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Part 2: Preparing for Election Day and the debate aftermath

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Details you need to know about votingBy Jennifer Learn-Andesjandes@timesleader.com

Luzerne County has picked up nearly 5,000 more registered voters since the June 2 primary, and it’s not too late to sign up for the upcoming general election.

Oct. 19 is the dead-line to register or make changes to an existing registration to vote in the Nov. 3 general.

Both tasks can be com-pleted online by visiting VotesPa.com. In-person registrations are accept-ed at the county election bureau on the second floor of the county’s Penn Place Building at 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave. in Wilkes-Barre.

Residents who will be 18 by Nov. 3 also can register.

The county Election Board suggests those already registered check the status of their regis-tration before Oct. 19, also at VotesPa.com, according to an informa-tion sheet compiled by board members.

Voters are free to select candidates from any political party in the gen-eral election, differing from primaries that limit choices to the voter’s political party.

Party breakdownThe general election is

open to independent and third-party voters who are shut out of primaries unless there’s a special election or referendum on the ballot.

This group is grow-ing. Of the 4,784 voters added to the county

registration since the June primary, 1,086 are in the “other” category for those not signing up as Democrats or Repub-licans. That brings the total count of indepen-dent and third-party vot-ers to 27,185, according to the latest state regis-tration statistics.

Democrats still hold the majority registration in the county, adding 185

since the primary, for a new total 105,137.

An additional 3,513 Republicans registered since June 2, boosting the party’s total voter count to 83,738.

The county’s new voter total to date: 216,060.

Voters have two options to cast their bal-lots on Nov. 3 — appear at the polls or mail-in ballots.

In-person votingThe plan is to return

to all pre-coronavirus pandemic polling places on Nov. 3, although the county election bureau is in the process of iden-tifying replacements for approximately 20 sites that will be unavailable.

In the primary, the number of voting sites was temporarily reduced

from 144 to 58 to alle-viate concerns about proper social distancing and pandemic-related shortages of poll workers and polling places.

Once all sites are final-ized, a list will be posted on the election page at luzernecounty.org. Vot-ers also may call 570-825-1715 or email elec-tions@luzernecounty.org for questions about

polling locations or any other election matters.

Personal protective equipment — masks, gloves and hand sanitizer — will be available at all polling places. Voters also will receive a take-home stylus that can be used on the poll books at sign-in and on the ballot marking devices.

Submitted photoLuzerne County Election Director Shelby Watchilla demonstrates how voters must feed their ballot into a tabulator that records their vote on Nov. 3.

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Voters will be asked to wear masks but won’t be barred from voting if they refuse.

First-time voters should bring proper identification materials. A list of identification options is posted under the election bureau’s “on election day” link at luzernecounty.org.

In-person voters will use the county’s new paper-trail machines pur-chased from Dominion Voting Systems Inc.

On the new touch-screen machines, voters will make selections as they did with the old devices. But instead of touching a screen box to lock in their votes, they will receive a paper print-

out to verify their selec-tions before they feed the paper into a tabulator to be read and saved in compliance with a state paper-trail mandate.

Poll workers are instructed to remind vot-ers of the tabulator step because their vote won’t be cast if they leave the polling place with their ballot.

During the election board’s recent four-day public demonstration of the new system, some residents mistak-enly thought they would receive a receipt with the new system, said board Vice Chairman Peter Ouellette.

“I think there was a misconception that the printed ballot was a receipt. We have to make it clear to people that their ballot is not a receipt and that the bal-

lot needs to be scanned,” Ouellette said.

For the most part, vot-ers at the demonstration found the system easy to use, he said.

“Nobody had any prob-lems feeding the ballot into the scanner. It can be right side up, back side up, bottom first or top first. It will still be scanned and recorded,” Ouellette said.

The paper ballot is not generated until voters make their selections and touch the print button on the screen.

Voters must check the paper ballot for accuracy and should notify a poll worker if there are any mistakes in their choices. If warranted, the poll worker would void or “spoil” the ballot and allow that voter to mark a new one.

The tabulators make

an electronic record of the vote, and the paper ballots then drop into a secure bin below and are retained by the election bureau as part of a state mandate to keep a paper trail.

A video tutorial of the voting machines is posted at https://www.votespa.com/readyto-vote/Pages/Luzerne-County-Voting-System.aspx.

In the upcoming gen-eral election, voters who received mail-in ballots will be permitted to cast regular ballots on the electronic machines at their polling places if they bring in the never-returned, mail-in ballot and entire packet that had been sent by the county so it can be void-ed/spoiled.

Voters must bring the “ENTIRE packet” of

mail-in ballot materials with them to the poll-ing place if they want to vote on the machines, stressed the board’s voter information sheet.

If those materials are not presented, a paper provisional ballot will be required at the polls, which was the only option available in the primary.

Provisional ballots are reviewed last and allow the county to verify a voter did not already cast a ballot by mail, officials said. These ballots are marked by hand.

When completed, voters must insert the provisional ballot in a provided privacy enve-lope and seal it. The privacy envelope is then placed into another outer envelope, the informa-tion sheet said.

This outer envelope

must be signed by the voter, signed by a poll worker and then signed again by the voter when it is returned to the poll worker, the sheet said.

If any of these three required signatures are missing on the outer envelope, the vote will not be counted, the board stressed.

Mail-In votingApproximately 56,000

county voters have applied for mail-in ballots in the Nov. 3 election to date.

