KTBB News, Weather, Talk

(WASHINGTON) -- With just 16 days until Election Day, the Democratic governors of the three "Blue Wall" battleground states touted the strength of Vice President Kamala Harris' ground game, and predicted she would prevail in their states but acknowledged how close the presidential race is.

"I think Kamala Harris wins, but make no mistake, it's close," Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz. "We're not afraid of that… It causes us to get out and work, and that's what we're doing."

Shapiro, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers sat down with Raddatz in the Pittsburgh area for an exclusive interview that aired Sunday. The interview came during the governors' bus tour through the critical battlegrounds that some pundits say represent Harris' best path to the presidency.

The three so-called "Blue Wall" swing states are key to a Democratic victory. All three voted for Donald Trump in 2016 -- the first time since 1992 that they backed the Republican candidate. Four years later, President Joe Biden won them back.

If Harris wins Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania -- plus the single electoral vote in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District -- she would hit the 270-electoral vote threshold needed to win the White House, even if she lost the other four battleground states.

The race is statistically tied in all three "Blue Wall" states, according to 538 polling averages.

"Listen, the only people that are not surprised about these polls are us three. We all expect this. We are not upset about it, we're not scared. We're determined to make sure we do everything in our power to win this thing," Whitmer said.

Evers said he believes the race is still "undecided" at this point because many voters simply aren't paying much attention yet.

"I talk to people just about every day that are, are torn about what to… how they're going to vote. And so I think there are people that can be convinced, absolutely," Evers said. "There are people that, frankly, don't follow this on a daily basis."

With 19 electoral votes up for grabs -- the most of the battleground states -- Pennsylvania is the prize both campaigns want to win. The margins have been exceedingly close in recent presidential elections, with Trump taking the state by 0.7 of a percentage point in 2016 and Biden winning by 1.2 points in 2020.

No Democrat has won the presidency without Pennsylvania since 1948. Both campaigns have invested heavily in the Keystone State, pouring in more than $500 million collectively in TV ad spending and reservations through the end of the year, the New York Times reported.

"I think it's a must-win, and we want to win here," Shapiro said. "I think both candidates believe that Pennsylvania is critical. I just think we've got a better candidate. We got a better message."

But Trump's message resonates with about half of the voters in their states, polls show. Asked to explain Trump's appeal, Shapiro acknowledged that people are frustrated with government.

"I think what people are craving are leaders who know how to get stuff done for them," Shapiro said. "Donald Trump talks a good game about that. Now he has a history of failing to deliver over and over and over again. And I think part of our responsibility here is to make sure we're letting folks know that … when he had the keys to the White House before, he failed the American people time and time again."

"He's a charlatan," Whitmer added. "He's convinced people that he is strong when he's actually very weak."

In all three states, Democrats need to see high turnout among the voting blocs that traditionally back their candidates, like Black voters concentrated in the metropolitan areas.

In Wisconsin, the decline in Black voter turnout since 2012 has been steep, dropping from 78% in 2012 to 43% in 2020, according to Census data.

But Evers said his state is in "a much better place this time" and pointed to an improved ground game to reach voters.

"I feel confident that it's going to be much larger than the last time. And it's important to make sure that all people in Wisconsin feel that this election means something to them, and so we've upped the ground game in all our areas around the state, whether it's rural, whether it's in the Milwaukee area," he said.

In neighboring Michigan, Democrats remain concerned that Arab and Muslim American voters will not turn out for Harris due to frustrations with the Biden administration's support for Israel as the war and suffering in Gaza continue a year after Hamas' brutal attack against the U.S. ally.

Michigan is home to nearly 400,000 Arab Americans, according to the Arab American Institute. The Uncommitted Movement decided not to endorse a candidate in the presidential race, and the Abandon Harris campaign put its support behind Green Party candidate Jill Stein's bid.

Pressed on how to convince these voters to support Harris, Whitmer said that dialogue is important. She also argued that Harris is the only candidate committed to finding solutions.

"At the end of the day, do you want a leader who's going to throw gas on the fire to keep you angry so that you tune out?" asked Whitmer. "Or do you want one who's going to try to get in there and solve problems?... That's what Kamala Harris offers."

Given what happened after Trump lost the 2020 election, whether he concedes defeat if he loses to Harris remains an open question. Trump has already started to cast doubt on the integrity of the election, baselessly claiming last week in a podcast interview, "If the election is not rigged, we're going to win. If it is rigged, I guess that's a different story."

All three governors voiced confidence in the citizens of their states to lawfully administer election law and count the votes, while raising concerns about Trump.

"He's already laying the groundwork to undermine the outcome of this election," Whitmer said. "They are trying to pull the wool over the American public's eyes once again, and we're anticipating that they'll continue to try to do that when they lose this election, assuming they lose this election. But I'm going to make sure every vote gets counted."

"I've got great confidence in the good people in Pennsylvania to count the votes accurately and to respect the will of the people. I do not have confidence that Donald Trump won't whine about it, won't put out dangerous rhetoric and mis- and disinformation," Shapiro added. "We're prepared for anything Donald Trump throws at us, and we're going to make sure the will of the people is protected."

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) -- Politicos in Washoe County, Nevada, proudly refer to their home as "the swingiest county in the swingiest state," where voters in the sprawling and sparsely populated swath of desert might very well tilt the scales of a deadlocked presidential election in November.

But Washoe has also carved out a reputation as the epicenter of a troubling nationwide trend: County officials refusing, for one reason or another, to certify election results.

Despite a legal requirement to accept the vote tally and pass the results along to state election officials, county supervisors in at least eight states have bucked this ministerial duty in recent election cycles, according to one watchdog group, prompting concern among democracy experts that it could upend voters' faith in the election process.

"What was a sort of wild and desperate idea in 2020 has caught on with certifying officials in the last couple of elections," said Sean Morales-Doyle, a voting rights expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit think tank. "It won't be a successful tactic to overturn the outcome of our election, or to stop certification. But it will cause chaos and distrust in the meantime."

In Washoe County, two members of the county board of commissioners have emerged as symbols of the broader dispute over vote certification: Alexis Hill, the Democratic chair of the board, and Michael Clark, a Republican commissioner. During board meetings, the two sit less than ten feet from each other on the dais. But when it comes to just about everything else -- including the role of the commission in certifying election results -- they are miles apart.

Hill, 41, lives just blocks from downtown Reno, the county's most populous city, with her husband and 3-year-old daughter. Most days, she commutes to the county offices on her e-bike. Clark, 73, decamps each day to his ranch near Washoe Lake, where he tends to his horses, mules and dogs. On weekends, he rides his Harley.

'A dark afternoon'

In the commissioners' chambers, Hill and Clark regularly tangle over budgets and policy. But no issue fires them up more than election integrity. And in July, Clark and two Republican colleagues made national headlines when they refused to certify the outcome of two local races -- prompting fears of what might come to pass in November.

"It was a dark afternoon," Hill told ABC News' Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran. "Decisions like that, they break institutions ... they make people believe that we don't have a fair and free election."

Clark relented a week later under "extreme duress," he explained at a commission meeting in July. The state's attorney general had threatened him with felony prosecution for failing to execute a duty of his office.

In an interview with ABC News' Terry Moran, Clark said he is not an election denier, but believes county election officials have failed to properly maintain the voter rolls. Clark pointed to thousands of mail-in ballots that were sent out to registered voters but returned to the county as undeliverable, which he characterized as evidence of poor recordkeeping by the registrar of voters.

"I believe that the people that are running the registrar of voters office can't keep accurate records," Clark said in the interview. "When I see sloppy bookkeeping, I don't trust it."

Washoe County Manager Eric Brown has acknowledged that the returned ballots might represent voters who had moved, thereby complicating their ability to vote -- but he said at a recent meeting that the county had upgraded its voter registration system, which he said "has enhanced tracking and certification capabilities."

"Moving forward, keeping track of voter records is going to be -- we'll be able to do that much more accurately," Brown said.

Clark also said his vote to not certify results in July -- which was the third time in his two-year tenure on the commission that he did so -- was precipitated by what election experts have called erroneous legal advice from a county attorney who told commissioners to vote their conscience.

Clark's vote "shocked" the state's elections chief, Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar.

"It is a ministerial duty to certify the election," Aguilar, a Democratic, told ABC News' Terry Moran. "If there are concerns and questions about the election -- about the election process, about the election administration -- [the commission has] the power to schedule an agenda item to have a conversation about how elections work."

'That's just not their job'

All fifty states make election-certification by county officials a mandatory duty of their job to prevent local partisan politicians from meddling in election results. Election disputes, which frequently arise, are typically resolved through audits, recounts, and the courts.

"It may seem odd to people that [the county officials] who are certifying the election aren't necessarily the ones that investigate all the things that happened in the election," Morales-Doyle said. "But that's just not their job."

