usa elections – Artifex.News

Early voting begins in U.S. midterm elections that could flip control of Congress

admin — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 05:48:00 +0000

The start of early voting comes at a time of deep angst among many Americans about issues including rising gas and grocery prices, the war in Iran, the looming risks of artificial intelligence technology and Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

In-person voting for this year’s midterm elections begins on Friday (September 18, 2026), ushering in the final six weeks for Americans to decide who they trust to lead Congress through a cost-of-living crisis, a prolonged war in Iran, and other pressing issues.

Election administrators say they’re prepared and confident the vote will be accurate and secure. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump has continued with efforts to denigrate certain voting methods and reshape how U.S. elections are run, through court challenges, an expansive federal hunt for non-citizen voters and a pressure campaign to force election officials to share sensitive voter data.

Friday (September 18, 2026) marks the start of early voting in Virginia. Voters in a handful of other states, including Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota, are able to cast absentee ballots in person, typically at a local election office or voting centre. More expansive early voting is scheduled to begin in those and other states in the coming weeks.

The November 3 election includes votes for governor and state legislature in most states and will determine whether the U.S. House and Senate maintain their Republican majorities.

If Democrats retake Congress, it will alter the trajectory of the final two years of Mr. Trump’s term, likely leading to investigations and other oversight efforts.

The start of early voting comes at a time of deep angst among many Americans about issues including rising gas and grocery prices, the war in Iran, the looming risks of artificial intelligence technology, and Mr. Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign.

It also follows an unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the U.S. House that began when Mr. Trump urged the Republican-controlled legislature in Texas to redraw its congressional map to help the party. California and other states followed.

The changes affect millions of people: Research shows 1 in 10 Americans this fall are residents of a different congressional district than in 2024.

Those partisan efforts are expected to continue ahead of the 2028 elections after a landmark ruling earlier this year from the Supreme Court weakened the federal Voting Rights Act’s protections against racially discriminatory redistricting.

As the start of early voting approached, Mr. Trump was focused on efforts to assert federal control over election administration, even as the Constitution bestows the power to run elections on the states and, in some cases, Congress.

The Supreme Court rejected Mr. Trump’s bid to restrict mail ballots this week, but several of his administration’s other efforts to influence the voting process and mine state voter lists for illegitimate voters are ongoing.

Mr. Trump for years has raised the spectre of widespread non-citizen voting in U.S. elections, and this year is no exception. But despite his administration’s insistence that hundreds of thousands of people are illegally on voting rolls across the country, research continues to show noncitizen voting is exceptionally rare.

David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the president continues “his disinformation campaign and his attack on election officials”. But he said he thinks despite that and other challenges, “ultimately the process will hold as it has in past years”. Voting rights advocates have encouraged voters this year to cast mail ballots early, in part because of concerns about recent changes in U.S. Postal Service operations that could delay the application of postmarks to ballots.

“Voting early, whether in person or by mail, is good for all of our communities because it gives voters options, eases lines on Election Day and can even mean faster results,” said Hannah Fried, co-founder and CEO of the voting rights group All Voting Is Local.

In a press briefing on Thursday (September 17, 2026), Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon urged people not to be swayed by stories they might have seen or read that cast doubt on election operations. They would be able to vote “just like they always have”, he said.

“I just want to reaffirm that Minnesota’s elections are fundamentally free, fair, accurate, honest and secure,” he said.

Published – September 18, 2026 11:18 am IST

Source link

Kamala Harris calls herself an underdog, touts her campaign as ‘people powered’

admin — Sun, 28 Jul 2024 09:04:04 +0000

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris
| Photo Credit: AP

Kamala Harris, the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic party, has called herself the underdog in the race to the White House but expressed confidence that she would win in November due to her people-powered campaign.

In her first fundraiser since becoming her party’s candidate for president, Ms. Harris told supporters that this year’s election was a choice between two visions for the country — one looking toward the future and one that wants to undo the country’s progress.

“We are the underdogs in this race. Level set, ok. We are the underdogs in this race, but this is a people-powered campaign,” Vice President Harris said, addressing a group of 800 fundraisers in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

“This is a people-powered campaign and we have momentum,” Ms. Harris, 59 said.

During the fundraiser on July 27, she raised USD 1.4 million as against the original goal of USD 400,000.

Amidst loud applause from the audience, she said that her campaign has “earned the support of enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination.”

“What kind of country do we want to live in? Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law or do we want to live in a country of chaos, fear and hate?” she asked as she continued to attack her Republican rival Donald Trump, 78. She hoped that former president Trump would agree to do a debate with her.

“You may have seen he just pulled out of our debate. I hope he reconsiders because we have a lot to talk about,” Harris, who has Indian roots, said.

In her speech, she described her background as a prosecutor.

“In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said.

She alleged that Trump was spreading lies against her.

“You may have noticed, Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record. And some of what he and his running mate are saying, well, it’s just plain weird. I mean that’s the box you put that in,” she said.

Source link

Jolt to Biden’s re-election campaign as donors hold back $90 million pledged earlier

admin — Sat, 13 Jul 2024 02:04:06 +0000

President Joe Biden gestures during his remarks at Renaissance High School in Detroit campaign event, on July 12, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

In a major jolt to the re-election campaign of President Joe Biden days after his debate debacle, a group of his fundraisers have decided to put on hold some $90 million in contributions pledged earlier if he remains on top of the Democratic presidential ticket.

“The cash freeze deals a blow to Biden’s campaign,” The New York Times reported about the development on Friday and said, the Democratic donors have told this to Future Forward, the largest pro-Biden Super PAC.

Also read | Zero chance Biden will withdraw from U.S. Presidential race: White House

“The frozen contributions include multiple eight-figure commitments, according to two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation,” the daily reported.

“The decision to withhold such enormous sums of money is one of the most concrete examples of the fallout from Mr. Biden’s poor debate performance at the end of June,” it said.

Following his disastrous debate performance against his Republican rival Donald Trump in Atlanta on June 27, Mr. Biden, 81, has been gradually losing his support from some of his key friends and allies. So far, as many as 18 Democratic lawmakers have asked him to drop from the November 5 presidential race.

The cash freeze is seen as another move by the party leadership to force him to leave the race. Biden has so far said that he is running and is confident of defeating Trump in the November presidential elections.

Future Forward is one of the largest Super PACs to support Biden. It has already announced $250 million in television and digital advertising reservations after the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.

Source link