In the June 2 primary, the county had pro-cessed more than 53,440 requests for mail-in bal-lots and ended up receiv-ing 40,300 returned ballots.

The option to vote

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Voting

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by mail with no excuse or reason required was available for the fi rst time in the primary due to bipartisan state leg-islation that passed last year.

Oct. 27 is the deadline to apply for a mail-in bal-lot, although the election board “strongly” sug-gests requesting a ballot sooner to meet the Nov. 3, 8 p.m. postmark dead-line for returned ballots, the board’s information sheet says.

Voters can apply online or print a paper applica-tion at VotesPA.com and return it to the county.

Only one application should be submitted by each voter because duplicate applications waste limited resources,

offi cials have said.The county plans to

start mailing the ballots this week to voters who requested them.

Ohio-based Election IQ LLC will handle both printing and mailing of the county-approved bal-lots.

The state is picking up the postage tab for voters to send back their completed ballots.

Hand-delivered ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Mailed ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day and received by the county election bureau by 5 p.m. on Nov. 6.

Ballots also can be dropped off at the elec-tion bureau or the Hazleton or Wilkes-Barre post offi ces, where they will be segregated from other mail and picked up

by designated election offi cials as the election nears.

Voters should mail or personally deliver their own ballots and never rely on an outside party that offers to perform that task on their behalf, Ouellette has said. The state said the only excep-tions are for voters with disabilities who have designated someone in writing to deliver their ballots and voters who are hospitalized.

Along with instruc-tions, mail-in voters receive a ballot, a privacy envelope and outer enve-lope that contains the voter’s name and a label with a bar code that, when scanned, identifi es that voter in the state’s database.

After fi lling out the ballot, voters must place it in the white envelope,

seal it and then put that envelope inside the one with the label/barcode to be returned to the county.

Ballots returned with-out the privacy envelope will not be counted, the information sheet empha-sized.

During processing, secrecy envelopes are shuffl ed as a way to pre-vent the linking of ballots to specifi c individuals.

The outer envelopes are scanned so the sys-tem records which voters have cast mail-in ballots.

Attention to detail is important for mail-in ballots.

Some reminders for mail-in voters:

• Sign the outer mail-ing envelope containing the bar code.

• Fully shade in the ovals — don’t mark choices with an X or slash.

• Be careful not to select more than the specifi ed number of can-didates.

• Don’t write anything on the secrecy envelope.

• Only one ballot should be placed inside a secrecy or mailing enve-lope. The county cannot count multiple ballots in the same envelope, such as those for a couple, because there would be no way to determine which ballot is tied to the voter listed on the enve-lope with the bar code.

• Immediately contact the election bureau if the return mailing envelope has no bar-coded label.

• Selections are not mandatory in every con-test, and voters can write-in candidates and fi ll in the adjacent oval next to the hand-written name.

Another optionOnce the county prints

the mail-in ballots — which will occur with the mailing set to start next week — registered voters will have another option if they are not among the 56,000 voters who already requested mail-in ballots, offi cials say.

Voters can appear in person at the county election offi ce, submit a mail-in voting applica-tion, receive the ballot on the spot if the request is approved and fi ll out and cast the ballot in the same visit. The same secrecy/outer envelope instructions for mail-in voting apply.

This option, which is being dubbed as “early voting,” also was added as part of the bipartisan

Act 77 approved last fall., the state said.

“With this option, there is no need for mail at all, and you can cast your vote at your conve-nience,” the state said.

Information on the identifi cation required for this option is posted at VotesPa.com.

Ballot changeOne thing that will be

missing from the general election ballot: straight-party voting.

The option to instantly choose all candidates from a single party by selecting one box was eliminated in the state legislation last year, which means voters must

From page 3

Voting

File photoLuzerne County voters will select candidates on this new ballot marking device if they vote in person on Nov. 3, although they will receive a take-home stylus as a precaution amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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pick candidates one-by-one. Most states have eliminated straight-party voting.

Half of county voters who cast ballots in the November 2018 general picked the straight-party option. A breakdown of the 54,010 straight-party votes in that elec-tion: Democrat, 25,443; Republican, 28,365; Green Party, 77; and Lib-ertarian, 125.

Straight-party voting tends to be higher in even-numbered general election years when state and federal races are on the ballot because voters are more likely to choose candidates individually for local and regional races, offi cials have said.

In the last presidential election year — 2016 — 38.5% of county voters chose straight-party.

Poll watchersCandidates and politi-

cal parties can appoint registered county voters to serve as watchers.

Watchers who receive the required certifi cates from the county election bureau are permitted to observe inside polling places on Election Day, said county Assistant Solicitor Michael Butera.

According to the poll watcher request form posted in the county election bureau’s “2020 general election” link at luzernecounty.org, each candidate may appoint two watchers in each election district where they appear on the bal-lot. In addition, political parties that have nomi-

nated candidates may appoint three watchers in each district.

The county has 186 election districts, also known as voting pre-cincts.

Inside polling places, watchers are permit-ted to keep a list of voters, challenge the qualifi cations of voters in accordance with state provisions and inspect voting lists under the supervision of the judge of elections, said a state government posting about the rights of poll watchers.

Watchers are not per-mitted to “interfere with, hinder or unlawfully delay a district election board or the county board of elections in the conduct of its duties” or to “harass or intimidate voters or election offi -cials,” the state said.

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Voting

Experts agree: Race comes down to turnoutBy Bill O’Boyleboboyle@timesleader.com

WILKES-BARRE — In one month, all the ques-tions will be answered.