But in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, when former President Donald Trump sought to challenge the outcome of the vote, some county officials have refused to certify results.

It began in Wayne County, Michigan, where Trump reportedly pressured two county officials to not certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to the Detroit News. In the intervening election seasons, more than two dozen officials in eight states, including key swing states like North Carolina and Pennsylvania, have followed suit, according to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

In Arizona, two Republican supervisors in Cochise County were charged with felonies for delaying certification of the 2022 midterm election until a court ordered them to do so. Both have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to go to trial next year. Both also remain in their seats on the county board.

And in Georgia, a state judge this week issued a directive that county officials cannot block the certification of votes due to allegations of fraud or error, ruling that officials "have a mandatory fixed obligation to certify election results."

'How you undermine democracy'

Back in Nevada, election officials say they are preparing for any possible challenge to the upcoming election results.

"So is this a contagion?" Moran asked Aguilar. "Do you see this happening in other counties this time around?"

"It may, but I think we are prepared, and we have been preparing for the last 18 months to address any issue that comes up. This was one of them," Aguilar said. "I've been working extremely hard with the attorney general to anticipate some of these situations."

"We have pre-drafted legal filings -- kind of like a Mad Libs, right?" Aguilar said. "You know the county, you fill in the county name, you fill in the date, you fill in the facts. And you file that thing as soon as you can before the Nevada Supreme Court."

Experts say the failure of county officials to certify results is unlikely to succeed in delaying or altering the outcome of the presidential election. But that does not mean it should not alarm American voters.

"Every time this has been tried before, courts have put a quick end to it. And they will again this year," Morales-Doyle said. "But what it might do is undermine the public's faith in our process. And that's really damaging in and of itself."

"That's really harmful," he said. "Democracy works because people have faith in the outcome of their elections. If you undermine that enough, that's how you undermine democracy."

In Washoe County, Hill said she would "absolutely" certify the results, regardless of the outcome in the presidential race or in her own reelection race for commissioner.

"I feel like we are ready to go for this general election. And I have no concerns," she said. "I do believe that there are really good people who are trying to hold the house together."

Clark, for his part, offered a more reserved commitment.

"Are you going to certify an election in November?" Moran asked him.

"Well, I guess I'm going to have to," Clark said. "I don't want to have an argument with the attorney general. The attorney general and the state of Nevada have much deeper pockets than I have."

ABC News' Hannah Prince contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) -- Some ex-pats living abroad, including active-duty service members and their family members, are sounding the alarm after Republicans in three swing states have tried to delay accepting and counting overseas absentee ballots.

And there is already fear among Americans at home and abroad that no matter what the result, the damage has already been done, according to Sarah Streyder, the executive director of Secure Families Initiative, a nonpartisan non-profit that advocates for military families' rights.

"We are already hearing military voters from all states who feel discouraged from participating, if they have concern that their ballot won't even be counted," Streyder, who is stationed in England with her husband a Space Force member, told reporters in a video news conference with other advocates Friday.

Election officials and other political science experts say the suits filed in Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina in the last couple of weeks have no merit. The Republican plaintiffs, however, claim state election offices created loopholes that could allow ineligible people to vote through overseas absentee ballots.

GOP casts doubt on absentee ballots, election officials push back

On Sept. 30, five Pennsylvania GOP House members running for re-election -- Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Meuser, Glenn Thompson, Lloyd Smucker and Mike Kelly -- filed a suit against Al Schmidt, the secretary of the Commonwealth and Deputy Secretary for Elections Johnathan Ivlarks accusing them of providing guidance to local election offices to not allow ID requirements for their foreign absentee voters.

"The Commonwealth's practice is an illegally structured election process which makes Pennsylvania's elections vulnerable to ineligible votes by individuals or entities who could purport to be…eligible, register to vote without verification of identity or eligibility but receive a ballot by email and then vote a ballot without providing identification at any step of the process," the plaintiffs in the Pennsylvania suit alleged.

Reschenthaler is the only member of the five plaintiffs with military experience as he previously served as a United States Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps attorney from 2009 to 2012, according to his bio. He was deployed to Iraq during his tenure with JAG.

The Pennsylvania Secretary of State's office said in a statement that the lawsuit is "nothing more than an attempt to confuse and frighten people ahead of an important election," and the state law ensures that all overseas ballots that are sent out are eligible.

