Mid-Term Elections: Advance Voting Is Growing In Several Key States – Live Updates | American News

The Anti-Defamation League has sent House Speaker Paul Ryan a letter asking Steve King, the controversial Republican of Iowa, to be removed from office in committee and formally censored. , our reports Tom McCarthy and Ben Jacobs.

The ADL cited a "disturbing series of implications and statements … anti-Semitic and shocking not only for the Jewish community, but for all Americans."

The letter was the latest in a series of extraordinary setbacks for King, an eight-member congressman who was regularly re-elected in Iowa's fourth congressional district by a double-digit margin.

The national Republican party withdrew its support to King on Tuesday, with a tweet from Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio, chairman of the National Republican Congress Committee, charged with defending the majority of the Republican Parliament.

"Recent comments, actions and retweets by Congressman Steve King are totally inappropriate," said Stivers. tweeted. "We must stand up against white supremacy and hatred in all its forms, and I strongly condemn this behavior."

Things have changed dramatically from just a few days ago, when Tom wrote this story and explained that King's controversial comments did not dampen his support.

Democrats blame Georgia's candidate for governorship, Brian Kemp – who is also a Republican candidate for governorship and state secretary in charge of overseeing the elections – with contempt for electoral security, reported the Washington Post.

The issue is the state's electronic voting machines, which do not have a paper back-up.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) Called the machines a "disaster".

"Secretary of State Kemp has shown total disregard for election security," Wyden told the post office. "He seems to see a personal benefit in ignoring urgent warnings from experts and intelligence agencies about the threats to the Georgian electoral system."

Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly made a compliment out of hand to non-white members of his staff during a debate this week, reported the Washington Post.

Donnelly is a conservative democrat fighting for reelection.

"Our head of state is American Indian, but he does an extraordinary job. Our Director of Women's Services, she is African-American, but she's doing an even more incredible job than you can imagine, "he said.

A Twitter commentator has unfavorably compared the insane wording to the unfortunate Michael Scott.

A new poll on Wednesday revealed that challenger Mike Braun was slightly ahead of Donnelly, 49% to 46%.

Former Republican Senator of Virginia, John Warner, sponsored a Democrat in a House run in the state, the Fauquier Times reported.

Warner approved Leslie Cockburn, a former investigative journalist stationed in the state's 5th district. She is facing Denver Riggleman, who got Donald Trump's approval this week.

"I'm still Republican. I'll tell this gang, I'm still Republican, "Warner told the Fauquier Times. "You can not take it off. But you must have the courage to do what is right for the country and what is good for your state. "

A political courier in a Senate race from a state of Connecticut is drawing accusations of anti-Semitism.

The postcard, sent by Republican candidate to the Senate Ed Charamut, arrived in the mailboxes on Monday, the Hartford Courant reported – two days after the killing by an anti-Jewish gunman of 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue.

The mail contains a picture of the democrat in the race, Matt Lesser, who is Jewish, holding a handful of one hundred dollar bills with an eager smile.

"The juxtaposition of a Jewish candidate for a job and money in this way suggests a secular anti-Semitic trope," said Steve Ginsburg, regional director of ADL Connecticut, at Courant.

Donald Trump, who this week inserted the issue of birthright citizenship in the elections – stating that he would issue an executive order stating that babies born in the United States will no longer be automatically citizens – posted a tweet to defend this idea.

Most experts say that Trump could not legally terminate citizenship, since the 14th amendment to the Constitution states that all people born in the United States are citizens. Trump insists that this interpretation is false and predicts that the Supreme Court will agree with him.

In the New York Times, we describe in a little more detail to what extent the citizenship proposal for birthright is the last thing Trump did at the halfway point to "see what's left".

House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi has become much more confident about the chances of Democrats at the mid-term – perhaps too much, if you ask Stephen Colbert, the host of The Late Show.

"Let me say this: until now, I would have said that if the elections were held today, we would win," Pelosi told Colbert during the broadcast. of Tuesday. "What I say now is that we will win, we will win, we will win."

Colbert replied, "If you like it, do not say that. Please do not say that. Are you saying that on the barge of Hillary fireworks that she canceled? Please, do not say that. He asked here: "And how long are the curtains you are measuring now? "

But Pelosi did not back down, saying the Democrats "do not measure, we only walk in neighborhoods".

"If everyone votes, we will have an even bigger victory. But the Democrats will carry the House. If we have a bigger victory, the Senate, the governors. It will be a great evening for America. "

Colbert remained suspicious. "I think I should sacrifice a goat or something like that to remove the hex from what you just said," he said.

Guardian journalist Sam Levin travels to Boise, Idaho, where Democratic presidential candidate Paulette Jordan seeks to become the first Amerindian governor of the country.

It is an outsider, certainly, but who runs hard:

The Democratic candidate for governorship of Idaho is a night owl and stayed in his office after an hour of work for his last session preparing for the marathon debate. Wearing jogging pants, a jogging jacket and drinking yerba mate tea for energy, she repeated until she could not do it anymore.

Winner or loser, her campaign also upset the politics of the Western Conservative state and drew public attention to communities deprived of their rights and progressive political ideas that are generally not fashionable:

Jordan grew up on a farm in northern Idaho, in the countryside, hundreds of kilometers from Boise, the state capital. His grandparents were chiefs and his ancestors were important tribal leaders who fought the settlers who forced the indigenous peoples to live on reserves …

Jordan then became the youngest person elected to the Coeur d'Alene Tribal Council. As a single mother of two, the crises in her community also pushed her to organize.