We will know if Presi-dent Donald Trump has won a second term, or if Democratic challenger Joe Biden rode a wave of anti-Trump sentiment to the White House.

To try to fi gure all of this out, we asked the political party leaders and political science pro-fessors and experts what they think will happen on Nov. 3 — and why.

Ed MitchellPolitical consultant

“Most political opera-tives and pollsters see the race favoring Scran-ton native Joe Biden, with a month to go.

“Actually, the num-bers in the race have been pretty stable. The best indicator of what percentage of the vote an incumbent candidate for President will get is to look at his approval

rating. Trump has not moved from between 41 and 43 percent approval all year. Nothing he’s done in boosting his record or attacking Biden has changed that. Few incumbents, if any, get re-elected with a number in that range.

“Looking at early vot-ing and requests for mail-in and absentee ballots all signs point to a record turnout.

“This has been a very volatile political season. I don’t know if any expert or observer could have predicted its course. I think the fi nal month will be even more tumultuous with the Supreme Court hearings and the Trump income tax story, which will grow. There are no signs of racial unrest in the country abating before the election.

“Personally, I think the

voters have decided to fi re Donald Trump. They will, if Biden can con-tinue to convince them that he and his plans are a better choice. He’ll have to focus on keeping Affordable Care Act in the midst of poor Trump management of the pan-demic and the resulting blow-up of the economy.

“Luzerne County won’t matter as much in 2020 as it did in 2016. It will probably be a win for Trump. But it’s infl uence will be outweighed by Biden’s enormous advan-tage over Trump with women in the suburbs, people of color in Philly and Pittsburgh and new growing areas of Demo-

cratic support in central PA in counties like Cum-berland and Lancaster. Biden also should do bet-ter in his native Lacka-wanna county, which Hillary won by only 3,000 votes. Biden just has to improve on Clin-ton’s Luzerne numbers.

“But it will be a close election. Trump could still win the state. Turn-out and Election Day organizing will be deter-minants. Things are not as close in other battle-ground states. Biden’s over the magic number of 50% in many or them. I think he’ll be our next president.”

Brauer Carso Behrens Borick Mitchell Bozinski

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Je� BrauerKeystone College

Political science professor“The key to any elec-

tion — and this will particularly be true in 2020 is turnout, turnout, turnout.

“The data indicates there is a very high all-around interest �in the election, even higher than the usual, 80%-plus. That with more ways to vote, even with the pan-demic, turnout is expect-ed to be high — perhaps a record high.

*Some 4.4 million 2012 Obama voters did not turnout in 2016 — about a third of them were African American. Some were turnout off by a Clinton candidacy and

others took a Clinton vic-tory for granted.

“Motivated by health care, turnout for Demo-crats was high for a mid-term election in 2018 which created a blue wave in many places in the country.

“If Biden/Harris can continue that trend and get a better portion of the Obama coalition, of which Biden was a part, they will win.

“With the mishandling of the pandemic, the subsequent economic downturn, and diffi cult race relations, Democrats seem motivated to turn out in large numbers in 2020. Trump supporters continue to be motivated to turn out although their numbers have never been large enough to counter an Obama-like Democratic turnout.

*In PA, the Phila-delphia suburbs have

gone blue, especially in 2018 and the Pittsburgh suburbs have gone red. Both are a fl ip-fl op of recent decades. There is far more population in the Philadelphia suburbs which bodes well for a Biden victory in PA. Biden has consistently held a lead in the polls in PA.

*In NEPA, �Luzerne County looks poised to go for Trump again. Lackawanna County was barely won by Clinton in 2016. Biden, who spent his boyhood in Lacka-wanna County, looks to have a larger margin of victory there in 2020.”

Brian F. Carso, J.D., Ph.D.Associate Professor of

History and GovernmentDirector, Honors Program,

Misericordia University“As hazy as it is, my

crystal ball indicates that

Donald Trump is going to lose. Joe Biden will be the next president.

“First, statistical: Donald Trump won in 2016 with 46.1% of the national vote, in a race where 4.5% of the votes went to third party can-didates. Compare that to Mitt Romney’s higher 47.2% vote total — and he lost.

“This year, there are no signifi cant third party candidates to siphon votes from the main contenders, so neither candidate will be able to win with Trump’s 46.1%. So the question is: has Trump expanded his reach above that num-ber? Every indication is that he has not. If Trump is locked at 46.1%, he will lose. And there is every indication that his reach has fallen below his 2016 percentage.

“Second, historical: The historical circum-stances of this election are great, varied, and all arrayed against Trump’s re-election. As the incumbent, he has overseen an inadequate national response to the COVID-19 pandemic that is on track to kill a quar-ter million Americans by Election Day.

“The national unem-ployment rate sits at an intolerable 8.4%, and federal relief efforts have been languid.

“We’ve watched months of civil unrest as racial inequities are exposed, only to be exacerbated by Trump’s tough-guy rhetoric.

“As the incumbent president, Trump owns all of this, and history tells us that it’s a recipe for defeat.

“Third, anecdotal: I serve on a school board, and every parent I know

worries every day about sending their child to school. Every district around the country is grappling with reopen-ing, and whether to stay open as people get sick. Meanwhile, Trump has belligerently insisted that all schools fully reopen, as if there is nothing at all to worry about. Make no mistake: nothing will get parents to the polls faster than a candidate who ignores the health and safety of their chil-dren.

