Here’s what’s happening Monday in Election 2020, eight days until Election Day:
ON THE TRAIL: President Donald Trump plans to intensify an already breakneck travel schedule in the final full week of the presidential campaign, overlooking a surge of coronavirus cases in the U.S. and a fresh outbreak in his own White House. Democrat Joe Biden also plans to pick up his travel schedule, aiming to hit the half-dozen battleground states the campaign sees as key to his chances.
HOW TO VOTE: AP’s state-by-state interactive has details on how to vote in this election.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES:
EARLY VOTE: More people already have cast ballots in this year’s presidential election than voted early or absentee in the 2016 race as the start of in-person early voting in big states has caused a surge in turnout in recent days. The opening of early voting locations in Florida, Texas and elsewhere has piled millions of new votes on top of the mail ballots arriving at election offices as voters try to avoid crowded places on Nov. 3 during the coronavirus pandemic.
WHITE HOUSE OUTBREAK: The coronavirus has reached the upper echelons of the White House again, with an outbreak among aides to Vice President Mike Pence just over a week from Election Day. Officials scoffed at the notion of Pence dialing back in-person campaigning despite positive tests among several people in his office.
BALLOT BOX FIRE: Massachusetts election officials say a fire was set in a Boston ballot drop box holding more than 120 ballots in what appears to have been a “deliberate attack.” The fire that was set around 4 a.m. Sunday in a ballot drop box outside the Boston Public Library downtown, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin’s office said.
QUOTABLE:
“We stand in line to buy tickets to concerts, we stand in line to buy tickets to sporting events, we stand in line to go to the movies. Standing in line to vote is not a problem.” —-Brian Warner, one of hundreds of masked people who stood in long lines at the six polling places in Albany County, New York, on Saturday.
ICYMI:
New Yorkers line up for hours in 2nd day of early voting
Illinois woman, 99, has voted every election since 1944
Eyes turn to Texas as early voting surge surpasses 2016
Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers lashed out Friday at rival Republicans who tried to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be a ridiculous move comparable to abolishing speed limits.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As some conservatives in South Carolina celebrated getting a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state past a legislative barrier and likely becoming law, they said they are not finished trying to end all abortions.
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe.