4 years ago / 12:20 PM EDT

Ernst's Democratic challenger pauses RV tour because of Covid-19 contact

The campaign for Democratic Senate candidate Theresa Greenfield in Iowa announced Wednesday that it was temporarily pausing its RV tour because several staffers came into contact with a person last week who tested positive for Covid-19. 

Communications Director Sam Newton said in a statement that the campaign was pausing events including the ones scheduled for Wednesday. Greenfield is in a tight race against incumbent GOP Sen. Joni Ernst.

"Theresa regularly gets tested for COVID-19 and recently tested negative, but she's getting tested again to be safe. She is eager to get back on her GOTV tour once we get test results and we're absolutely certain it's safe to do so, which is hopefully very soon," he said. 

SHARE THIS —
4 years ago / 12:01 PM EDT

Voting history of Detroit woman, 103, dates back to FDR

Talu Massey, who voted for FDR and JFK, is seen at her home in Detroit on Oct. 27.Paul Sancya / AP

DETROIT — Talu Massey is among the millions of Americans who voted before Nov. 3, resulting in record-breaking early turnout. But it's far from the Detroit resident’s first election. Very far. She voted for FDR, after all.

The 103-year-old is proud of her lengthy voting record, saying it’s every citizen’s “civic duty” to take part in the process.

Massey voted absentee in September, eight decades after she cast her first presidential ballot — for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“I don’t remember whether I made each election, but I have been constantly voting,” said Massey, who was born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1917. She moved to Detroit as an infant and has been a resident of the Motor City for 102 of her years, during which she voted for a host of Democrats, including John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama and now Joe Biden.

Massey recently made an appearance in a music video entitled “I Have a Right to Vote” that seeks to educate citizens about the hard-earned right to vote. The four-minute video features “Hamilton” original cast member Christopher Jackson, actors Billy Porter and Hill Harper and others reciting the words of voting-rights icons such as John Lewis and Frederick Douglass. Massey shows up just after tennis great Billie Jean King repeats the words of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Massey, a retiree who worked for the federal government, is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother. Her secret to long life: “I didn’t miss having fun growing up. I played a lot of sports. Clean living,” she said.

SHARE THIS —
4 years ago / 12:00 PM EDT

Group launches $1 million push to get Democrats to tell their friends to vote

Vote Tripling, a nonprofit that tries to increase voter turnout by having people contact their friends, is launching a $1 million program ahead of Election Day, the group told NBC News.

The goal is to text roughly 4 million Democrats in 24 states with competitive races, targeting those who already cast early ballots and therefore are unlikely to be the subject of outreach from campaigns. The group is a progressive behavioral innovation lab that designs, tests and scales behavioral science-based voter turnout tactics.

Their push for "vote tripling" will ask volunteers to text three friends and remind them to vote, hoping to inspire those who aren’t already engaged in the election. The hope is that the contact tree will grow.

“What is found, study after study, is that the very best way to get someone to vote is for them to be encouraged by one of their friends,” said Robert Reynolds, founder of VoteTripling.org. “This type of friend-to-friend engagement affirms the true, sincere power people have to motivate others to vote. Unlike other forms of mobilization, this doesn’t feel like a chore to voters: they like being asked to do it.”

 The group's trial runs have found that "vote tripling"  boosts turnout and scales faster than other friend-to-friend voter turnout tactics. In the 2018 midterms, Vote Tripling worked with 26 Democratic campaigns to get out the vote, enlisting over 18,000 volunteers.

 

SHARE THIS —
4 years ago / 11:52 AM EDT

Hillary Clinton says she may pack 'a bag lunch' to wait in line and vote

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said she hasn't voted yet, but she's prepared to pack "a bag lunch" and wait on line for hours to cast her ballot for Joe Biden.

Clinton, who was able to bypass the line to vote for herself in 2016, said she's held off on voting so far because of the lengthy waits, but will bite the bullet soon. 

"I was going to vote early. That was my current plan because New York has done it for the first time. But the lines, even with where I live are like two, three, four hours long. So I'm waiting for either a break in the line so I can vote early or I'll just, you know, take up a bag lunch and go stand in line, hold on Election Day, depending upon what I can get done," she told SiriusXM’s Signal Boost in an interview Wednesday. 