“As for jobs: If you haven’t lost your own job this summer, you surely know someone who lost theirs. And if you have a job, it’s probably not the sure thing it was a year ago. The instability of the labor market will combine with anxiety about health and schools to be the primary motiva-tion for voter decisions.

“And fi nally, Trump’s incessant noise has exhausted the Trump brand. The daily assaults on good manners, civil behavior, and our demo-cratic principles have made us all punch-drunk, while the subversion of science and medicine has literally made us sick. Trump’s brand of go-to-hell politics defi es what most Americans recog-nize as the civil founda-tions of our society.

“Make America Great Again” sounds broken and hollow when con-fronted by Ronald Rea-gan’s enduring question: Are you better off today than you were four years ago?

Christopher P. BorickProfessor of Political ScienceDirector, Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion

“Voter turnout will be extremely high. The

level of interest in this race is exceptional and it will translate to turnout that signifi cantly exceeds 2016.

“I think both cam-paigns feel that they are in solid positions for the home stretch. Despite poor overall job approval numbers, terrible ratings on his handling of the pandemic, and highly unfavorable ratings of him as an individual, Trump has stayed fairly close in the polls in Pennsylvania.

“And for Biden, he has held a steady lead in the polls since February, is outperforming Trump in fundraising, and sig-nifi cantly outspending him on the airwaves in the state. I think both campaigns have reason for optimism, but also signifi cant reasons for concern.

“As noted earlier, we are looking at incred-ible levels of turnout, and I expect this race to remain close through Election Day. I think that Trump’s path to repeating his narrow win here in 2016 is harder than Biden’s path to fl ip-ping the state back to the Democrats. Modest demographic changes that benefi t Biden, along with much greater energy among Demo-crats than in 2016 make Biden a slight favorite in Pennsylvania this time around.

“As was the case in 2016 I expect this race to be quite close in Pennsyl-vania. The President has a strong and energized base of voters that will come out for him. How-ever, I’m not sure how much he has grown his coalition over the last four years, and he has

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Turnout

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energized opposition to a degree not commonly seen.

“I think in Luzerne County, the President is poised for another strong performance, but that Biden may have the ability to slightly cut into Trump’s margin of vic-tory there. Trump can’t afford any reduced mar-gins in places like NEPA, given that he will likely face even greater deficits in areas like the popula-tion rich southeast.”

Justin BehrensChair, Luzerne County

Republican Party”There will be a huge

turn out of Republicans, Democrats, and Inde-pendents coming out to show support for Presi-dent Donald Trump.

“President Trump speaks the language of the working class of Luzerne County. The Democratic Party has no longer represented the working class and pushes people out of their party. The Republican Party is a tent that now welcomes all.

“President Trump will win by a larger margin in Luzerne County than he did in 2016. If they voted for Trump in 2016, they will vote again for him. There will be a larger shift in people that are Independent and Demo-crat that will support President Trump due to the fact they feel the party left them.

“Pennsylvania will be red again and go for Donald Trump due to the fact that the suburbs and the rural areas are finally having their voice

spoken and are coming out to vote.

“This election this year is about direction. The Republican Party has an agenda of issues. There is a clear message of hope, moving forward, protecting our country, and giving that working class person the chance to succeed.

“The Democratic Party has shifted far to the left and holding the values of socialism and attacks on an administration. They are so loud that the moderate Democratic person’s voice is softened and they cant be heard.”

Kathy Bozinski Chair, Luzerne County

Democratic Party“We expect very high

voter turnout, both by mail and in person.

“While I’d like there to be a decision, I don’t expect we will have a final election count on Nov. 3, due to the processing of mail-in ballots, which is time consuming.

“The most powerful right we have as Ameri-cans is the ability to determine our nation’s future through voting, and that isn’t accom-plished until every vote is counted. As Ameri-cans who want the best for our country, we will have to be patient.

“From the Democratic perspective, what is dif-ferent is the overwhelm-ing level of engagement by Democrats of all ages here on the ground. Requests for signs, requests to work as a volunteer for the cam-paign, and the number of walk-in donors have all been phenomenal to date.”

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Turnout

AP photoDemocratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden gestures as President Donald Trump walks onto stage for the first presidential debate Tuesday at Case Western University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland.

Professor: Debate was ‘an embarrassment’

By Bill O’Boyleboboyle@timesleader.com

WILKES-BARRE — What 84 million viewers watched Tuesday night was not a debate, said Dr. Jane Elmes-Crahall, Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies at Wilkes University.

“It was an embarrassment,” Elmes-Crahall said Wednesday of the televised clash between Presi-dent Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

“Any potential voter hoping to learn more about their stand on policy issues was shut out by the almost immediate loud name-calling, interrupting and bullying by President Trump. And, just

like in second grade when a bully goes after another kid, Vice Presi-dent Biden resorted to similar tactics, calling Trump a ‘clown’ and ‘liar.’”

The debate set a new record as the most-watched debate in televi-sion history, with 84 million view-ers as counted by Nielsen. That surpassed the previous record of 80.6 million viewers set by the 1980 debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Elmes-Crahall said the debate had little content, especially from Trump. She said he evaded almost all issues, including an alternative health care plan to Obama Care, his taxes, climate control and racism in America.

“It was noteworthy what he didn’t say, such as condemna-tion of right-wing racists groups and an assurance of a peaceful transition after the election,” Elmes-Crahall said. “In the last 40 minutes of the debate, Biden attempted to make some policy arguments on health care, a link between climate control and sus-tainable economic growth, and dealing with systemic racism.”

