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
Talking about his plans for mass deportation of migrants, and expediting deportation of gang members, Trump says that he will invoke the of Alien Enemies Act of 1798, and said that it’s “incredible” that “we had to go back so far” to find the law he needed.
“That’s when we ran a tough country,” he says, of the year 1798.
It is past 10 pm in Milwaukee and Donald Trump is still talking. He is riffing freely, criticizing journalist David Muir’s hair, and revisiting what he saw as the unfairness of his debate against Kamala Harris, which Muir moderated.
Then he spoke about his lawsuit against CBS News and 60 Minutes, saying it “should be forced to close.”
Trump sounds a bit tired, and he is delivering his attack lines in a gentler tone that he did earlier in the day in Michigan.
“You were a very difficult state,” Trump says of Wisconsin, talking about how hard the state was for him to win in 2016, and then falsely claiming that he actually won the state again in 2020. (He did not.)
The AP has a fact check of Trump’s comments just now on the economy, and what his comments leave out: two major hurricanes as well as big strikes.
Donald Trump is saying that the US jobs report today, which showed that employers added 12,000 jobs in October, showed that the Biden-Harris administration is failing on the economy. Last month’s hiring gain was down significantly from the 223,000 jobs that were added in September.
“This is like a depression,” Trump said of the numbers as he heaped insults on Harris.
Economists estimate that Hurricanes Helene and Milton, combined with strikes at Boeing and elsewhere, pushed down net job growth by tens of thousands of jobs in October.
Kamala Harris appears to be wrapping up her speech, urging her supporters to remind everyone they know to vote, and to reach out to people through text and conversation.
“Let’s please be intentional about building community,” she adds. “There’s something intentional about this whole Trump era. It’s been powered by this idea that Americans should be pointing fingers at each other, and to make people feel alone and to make people feel small, when we all know we have so much more in common than what separates us.”
“I love Gen Z. I really do,” Kamala Harris laughs, talking about “all the younger leaders I see who are voting for the very first time.”
“Here’s what I love about you guys. You are rightly impatient for change. I love that about you. You are determined to live free from gun violence. You are going to take on the climate crisis. You are going to shape the world you inherit. I know that. I know that.”
“And here’s the thing about our young leaders. None of this is theoretical for them. None of this is political for them. It’s their lived experience. It’s your lived experience, and I see your power, I see your power, and I am so proud of you.”
“I see her today … she’s exhausted. She looks like … she’s exhausted,” Trump says of Kamala Harris, at his Milwaukee rally.
Harris is simultaneously speaking very energetically to her cheering crowd a few miles away.
Both Trump and Harris are performing with a surprising deal of energy tonight after a long day of travel and multiple swing state events.
Here’s a link to watch Trump speak live at his Milwaukee rally tonight:
The crowd at Trump’s rally has been frustrated with the sound levels in the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, even chanting earlier, “Fix the mic!” the Associated Press reports.
Trump eventually got the message and ripped the microphone from the podium to hold it closer to his mouth. “I think this mic stinks,” Trump said.
Trump has been jumping from topic to topic, mentioning that this is his third campaign rally today, then referencing his rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden nearly a week ago, and then hurling insults at his Democratic rival.
In two different venues across Milwaukee and its suburbs, both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris’ Wisconsin crowds have been waiting hours to hear the candidates speak, and both crowds sound fired up and enthusiastic.
“When I win … you are four days away from the best jobs, the biggest paychecks, and the brightest economic future the world has ever seen,” Trump tells his Milwaukee crowd, to big cheers.
He said that if Harris wins, the country will sink into a “1929-style depression.”