Clinton, who was leading in the polls heading into Election Day in 2016, said: "I'll be nervous. I'm always nervous on election days, not matter whether I'm running or not. And obviously this year, I'm incredibly focused on it." 

Adding to her anxiety, she said, is concern it may take some time to determine who won the election. "I am worried that we're not going to have a final conclusion, though, for a couple of days, if not longer," she said. 

Asked if she could could see President Donald Trump being re-elected, she said: "No. I don't think about it. I refuse to."

 

SHARE THIS —
4 years ago / 10:41 AM EDT

In the final 48 hours of his campaign, Trump plans to hold 11 rallies

Trump will attempt to hold 11 rallies in several key states in the final 48 hours before Election Day, according to a campaign official.

Trump is expected to spend the majority of his time in Pennsylvania, Florida and North Carolina — although a final schedule hasn’t been set. According to the campaign official, the strategy is to have him in as many places as possible.

His campaign announced Wednesday that he’ll appear at events on Friday in Michigan and Minnesota and in Wisconsin, where Biden will also be campaigning on that day.

Trump is being vastly outspent by Biden in battleground states. And for most of the summer and early fall, Trump was unable to hold in-person campaign rallies because of the ongoing pandemic, denying him his primary tool to counter being outspent. 

Advisers have told Trump they think he can potentially bump up his vote by half a percentage point to a full point by demonstrating “effort” and “energy” with so many events in the final days. Since the president's return to the campaign trail, he’s done 26 large events.

SHARE THIS —
4 years ago / 10:21 AM EDT

TikTok follows Facebook and Twitter, will limit premature claims of victory

Save those lip-syncs of "We Are the Champions."

TikTok announced Wednesday that it will be working with fact checkers to reduce the "discoverability" of clips that claim victory before Trump or Biden is declared the victor by The Associated Press.

The move follows similar precautions put in place by Facebook and Twitter that are part of efforts to limit the spread of misinformation about the outcome of the election.

"Out of an abundance of caution, if claims can't be verified or fact-checking is inconclusive, we'll limit distribution of the content," Eric Han, head of safety for TikTok U.S., wrote in a blog post. "We'll also add a banner pointing viewers to our election guide on content with unverifiable claims about voting, premature declarations of victory, or attempts to dissuade people from voting by exploiting COVID-19 as a voter suppression tactic."

The president has repeatedly cast doubt on the election and pushed misleading information, including saying that recently that the U.S. must have the "final total" of votes on Nov 3. Votes are always counted well after Nov. 3, with election results certified by by states weeks later.

SHARE THIS —
4 years ago / 9:57 AM EDT

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf joins "TODAY" to discuss President Trump's comments during a campaign stop in Allentown that questioned the voting process in the state. 

SHARE THIS —
4 years ago / 9:32 AM EDT

Young voters in swing states are a big part of the early surge. That could boost Biden

Younger Americans are voting early in droves this cycle, far outpacing their pre-Election Day turnout in several key swing states at this time in 2016.

So far, voters ages 18 to 29 have cast more than 6 million early votes, according to data from NBC News Decision Desk/Target Smart, a Democratic political data firm. Four years ago at the same time, the number was about 2 million.

The increase is visible in states such as Ohio, Texas, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina — swing states that saw substantial early voting last time around.

Continue reading on NBCNews.com. 

SHARE THIS —
4 years ago / 9:32 AM EDT

With just six days until Election Day, President Trump and Joe Biden are hitting key battleground states hard while voters head to the polls early in record numbers. NBC White House correspondent Peter Alexander reports for TODAY.

SHARE THIS —
4 years ago / 9:30 AM EDT

First Read: Biden is vastly outspending Trump in the final week

No, the Trump campaign isn’t broke. But it sure is facing a significant cash crunch in the final days of the 2020 race.

Trump's campaign has $10.1 million booked on television and radio ads between Wednesday and Election Day, compared to Biden's $50 million, according to Advertising Analytics, per NBC’s Ben Kamisar.

The president can still count on a big assist from the Republican National Committee, which is spending another $12.6 million in key swing states like Florida, as well as from outside groups set to spend tens of millions more.

Continue reading on NBCNews.com. 

SHARE THIS —