State News

The Georgia man who pleaded guilty to making multiple death threats to Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA-14) was reportedly sentenced on Friday to supervised released and five months of confinement, which will be credited against his time spent in custody while his case was determined, meaning no additional prison sentence was imposed. Sean Patrick Cirillo was sentenced to three years of supervised release and five months, credited against the time he already spent in federal custody, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in its Friday reporting of the sentencing. Law360 confirmed no additional prison sentence was imposed beyond the five months Cirillo already spent in custody.

A federal court upheld four female high school track athletes’ challenge to a Connecticut policy allowing male participation in female sports. U.S. District Court Judge Robert N. Chatigny, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, ruled in favor of allowing the athletes’ case against the Connecticut Association of Schools to proceed, rejecting the request of state officials to dismiss it.

Georgia was one of the first states to be called for President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday, and the Georgia Secretary of State reported Wednesday that Peach State voters cast a record 5,287,085 million ballots recorded at press time, breaking a the last turnout record set during the 2020 election. In total, Georgia saw more than 4.1 million voters cast their ballot before Election Day, though just over 3.75 million Georgians chose to cast their early votes in person, compared to under 350,000 who voted with an absentee ballot.

While Democrats picked up seats in the Ohio House and Senate, Republicans keep their veto-proof super majority in both the House and Senate following Tuesday’s election.

Former President Donald Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris in the final poll of Pennsylvania voters published by Emerson College Polling prior to Election Day, while the pollsters found the race between Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) is now tied. Published on Monday, the poll found Trump narrowly leading Harris with the support of 49.3 percent of Pennsylvania voters, with the vice president trailing with the support of 48.4 percent of the commonwealth's voters.

Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D’Agostino on Monday updated voters on an investigation into 2,500 suspicious voter registration forms that were flagged to the county's elections board last month, confirming that 17% of the forms so far are fraudulent. A total of four Pennsylvania counties are investigating possible fraudulent voter and mail-in ballot applications in the final spin into Election Day. Those counties are Cambria County, Lancaster County, Monroe County, and York County. York and Lancaster both uncovered thousands of potentially fraudulent applications, while Cambria and Monroe saw less than 50 each. 

For Ohio, Monday is the calm before the Election Day storm. Early in-person voting ended Sunday, leaving Tuesday as the final day to cast a ballot. Polls open across the state at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.

Minnesota state leaders are facing a new lawsuit from the Heritage Foundation, which alleges the state has not disclosed crucial details on an estimated 1,000 voters who were removed from the voter rolls.

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that Cobb County may not accept absentee ballots after Election Day. Last Thursday, the Cobb County Board of Elections said that it had not sent out more than 3,000 absentee ballots in a timely manner and would mail them via express shipping or overnight delivery the next day, according to Democracy Docket. Three voters sued, arguing that there was not enough time to ensure the ballots would be received in time to be counted. 

A Pennsylvania judge on Monday ruled that Elon Musk's $1 million giveaway can continue through Election Day, after attorneys for Musk's political action committee said the results of the giveaway were not "random" like Musk had advertised. Musk launched the daily giveaway last month, which was organized to give $1 million to one voter from a swing state every day, if they signed a petition in support of the First and Second Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. 

The Republican National Committee has filed a lawsuit against the Milwaukee Elections Commission over the city announcing that it will limit the number of poll watchers at certain polling locations on Election Day. Milwaukee limited poll watchers at three early voting polling locations, according to the lawsuit.

Arizona has seen a decline in early voting compared to recent years, with only 51.7% of registered voters voting early - about 300,000 less voters than in the 2020 general election, according to data compiled by Uplift from Arizona county recorder offices. Most notable is the drop in registered Democrats voting early. In 2020, 36.5% of early voters were Democrats.

According to Florida data, 5.35 million voters cast ballots early after early voting ended on Saturday, up 38.14% from 2016.  Data from the Florida secretary of state's office shows 2.83 million votes have been cast via mail, up 3.74% from the 2016 election when former President Donald Trump won his first term in office.

Ruben Gallego has been able to outraise Kari Lake by about three to one, but some are questioning the sources. In addition to large amounts of money from out-of-state donors, a significant amount of his contributions come from “Smurfing,” donations from elderly unemployed Democrats who are unaware their names are being used to donate to Democratic candidates. According to Arizona Capitol Media, Lake has raised over $19 million throughout the race, while Gallego has raised almost $54 million. Gallego currently has $7.2 million on hand, while Lake has $4.5 million in the bank.

Former President Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that he can win more than the seven expected swing states, offering Virginia, New Mexico, and New Jersey as states that may offer possible victories on Election Day despite his campaign's relative lack of resources spent there. Trump on Sunday predicted the possible victories after to NBC News reporter Dasha Burns raised an outlier poll of Iowa voters that found Vice President Kamala Harris winning the state.