Elmes-Crahall said Biden attempted to address “suburban” Americans, looking directly into the camera and speaking to “Americans,” rather than responding to whatever Trump was saying.

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believes in the spirit of the 2020 Election

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“The format of the event was a mess, largely because the moderator, Chris Wallace, was unable to control Trump’s inter-rupting,” she said. “Most debate moderators are told when the debate is live on TV they must adhere to the equal time regulations. That clearly didn;t happen.”

Even when important policy and personal qualification questions were asked — that voters needed hear — Elmes-Crahall said Trump loudly interrupted and talked over Biden.

“Wallace needed to cut Trump’s mic, which is often an option to ensure equal time,” she said.

“Last night was the worst attempt at a politi-cal debate I have seen. It is now up to the vot-ers to begin demanding more substance from the candidates for the high-est office in the nation. And it is up to the Com-mission on Presidential Debates to make sure we don’t face another embar-rassment.”

Elmes-Crahall taught at Wilkes University for 31 years. She holds a Ph.D. in Rhetoric/Com-munications from Uni-versity of Pittsburgh and has published research in the areas of political discourse, gender studies and campaign rhetoric.

Prior to retiring in 2017, Dr. Elmes-Crahall was also active with the local and PA League of Women Voters, moderat-ing many debates at the local and state-wide lev-els, including PA Guber-natorial and U.S. Senate debates.

GOP responsesJustin Behrens, chair-

man of the Republican Party of Luzerne County, said Trump has proven himself that he denounced both the KKK and Antifa when he signed an execu-tive order last week.

“And he did mention the word ‘sure’ when Chris Wallace asked him if he would denounce white supremacists,” Behrens said. “He has repeatedly denounced these groups during his tenure. He is not a racist — he lifted up minorities through his economic growth plan.”

Jim Bognet, Republican candidate in the 8th Con-gressional District, said, “I denounce all hate groups and extremists, period.”

Bognet added, “Hatred leads to violence, and violence is not the answer to our challenges. Joe Biden refused to condemn Antifa last night, and I call on (U.S. Rep.) Matt Cart-wright to do something he has been unwilling to do — condemn Antifa and violence from the extrem-ists in his party who are burning down our cities and seeking to destroy our country.”

U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser,

R-Dallas, agreed with Bognet.

“When asked whether he would agree to con-demn white supremacists, the President’s exact response was ‘sure’ fol-lowed by ‘sure, I am will-ing to do that.’ As part of President Trump’s Black Economic Empowerment Platinum Plan, unveiled last week, he stated that he will designate the KKK and Antifa as terrorist organizations,” Meuser

said.Meuser

went on to say, “I unequivo-cally condemn any and all organiza-tions that

engage in racist hate, violence, and disturbing the peace. As well, I do question why Joe Biden has not denounced Antifa, stating that it ‘is an idea, not an organization.’”’

Additionally, Meuser said by not denouncing such rioters and groups known to be violent, many of whom self-identify as Antifa members, both Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris indirectly encour-

age such violence in our streets.

“If all those in elected office, as well as leaders in our community, sports, and the business world, would support police reform, while denouncing the rioters and the looters, we would not have the problems we have today,” Meuser said.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, said, “There is no room in our society for hateful far-left or far-right ideologies — this includes the views held by the Antifa and white nationalists.

“President Trump would do well to clear up any new ambiguity regard-ing his views on this mat-ter.

AP photoFrom left, First Lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden stand on stage following the conclusion of the first presidential debate Tuesday at Case Western University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio.

From page 7

Debate

Bognet Meuser Elmes-Crahall BehrensToomey

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False claims swamp �rst Trump-Biden debateFACT CHECK

By Calvin Woodwardand Hope YenThe Associated Press

A look at how some of the candidates’ state-ments from Tuesday night’s debate in Cleve-land stack up with the facts in the first of three scheduled presidential debates for the Nov. 3 election:

Vaccine distributionTRUMP: “Well, we’re

going to deliver it right away. We have the mili-tary all set up. Logisti-cally, they’re all set up. We have our military that delivers soldiers and they can do 200,000 a day. They’re going to be deliv-ering … it’s all set up.”

THE FACTS: This is not true.

The Pentagon says in a statement that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is responsible for execut-ing the plan to distribute vaccines to the public when the time comes. The Defense Department is helping in the planning but, with perhaps some exceptions in remote areas, is not going to be delivering, as Trump claimed.

Virus death tollTRUMP, addressing

Biden on U.S. deaths from COVID-19: “If you were here, it wouldn’t be 200,000 people, it would be 2 million people. You didn’t want me to ban China, which was heavily infected. … If we would have listened to you, the

country would have been left wide open.”

THE FACTS: The audacious claim that Biden as president would have seen 2 mil-lion deaths rests on a false accusation. Biden never came out against Trump’s decision to restrict travel from China. Biden was slow in staking a position on the matter but when he did, he supported the restric-tions. Biden never coun-seled leaving the country “wide open” in the face of the pandemic.

Trump repeatedly, and falsely, claims to have banned travel from China. He restricted it.

The U.S. restrictions that took effect Feb. 2 continued to allow travel to the U.S. from the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macao. The Associated Press reported that more than 8,000 Chinese and for-eign nationals based in the two locales entered the U.S. in the first three months after the travel restrictions were imposed.

Additionally, more than 27,000 Americans returned from mainland China in the first month after the restrictions took effect. U.S. officials lost track of more than 1,600 of them who were supposed to be moni-tored for virus exposure.

