck dead 225,000 Americans. Four years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine such a vignette—because before Trump became president, most people had no idea what a ‘coronavirus’ was and QAnon didn’t yet exist. Now, though, these hateful mental and physical plagues are inescapable.”

“They are dominant facts of our personal lives and our national politics. This is America on Trump. We have become a country where an entire party will go along thinking that anything that reflects poorly on Trump can be connected to a shadowy enemy or evil cabal—the ‘deep state,’ the regime behind the ‘China virus,’ the Obama administration, or the Biden campaign. Connecting the dots is so easy that any redpill addict can do it. One of the main benefits of Trumpism is that it doesn’t require much intellectual work.”

“An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll of likely voters released Monday showed Biden at 47% and Trump at 46%, within the survey’s margin of error of 4 percentage points. Libertarian Jo Jorgensen registered about 3% in the poll, while an additional 4% were undecided. U.S. Sen. David Perdue is essentially tied with Democrat Jon Ossoff, with the Republican incumbent at 45% and his challenger at 46%. About 4% back Libertarian Shane Hazel, and 5% are undecided. The close margins raise the possibility the race could head into a January runoff.”

“Another round of voting is almost certain in the special election for U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s seat, where the 21-candidate race makes it extremely difficult for anyone to win the majority-vote necessary to avoid the runoff. Democrat Raphael Warnock, the pastor of Atlanta’s famed Ebenezer Baptist Church, has opened a large lead compared with the last AJC survey, which was conducted in September. He’s climbed to 34% — up from 22% a month ago — while the other Democrats on the ballot have dropped to single digits. The poll pegged Collins at 21% and Loeffler at 20%, mirroring other recent surveys that showed a tight race between the two. About 3% of voters back Libertarian Brian Slowinski, and 14% are undecided” – Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Joe Biden called me George yesterday. Couldn’t remember my name. Got some help from the anchor to get him through the interview. The Fake News Cartel is working overtime to cover it up!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2020

“Residents in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Haines City, Fla., knew something was off on Saturday when they saw a young White man driving a bulldozer on the street. As he made his way down the block, the man began running over every lawn sign in sight supporting Joe Biden. ‘This man came onto my property, took the two Joe Biden signs I had in my yard and then came back with a bulldozer to run down my fence’ Adam Burgess, a local homeowner, told Bay News 9.”

“The man, later identified by police as 26-year-old James Blight, was charged with grand theft auto and trespassing, according to the outlet. The incident in Florida is the latest example of increased tensions days before the election, as yard signs and other public proclamations of support for either presidential candidate have become a point of contention — and occasionally inciting violence. Police allege that Blight went to a nearby construction site, stole a bulldozer and headed to Burgess’s yard, where the man ran down the fence and seized the Biden signs. It is unclear if Blight removed the signs before or after retrieving the machine” – Washington Post.

The U.S. economic recovery’s strength continues to surprise, thanks to low interest rates and government stimulus programs https://t.co/ZPh3afuPku

— Bloomberg (@business) October 26, 2020

Politico: “Democrats are coming after Ron Johnson in 2022. With the presidential election not yet even in the books, Democratic opposition is already lining up to run for the Republican’s Senate seat two years from now in Wisconsin.Democrat Tom Nelson, Outagamie county executive and a former state Assembly majority leader, has officially launched his bid for the 2022 Senate race, Nelson announced to POLITICO. He has already filed his papers, making him the first prominent challenger nationally to declare a 2022 run in what’s sure to quickly become a high-profile Senate contest. Johnson, a two-term senator who hasn’t said whether he’ll run again, has been an adamant defender of President Donald Trump — and Democrats think that record will not play well in the perennial battleground in 2022.”

New York Times: “The president of Fox News and several of the network’s top anchors have been advised to quarantine after being exposed to someone on a private flight who later tested positive for the coronavirus, two people with direct knowledge of the situation said on Sunday. The infected person was on a charter flight to New York from Nashville with a group of network executives, personalities and other staff members who attended the presidential debate on Thursday, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal network matters. Everyone on board the plane has been told to get tested and quarantine.”

“It was unclear whether more than one person had tested positive. Those who were exposed include Jay Wallace, the president of Fox News Media; Bret Baier, the chief political anchor; Martha MacCallum, the anchor of Fox’s 7 p.m. show, ‘The Story’; and Dana Perino and Juan Williams, two hosts of ‘The Five.’ A network representative would not confirm any details of the exposure, citing the need to keep private health information confidential.”

If you're looking for a horse race narrative right now, you're not going to find it here. There was a time when it was easy to imagine this race going much differently. Eight days out, it's much, much harder. I've seen…almost enough.

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) October 26, 2020

Politico: “President Donald Trump ‘wouldn’t know a suburb unless he took a wrong turn,’ Democratic nominee Joe Biden said during a television interview, slamming the president’s view of the suburbs as outdated and ‘not who we are.’ Biden made the comments during an interview on ’60 Minutes’ which aired on Sunday. Trump also sat for an interview with the news show, but left abruptly before his portion was finished; as a preemptive strike, the White House released Trump’s interview with Lesley Stahl days before it aired on CBS.”