Idaho is consistently one of the lowest ranked countries – if not the worst in the country – in terms of health care, suicide rates, wages, women's status and school. Rural cities lack basic funds and teachers, and school weeks are common. The small Jordanian town of Plummer is one of the worst.

Failures became clear when her son's primary school was about to lose accreditation.

"All they did was pay the bare minimum to keep the lights on," said Jordan, recalling a letter sent by the district to families to encourage them to find other schools. , admitting that their offers were insufficient. "We just did not follow modern society."

Here is a video showing four candidates likely to pioneer mid-term:

Josh Wood, of The Guardian, reports from Boston, where a state-wide referendum will ask voters to decide whether or not to eliminate a 2016 law protecting transgender people from discrimination in public spaces such as restaurants and the stores.

The 6 November vote will be the first nationwide referendum in the country that threatens to revoke the rights of previously guaranteed transgender people. If the law is repealed successfully, transgender rights activists fear that it will trigger similar campaigns elsewhere in the country.

"Question 3 has important implications for transgender people in Massachusetts, but it would also have significant implications for transgender people across the country," said Sarah McBride, National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, the largest group of people in Canada. advocacy for LGBT rights in the country.

"If the opponents of equality can win here, they will adopt these strategies, they will adopt this tactic and they will try to reproduce them elsewhere," she added.

Voting Question 3 asks voters if they wish to retain or repeal a 2016 law prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in public spaces and allowing them to use compliant bathrooms to their gender identity.

The group behind the voting issue is Keep MA Safe. They argue that with the law in force, women and children are in danger, men can enter the cloakrooms and women's washrooms as they please by simply declaring that they identify themselves in their homes. as women. The group logo represents a man standing on a toilet to observe a woman in the next booth. And their campaign ads depict a man lying in a bathroom before spying on an unsuspecting woman. While she unbuttons her blouse, the stall door begins to open and a deep grunt is heard.

The voting measure is a bit of a twist in a solidly liberal state, and polls show support at 70% to keep the anti-discrimination law in place. But it is to be feared that voters will be confused by the wording of a question, which requires a "yes" vote to respect the law and a "no" vote for repeal.

Steve Bannon has once again attracted a particularly small number of participants because he is doing his best to rally Republicans.

Former Councilor Donald Trump organized a rally this week in North Topeka, Kansas, where about 25 people showed up at a Holiday Inn Express located on the US-24 highway, reported Topeka Capital- Newspaper. The total includes event organizers and documentary filmmakers following Bannon.

Bannon confided that he had flown to attend Republican Steve Watkins in a home race against Democrat Paul Davis, after a New York Times poll showed Davis a lead of four points.

The turnout was lower than that of a rally organized by Bannon in Elma, New York last week, where about 200 people showed up. None of the Republican candidates Bannon had come to support either.

Bryan Mealer of the Guardian describes the Vote Common Good tour, in which a group of "Freaks of Jesus" disrupts the usual Gospel script and advocates for progressive candidates:

At each stage, local congressional candidates – mostly Democrats – are invited to give a short speech on the stump. According to rumors, Beto O'Rourke will appear in San Antonio.

The tour, funded by nearly $ 1 million in private donations, kicked off in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on October 2 and will end in Los Angeles just before the mid-term elections.

Chief Doug Pagitt, Pastor of Minneapolis, launched the idea after the election of Donald Trump, who enjoys broad support among evangelicals:

After the 2016 election, he and other clergy were shocked by the overwhelming support that Trump had received from white evangelicals – more than 80 percent, according to polls – and felt that they could not sit idly by. "We felt we had to do something, but what?" He said.

Pagitt, who identifies as evangelical and who is well known in progressive Christian circles, started making phone calls and quickly came up with a plan: a real storm that would sweep the country in the same way than the old tents. "What we do is invite people to the good news by literally introducing ourselves, meeting them at home and making them personal. It's really the heart of Christian history.

But in such polarized times, does he think the Conservatives who hear this message – even morally at odds – will vote for a Democrat? "I do not know," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "But if you stay comfortable, things will stay the way they are.

Oprah travels to Georgia to replace Stacey Abrams, Democratic presidential candidate.

She will join Abrams, who, if elected, would be the first black governor in the country, on the track Thursday, announced Buzzfeed.

Winfrey will be appearing with Abrams one day before former President Barack Obama's trip to the state to campaign with her. Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence will campaign with his Republican opponent, Secretary of State Brian Kemp.

The race is one of the closest to the country. Candidates are at a statistical stalemate in a Wednesday poll and have been marked by persistent allegations of voter suppression.

Early voter turnout is increasing in several key states, suggesting that more Americans could vote in mid-term this year.

Cases of high turnout have been reported in Georgia, Florida, Texas, Maryland and elsewhere.

A week before election day, eleven states have already registered more advance votes than throughout the year 2014, and many see a number equal to that of the 2016 presidential election.

Read more about me here.

Hello and welcome to the blog of the 2018 edition of the Guardian US.

Next week, Americans will go to the polls to determine who will control the House, the Senate and the governors of the country.

In the run-up to the elections, we will be releasing live updates from our field journalists, news from other sources and an election analysis. Stay tuned.