ProtestsTRUMP: “The (Port-

land, Oregon) sheriff just came out today and he said I support President Trump.”

THE FACTS: That is

false. The sheriff of Mult-nomah County, Oregon — where Portland is located — said he does not support Trump.

The sheriff, Mike Reese, tweeted, “As the Multnomah County Sheriff I have never sup-ported Donald Trump and will never support him.”

Portland has been a flashpoint in the debate over racial injustice pro-tests in the U.S. Police and federal agents have repeatedly clashed with demonstrators gathered outside the downtown federal courthouse and police buildings. Some protesters have thrown bricks, rocks and other projectiles at officers. Police and federal agents responded by firing tear gas, rubber bullets and other non-lethal ammu-nition to disperse the crowds.

BIDEN: “There was a peaceful protest in front of the White House. What did he do? He came out of his bunker, had the military do tear gas.”

THE FACTS: It was law enforcement, not the military, that used chemi-cal irritants to forcefully remove peaceful pro-testers from Lafayette Square outside the White House on June 1.

And there is no evi-dence Trump was inside a bunker in the White House as that happened. Secret Service agents had rushed Trump to a White House bunker days earlier as hundreds of protesters gathered

outside the executive mansion, some of them throwing rocks and tug-ging at police barricades.

Health careTRUMP: “Drug prices

will be coming down 80 or 90%.”

THE FACTS: That’s a promise, not a reality, and it’s a big stretch.

Trump has been unable to get legislation to lower drug prices through Con-gress. Major regulatory actions from his admin-istration are still in the works, and are likely to be challenged in court.

There’s no plan on the horizon that would lower drug prices as dramati-

cally as Trump claims.Prescription drug

price inflation has been low and slow during the Trump years, but it hasn’t made a U-turn and sped off in the other direction. Prices have seesawed from year to year.

Looking back at the totality of Trump’s term, from January 2017, when he was inaugurated, to the latest data from August 2020, drug prices went up 3.6%, accord-ing to an analysis by economist Paul Hughes-Cromwick of Altarum, a nonprofit research and consulting organization.

Hughes-Cromwick

looked at figures from the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, which measures prices for a set of prescription medi-cines, including generics and branded drugs.

When comparing prices in 2019 with a year earlier, there indeed was a decline. Prices dropped by 0.2% in 2019, a turnabout not seen since the 1970s. But that’s nowhere near close to 80% or 90%.

From August of last year to this August, prices rose by 1.4%.

Judges TRUMP, criticizing

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Barack Obama and Biden for leaving federal judicial vacancies unfi lled before they left offi ce in January 2017: “When you leave offi ce you don’t leave any judges. You just don’t do that. They left 128 open-ings. And if I were a mem-ber of his party … I’d say if you left us 128 open-ings, you can’t be a good president, you can’t be a good vice president.”

THE FACTS: That’s misleading. Trump does have a stronger record than Obama in picking federal judges, but it isn’t due to complacency from the Obama administra-tion. Instead, unprec-edented lack of action by the Republican-controlled Senate on Obama’s judi-cial nominees in his last two years in offi ce left Trump more vacancies to fi ll.

Of the 71 people whom Obama nominated to the district courts and courts of appeals in 2015 and 2016, only 20 were voted on and confi rmed, said Russell Wheeler, an expert on judicial nominees at the Brook-

ings Institution. Trump entered offi ce in January 2017 with more than 100 vacancies on the federal bench, about double the number Obama had in 2009.

Trump has been aided by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCon-nell, R-Ky., who has pushed through Trump’s nominations of appeals court judges in particular,

as well as two Supreme Court justices. McCon-nell has pledged to have a Senate vote on Trump’s third nominee to the high court, Amy Coney Bar-rett, while Democrats say the seat should be fi lled by the winner of the elec-tion.

Virus responseTRUMP: Dr. Anthony

Fauci “said very strongly, ‘masks are not good.’ Then he changed his mind, he said, ‘masks, good.’”

THE FACTS: He is skirting crucial context. Trump is telling the story in a way that leaves out key lessons learned as the coronavirus pandemic unfolded, raising doubts about the credibility of public health advice.

Early on in the out-break, a number of public health offi cials urged everyday people not to use masks, fearing a run

on already short supplies of personal protective equipment needed by doctors and nurses in hospitals.

But that changed as the highly contagious nature of the coronavirus became clear, as well as the fact that it can be spread by tiny droplets breathed into the air by people who may not display any symptoms.

Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, along with Dr. Robert Redfi eld of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Stephen Hahn of the Food and Drug Adminis-tration and Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House coronavirus task force, all agree on the importance of wearing masks and practicing social distanc-ing. Redfi eld has repeat-edly said it could be as effective as a vaccine if people took that advice to heart.

TRUMP, on coronavi-

rus and his campaign ral-lies: “So far we have had no problem whatsoever. It’s outside, that’s a big difference according to the experts. We have tre-mendous crowds.”

THE FACTS: That’s not correct.

Trump held an indoor rally in Tulsa in late June, drawing both thousands of participants and large protests.

The Tulsa City-County Health Department direc-tor said the rally “likely contributed” to a dramatic surge in new coronavirus cases there. By the fi rst week of July, Tulsa Coun-ty was confi rming more than 200 new daily cases, setting record highs. That’s more than twice the number the week before the rally.

TRUMP, addressing Biden: “You didn’t do very well on the swine fl u. H1N1. You were a disaster.”