“‘He wouldn’t know a suburb unless he took a wrong turn. Go out in the suburbs now. It’s not 1950,’ Biden told Norah O’Donnell. ‘There’s a lot of reasons people are upset. A lot of good reasons. All he wants to do is take that sort of subliminal fear out there and say, ‘It’s because — because of that guy, or because of that woman.’ That’s not who we are as a country.’ In the final days of the presidential race, many of the suburban white women who supported Trump in key battleground states in 2016 say they prefer Biden this year, according to recent polls.”

Only YOU can keep a zombie out of the White House! pic.twitter.com/9zC3so9Z3O

— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) October 26, 2020

NBC News: “President Donald Trump is spending precious time in the final days of the campaign in places with just a single Electoral College vote at stake — a sign of how close an election his campaign is expecting. With nine days to go, Trump traveled Sunday to Maine, and he planned to go to Nebraska on Tuesday. Unlike most states, which tend to use a winner-takes-all system, Maine and Nebraska divide their Electoral College votes, giving two to the winner of the statewide vote and one to the winner of each congressional district. While most of the attention this year has been on traditional battleground states like Florida and Pennsylvania, both campaigns have included Maine and Nebraska, places typically off the beaten path, in their last-minute pushes, with Trump’s team citing scenarios under which the election could come down to one or two electoral votes.”

“This article is a statement of probable cause. It is the belief of this author that individuals associated with the organization known as ‘The Federalist Society’ have committed fraud against the United States of America by engaging in a form of judicial racketeering that has allowed wealthy individuals and dark money groups to gain improper influence over our nation’s judicial system. This activity has allowed the delivery of preferred verdicts for wealthy individuals and corporate entities, and deprived the American people of their right to a free and impartial judiciary. This article will focus on the charges to be filed against individual judges who have participated in this scheme for the purpose of delivering preferred rulings to Federalist Society donors” – Contentious Otter.

New York Times: “Trump and his allies expected the Journal story to appear Monday, Oct. 19, according to Mr. Bannon. That would be late in the campaign, but not too late — and could shape that week’s news cycle heading into the crucial final debate last Thursday. An ‘important piece’ in The Journal would be coming soon, Mr. Trump told aides on a conference call that day. ‘The editors didn’t like Trump’s insinuation that we were being teed up to do this hit job,’ a Journal reporter who wasn’t directly involved in the story told me. But the reporters continued to work on the draft as the Thursday debate approached, indifferent to the White House’s frantic timeline.”

“When Trump stepped on stage, the president acted as though the details of the emails and the allegations were common knowledge. ‘You’re the big man, I think. I don’t know, maybe you’re not,’ he told Mr. Biden at some point, a reference to an ambiguous sentence from the documents. As the debate ended, The Wall Street Journal published a brief item, just the stub of Mr. Areddy and Mr. Duehren’s reporting. The core of it was that Mr. Bobulinski had failed to prove the central claim. ‘Corporate records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show no role for Joe Biden,’ The Journal reported. And if you’d been watching the debate, but hadn’t been obsessively watching Fox News or reading Breitbart, you would have had no idea what Mr. Trump was talking about. The story the Trump team hoped would upend the campaign was fading fast.”

Black activist Alicia Garza, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, was targeted by a white nationalist terrorist for assassination, theGrio reports.

Garza was advised of the plot by an unnamed man from Idaho when FBI agents knocked on the door of her home in the Los Angeles, California area to inform her that they detained the suspect.

This is why this President is so dangerous. He is stoking fires he has no intention of controlling. I’m ok y’all, but this shit is not ok. Vote this muthafucka out. For real.

— Alicia Garza (@aliciagarza) October 23, 2020

A Reuters/Ipsos survey found that more than 40% of the supporters of the two major Party candidates will not accept the outcome of the election if their respective candidate losses.

Incumbent republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly characterized the election as rigged and fraudulent given the widespread use of mail-in ballots during the pandemic.  He has stated that he would leave office if the results of the election say he lost.

Forty-three percent of Biden voters and 41% of Trump voters said they wouldn’t believe the outcome of the election.  22% of Biden backers and 16% of Trump backers said they would participate in protests, perhaps even violence, if their chosen candidate doesn’t win

“Four years after his shock victory, U.S. President Donald Trump seems to be running on empty. Opinion polls predict a win for former Vice President Joe Biden. In some Democratic circles, the word ‘landslide’ is being jubilantly whispered. It seems that Trump is finally being judged on his performance, especially his calamitous response to the coronavirus pandemic. His Republican colleagues have begun to recoil from him. The president himself, already complaining about rigged elections, seems to be expecting defeat.”

“And it is too late for him to learn from two of his fellow elected autocrats and demagogues — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who continue to win elections despite presiding over multiple political and economic disasters. Unlike Trump, however, Modi and Erdogan have diversified their means of self-perpetuation. For one, they have been far more successful than the U.S. president in forging new realities for their audiences through conspiracy theories and fake news, which has helped them avoid crushing judgment on their performances. They not only mastered digital technology and social media, they’ve managed to control the legacy media through a regime of intimidation that has silenced and marginalized critics. Though successful in packing the Supreme Court, and assured of stalwart support from Fox News, Trump could not begin to imitate Modi and Erdogan’s long march through national institutions, from the education system and television channels to the military” – Pankaj Mishra.