"Ballots cast by ineligible voters occur at extremely low rates and are routinely investigated and prosecuted by the appropriate authorities when they occur. Individuals registering to vote must affirm that the information they submit is accurate, with any false statement subjecting them to a potential felony conviction, prison sentence and substantial fine," the office said in a statement.

Pennsylvania election officials could not immediately provide ABC News data on how many absentee ballots have currently been sent overseas and how many of those ballots have been returned.

The Republican National Committee filed a pair of lawsuits in North Carolina and Michigan last week arguing their state rules are violating federal law and allowing ex-pats to vote despite never residing in their state.

In both suits, the RNC officials allege that the states' election officials have not created a secure system to verify that an overseas voter is an American and have specifically called out provisions in their election laws that permit spouses or dependents of military or overseas voters to vote in elections based on the residency of the military or overseas voter.

"As a result, certain people who have never resided in Michigan (or perhaps anywhere else in this country) are registering to vote and voting in Michigan elections," the plaintiffs in the Michigan case claim in their filing.

Similar language was used in the North Carolina lawsuit.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed amicus briefs this week seeking to dismiss her state's case, contending that the plaintiffs have no standing in their claims.

"Challenging a decades-old statute in this frivolous manner is both irresponsible and abusive. Their actions are a clear attempt to sow doubt about the integrity of the election and suppress the legitimate votes of American citizens," she said in a statement.

Nessel noted that absentee ballots have already been sent out to Michigan voters living overseas, and the RNC failed to file a timely notice of intent to sue under the Michigan Court of Claims Act.

Patrick Gannon, a spokesman for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, echoed that sentiment and maintained the state law allowing military family members to vote in the state is valid.

"North Carolina lawmakers adopted this law more than 13 years ago, as a way to implement a federal law that required states to make voting more accessible for military families and other citizens living abroad. It has been part of our state’s law for every election since then," he said in a statement.

As of Friday afternoon, over 22,000 Michigan military and overseas voters have requested ballots for the general election, according to data from the Michigan Secretary of State's office. Of that number, almost 8,000 voters have already completed and submitted their ballots to be counted, the data showed.

As of Friday afternoon, 8,451 North Carolina absentee ballots have been requested by military members and 20,571 ballots have been requested by civilians living overseas, according to data from the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

Of those requests, 8,331 ballots were sent to the military members and 2,434 of those have been returned and accepted, the board said. There have been 20,449 absentee ballots sent to other ex-pats, and 10,481 of those ballots have been returned and accepted, according to the data.

Veterans, ex-pats furious over the move

Ray Kimball, a veteran who serves as an Arizona volunteer for the nonpartisan advocacy group Veterans for All Voters, told reporters on Friday he was furious about allegations made by officials who questioned the validity of absentee ballots back in 2020.

Kimball, a former Pennsylvania voter who said he mostly voted by mail when he was deployed overseas, said he was appalled that "partisan actors are doubling down," despite the lack of evidence to their claims.

"I took that as a personal insult to what I and tens of thousands of Americans including service members and civilians abroad have been doing for years prior to this narrative," he said.

One of the biggest concerns from legal experts and overseas voters is the request in all three lawsuits to segregate the foreign absentee ballots and stop counting them until the person can be verified.

Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, the president and CEO, of U.S. Vote Foundation, a nonprofit group that provides ex-pats with resources to help cast their vote, told reporters that this move was done to "just reduce the number of ballots counted overall."

"It is a complete disenfranchisement of U.S. citizens," Dzieduszycka-Suinat, who lives in Munich, said. "We are U.S. citizens. We do have a secure voting process."

Philadelphia City Commissioner Lisa Deeley told reporters that she has concerns that if the request is granted, it would put extra unnecessary work on the already overtaxed election workers.

"All that time, energy and effort doing that, that further chips away at people's confidence in the election," she said.

Lawsuits are just the beginning: Expert

Michael Traugott, research professor emeritus in the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan, told ABC News that the three suits are part of a strategy by Republican leaders aimed at sowing doubt in the election results in the months to come.

He predicted the three suits will be dismissed, especially in Michigan where he said the secretary of state's office has been efficient for determining voter eligibility.

"They do this in a very careful and systematic way and it's worked," he said.

Traugott said that election offices will be prepared for these attacks but they may not be able to control the public relations damage that the suits cause.

Kimball, however, said he believed that the majority of voters want more access to their right to cast a ballot.

"Bottom line this should not be a partisan issue. We should get behind the idea of Americans voting wherever they are all over the world," he said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.