THE FACTS: Trump

frequently distorts what happened in the pandemic of 2009, which killed far fewer people in the United States than the coronavirus is killing now. For starters, Biden as vice president wasn’t running the federal response. And that response was faster out of the gate than when COVID-19 came to the U.S.

Then, the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention’s fl u surveillance network sounded the alarm after two children in California became the fi rst people diagnosed with the new fl u strain in this country.

About two weeks later, the Obama administration declared a public health emergency against H1N1, also known as the swine fl u, and the CDC began releasing anti-fl u drugs from the national stock-pile to help hospitals get

AP photoIn this combination image of two photos showing both President Donald Trump, left, and former Vice President Joe Biden during the first presidential debate Tuesda at Case Western University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio.

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ready. In contrast, Trump declared a state of emer-gency in early March, seven weeks after the fi rst U.S. case of COVID-19 was announced, and the country’s health system struggled for months with shortages of critical sup-plies and testing.

More than 200,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. The CDC puts the U.S. death toll from the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic at about 12,500.

EconomyBIDEN: Trump will

be the “fi rst (president) in American history” to lose jobs during his presi-dency.

THE FACTS: No, if Trump loses reelection, he would not be the fi rst president in U.S. history to have lost jobs. That happened under Herbert Hoover, the president who lost the 1932 elec-tion to Franklin Roosevelt as the Great Depression caused massive job losses.

Offi cial jobs records only go back to 1939 and, in that period, no presi-

dent has ended his term with fewer jobs than when he began. Trump appears to be on track to have lost jobs during his fi rst term, which would make him the fi rst to do so since Hoover.

VotingTRUMP, on the pros-

pect of mass fraud in the vote-by-mail process: “It’s a rigged election.”

THE FACTS: He is exaggerating threats. Trump’s claim is part of a months-long effort to sow doubt about the integrity of the election before it’s even arrived and to pre-emptively call into ques-tion the results.

Experts have repeatedly said there are no signs of widespread fraud in mail balloting, as have the fi ve states that relied exclusively on that system for voting even before the coronavirus pandemic. Trump’s own FBI direc-tor, Chris Wray, said at a congressional hearing just last week that the bureau has not historically seen “any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it’s by mail or otherwise.”

Wray did acknowledge

voter fraud at the local level “from time to time,” but even there, Trump appeared to paint an overly dire portrait of the reality and he misstated the facts of one particular case that received sub-stantial attention last week following an unusual Justice Department announcement.

CrimeBIDEN: “The fact of

the matter is violent crime went down 17%, 15%, in our administration.”

THE FACTS: That’s overstating it.

Overall, the number of violent crimes fell roughly 10% from 2008, the year before Biden took offi ce as vice president, to 2016, his last full year in the offi ce, according to data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting pro-gram.

But the number of vio-lent crimes was spiking again during Obama and Biden’s fi nal two years in offi ce, increasing by 8% from 2014 to 2016.

More people were slain

across the U.S. in 2016, for example, than at any other point under the Obama administration.

TRUMP: “If you look at what’s going on in Chica-go, where 53 people were shot and eight died. If you look at New York where it’s going up like nobody’s ever seen anything … the numbers are going up 100, 150, 200%, crime, it’s crazy what’s going on.”

THE FACTS: Not quite. The statistics in Chicago are true, but those numbers are only a small snapshot of crime

in the city and the United States, and his strategy is highlighting how data can be easily molded to suit the moment. As for New York, Trump may have been talking about shootings. They are up in New York by about 93% so far this year, but over-all crime is down about 1.5%. Murders are up 38%, but there were 327 killings compared with 236, still low compared with years past. For example, compared with a decade ago, crime is down 10%.

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Poll: Americans concerned by foreign interferenceBy Eric Tucker and Emily SwansonThe Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Most Americans are concerned at least some-what by the potential for foreign interference in November’s election, and a majority believes that Russia sought in 2016 to infl uence the outcome of that race, accord-ing to a new poll that underscores the anxiety and political divisions heading into the fi nal weeks of the presidential contest.

The poll from the Uni-versity of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

shows that about three-quarters of Americans are at least somewhat concerned about inter-ference, whether in the form of tampering with voting systems and elec-tion results, stealing data from candidates or parties or infl uencing the candidates them-selves or the way voters think about them. Still, no more than half are “extremely” or “very” concerned about each of those possibilities.

The poll was taken as intelligence offi cials warn of ongoing efforts by foreign adversaries to interfere in American politics, including a concerted Russian effort to denigrate Democratic

presidential nominee Joe Biden. FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers last month that Russia was continu-ing to use social media to try to infl uence the election, though he said offi cials had not seen tar-geting of voting system infrastructure. Offi cials also say they don’t have intelligence that foreign countries are targeting the vote-by-mail process.

The extent of concerns about 2020 election inter-ference breaks largely along partisan lines, with 68% of Biden supporters saying they are “extreme-ly” or “very” concerned about foreign countries infl uencing how Ameri-cans perceive the candi-

dates, according to the poll. Among supporters of President Donald Trump, 30% are extremely or very concerned, with 29% saying they are somewhat concerned.

Foreign interference, or infl uence, could theoreti-cally take many shapes. Besides meddling with voting systems — which offi cials say would be hard to do in such a way as to materially affect results — or shaping voters’ perception of the candidates, there are also potential concerns about stealing information from a candidate or party or infl uencing candidates themselves.

Dawn Jackson, 61, who is retired and lives in Gilbert, Arizona, and plans to vote for Trump, said she is not exceed-ingly concerned.

