State News

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump survived a scare in Texas, though Election Day ended without a verdict on whether his tumultuous presidency will continue for another term — or the huge blue wave that Joe Biden's supporters had hoped for. The former vice president held a substantial lead in... Read More

WASHINGTON - Federal officials monitoring voting and threats to the 2020 election said they've seen no major problems, but they continue to urge the public to be both watchful and patient as they head to the polls. All told, the... Read More

The scourge of a global pandemic produced an election season like no other in the U.S., persuading record numbers of Americans to cast their ballots early, forcing states to make changes to long-established election procedures and leading to hundreds of... Read More

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. (AP) — Two tiny New Hampshire communities that vote for president just after the stroke of midnight on Election Day have cast their ballots, with one of them marking 60 years since the tradition began. The results... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court on Sunday rejected, without comment, a bid by three Republican candidates and a GOP activist to toss out almost 127,000 votes cast from drive-thru lanes in the emerging Democratic stronghold of Harris County. The votes, however, are... Read More

It's often hard to see, but much more is at stake Tuesday than the presidency and control of Congress. Voters get to shape public policy by approving or rejecting more than 100 statewide ballot measures and dozens more local proposals —... Read More

A record number of Americans — more than 59 million — have returned absentee ballots for the general election, after states expanded mail voting in an attempt to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Now, election officials just have to... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has rejected a Republican candidate's attempt to delay the vote in a high-profile congressional race in Minnesota following the unexpected death of a third-party candidate. The date of the vote in Minnesota's Second Congressional District... Read More

LANSING, Mich. — The open carry of firearms will be permitted at the polls on Election Day, under an order issued Thursday by the Michigan Court of Appeals. A three-member panel of the court rejected Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's appeal of a ruling that... Read More

WESTLAKE, Ohio — For Democrats in Ohio, the recent years have been bleak. President Donald Trump won the Buckeye State by a healthy 8-percentage-point margin in 2016, and two years later the blue wave in the nation's midterm elections barely made a splash here. Conventional wisdom placed the... Read More

WASHINGTON — A dizzying array of U.S. Supreme Court orders and opinions over the past 10 days has left the rules governing next week's presidential election in flux. In rapid succession, the court has allowed extra time for mail-in ballots to arrive in Pennsylvania and North... Read More

TOPEKA, Kan. --Today, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced that the Kansas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, in collaboration with the Kansas Department for Children and Families, is making visible personal protective equipment available to deaf and hard... Read More

As Americans head to the polls more divided than ever on social and economic issues, there's one thing they're actually coming together on: cannabis. Much has been made of whether a victory for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, or a potential liberal... Read More

LOS ANGELES — Mail-in ballots are pouring in by the millions to election offices across the country, getting stacked and prepared for processing. But before the count comes the signature test. Election workers eyeball voter signatures on ballots one by one,... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down an appeal from North Carolina's Republican leaders, leaving in place rulings that require the counting of late-arriving ballots as long as they were in the mail by Election Day. The 5-3 decision had the effect of upholding... Read More

WASHINGTON — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson was the special guest this week at the Meridian International Center, a non-partisan center for diplomacy and global leadership. While sharing his perspective on the upcoming election and U.S. leadership in 2021, Hutchinson also... Read More

A federal judge has prohibited the rejection of absentee ballots in South Carolina on the basis of a perceived mismatch of the voter's signature and ordered a review of any ballots already set aside due to alleged signature discrepancies. In... Read More

MIAMI — Karem Yepez proudly displayed her Latinos for Trump sign in the windshield as the car inched along a busy stretch of road as part of a caravan. Her driver, Alfredo Zapata, was not happy about her love for President Donald Trump; he called... Read More

Sitting in front of a digital backdrop of the Maryland State House, Gov. Larry Hogan looked into the camera and began talking about what he calls "broken politics in America." For months, the Republican governor has been honing his talking points about dysfunction... Read More

LOS ANGELES — A dispute between bond king Bill Gross and his next-door neighbor over a $1 million outdoor sculpture has devolved into police calls to their Laguna Beach, Calif., mansions, multiple legal actions — and allegations that the billionaire investor blared the "Gilligan's... Read More

RICHMOND, Va, - Virginia’s General Assembly passed a jury sentencing reform bill this week that is revolutionary for the state but is already being done nearly everywhere else. The bill allows juries to decide whether a criminal defendant is guilty... Read More

President Donald Trump was in his element. Standing before more than 1,000 supporters who had jammed a large hanger facility at Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon, Ga., he promised a "red wave" would crush Democrats in November. He had... Read More

WASHINGTON — States that claim changes by the U.S. Postal Service will threaten mail-in voting failed again to get an independent monitor appointed to observe the agency's compliance with a court order. U.S. District Judge Gerald Austin McHugh in Philadelphia on Wednesday denied a request from Pennsylvania's attorney general, Josh... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court put the brakes on a lower court order that would have allowed curbside voting in Alabama in November. The underlying lawsuit was filed by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Southern Poverty Law... Read More

WASHINGTON - The National Cherry Blossom Festival may still be five months away, but organizers on Wednesday announced the festival parade, long a beloved part of the annual event, has been cancelled for 2021. The reason: The ongoing coronavirus pandemic.... Read More

WASHINGTON - The absence of a tiebreaker on the Supreme Court will allow election officials in Pennsylvania to count some mailed ballots received up to three days after Election Day. A 4-4 deadlock among the justices let stand a ruling... Read More

WASHINGTON -- A nationwide coalition of prosecutors is pledging not to enforce anti-abortion laws as protests spread against a Supreme Court nominee who is a staunch abortion opponent. They issued their “Joint Statement from Elected Prosecutors” last week during Supreme... Read More

WASHINGTON - With fewer than 20 days to go until in-person voters head to the polls, nearly all indications are that the battleground state of Wisconsin is going solidly for former Vice President Joe Biden on Election Night. Not only... Read More

WASHINGTON - Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Tom Malinowski are urging the FBI to step up the federal response to the Proud Boys, a white supremacist group they say has increased its activity in New Jersey. According to a recent report... Read More

RICHMOND, Va. - A federal judge on Wednesday extended the deadline for registering to vote in Virginia by 48 hours after the state’s online voter registration system went down because of an accidentally severed cable. The deadline to register to... Read More