“My opinion is coun-tries have interfered in elections for a long, long time, and I am positive the United States has done their share of trying to interfere in other coun-tries’ elections,” Jackson said. “So what goes

around comes around.”But Nancy Camfi eld, 68,

of Frankfort, Illinois, who supports Biden, said she is among those concerned about foreign infl uence through social media, especially because intel-ligence offi cials have been sounding the alarms.

“When former FBI directors and intelligence agency employees say that they know that’s going on, and Trump denies it, well, I’d rather believe the experts,” Camfi eld said.

Austin Wright, an assistant professor at the University of Chi-cago’s Harris School, said it was striking that Americans are not more concerned by the threat of foreign interference given the range of dan-gers. He suggested that may have to do with domestic concerns cur-rently occupying public attention, and with the fact that some American leaders — including Trump — are themselves working to undermine confi dence in the elec-tion.

“We don’t have to worry about foreign countries doing that anymore. We have plenty of actors who are more than happy to completely undermine our demo-cratic institutions with the short-term goal of four more years of the Trump administration,” Wright said.

The concerns are heightened by Russian interference in 2016, when intelligence opera-tives stole Democratic emails that were then published online in the weeks before the election and when Russians used social media to push out content aimed at sowing discord in America.

A majority of Ameri-cans, or 69%, believe Russia tried to infl uence the results of the 2016 election. About 9 in 10 Biden supporters feel that way, compared with roughly half of Trump backers.

Michael Asmar, 53, a software engineer from Vernon, Connecticut, who supports Trump, said he didn’t doubt that foreign countries were trying to interfere in the election. But he said he thought they were doing so “on their own terms” without any solicitation from Trump.

“With the fully con-nected world we have now with Facebook and all that, I think it’s very easy for anybody to really sway opinions,” Asmar said. “I think that certainly Russia, China — anybody, really — looking to meddle in an election could do that.”

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The August intel-ligence assessment that outlined ongoing Rus-sian interference also noted that China regards Trump as unpredict-able, prefers that he lose to Biden and has been working to shape the U.S. policy environment.

Trump has seized on that fi nding as he and several other senior administration offi cials have tried to make the case that Beijing is the more assertive adversary. Trump has repeatedly maintained that China is working to defeat him, though Microsoft noted in a blog post last month that among those targeted by Chinese state-backed hackers are

people associated with the Biden campaign.

Overall, 46% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s relationship with Russia, compared to 26% who approve. An additional 27% say they neither approve nor dis-approve.

A slim majority of Trump supporters, 55%, approve of how Trump is dealing with Russia, with just 7% disapproving. Among Biden backers, 84% say they disapprove.

Trump has said he has been tougher than anyone on Russia, but Democrats have criti-cized him for what they see as his failure to publicly call out Russian President Vladimir Putin for election interference or to even embrace the intelligence community’s fi ndings that Russia meddled in 2016.

AP photoIn this June 28, 2019, file photo President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin walk to participate in a group photo at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. Most Americans are concerned at least somewhat by the potential for foreign interference in November’s election, and a majority believes that Russian sought in 2016 to influence the outcome of that race.

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Like many days that came before it in 2020, Election Day figures to be unique this year. The global COVID-19 pan-demic has changed many aspects of life as people know it, and it figures to change how they vote this fall as well.

The right to vote and participate in a repre-sentative government should never be taken for granted. Many people across the globe have no such right, so citizens of the United States should be grateful they can vote

and express that grati-tude by doing their part and voting each year on Election Day.

State and local govern-ments may be approach-ing Election Day differ-ently as they try to juggle their responsibilities to make voting accessible to all while simultane-ously keeping voters safe during the pandemic. Voters can do their part by taking the following steps prior to Election Day, which is November 3, 2020.

• Confirm you are

registered to vote. Voter registration deadlines differ by state. According to Vote.org, some states, including Colorado and Connecticut, allow eli-gible voters to register on Election Day and cast their ballots that very same day. But many states, such as Alaska, Hawaii and Louisiana, require voters to be reg-istered 30 days prior to Election Day. A list of state-by-state voter regis-tration requirements can be found at www.vote.org/voter-registration-

deadlines/.• Learn the mail-in

ballot policy in your state. Many voters may not vote via mail-in bal-lots on a typical Election Day, but 2020 is not a typical year. The NAACP Legal Defense and Edu-cational Fund, Inc. notes that all states offer some form of mail-in ballots. Many states are asking voters to vote via mail-in ballots in 2020 in an effort to reduce vot-ers’ risk of getting and spreading the COVID-19 virus. Confirm the

mail-in ballot policy and procedure in your state as early as possible to make sure your vote is counted.

• Return your com-pleted mail-in ballot as soon as possible. Many states are urging voters who plan to vote using mail-in ballots to return their ballots as early as possible. In a mailer sent to all registered voters, the Superintendent of Elections and the Board of Elections in New Jer-sey noted it is critical that voters return their

mail-in ballots early in the upcoming election season. Mail-in ballots can be returned via the United States Postal Ser-vice (all ballots include postage paid return enve-lopes), and voters also may be able to return their ballots in person at their designated polling locations or by placing the ballots in secure bal-lot drop boxes. Confirm your mail-in ballot return options with your local County Clerk of Elec-tions well before Election Day.

Election Day 2020 will be unique. Voters should not hesitate to take all necessary steps in advance of November 3 to ensure their votes are counted this fall.

How to prepare for a unique Election Day