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Minneapolis reports highest number of early votes in 45 years for the first election since Floyd’s murder

Minneapolis reports highest number of early votes in 45 years for the first election since Floyd’s murder
16 min ago

Minneapolis reports highest number of early votes in 45 years for the first election since Floyd’s murder

From CNN’s Omar Jimenez

People wait in line during the first day of early voting in Minneapolis.
People wait in line during the first day of early voting in Minneapolis. (David Joles/Star Tribune/AP)

More people voted early in this year’s Minneapolis election than any other municipal election over the past 45 years. It is the first electoral test for the city since the murder of George Floyd. For example, compared to the last municipal election here in 2017, early voting is up 143%.

It’s up 488% compared to the same election in 2013. The Minneapolis city clerk told CNN today election turnout is driven by competitive races and contentious ballot questions and this election has both.

By the first five hours of Election Day, about 30% of the entire registered voting population in Minneapolis had cast their vote either early, by mail or in person.

These are numbers that have no doubt increased significantly with less than three hours to go in Election Day, and as part of an election that’s shaping up to be one of the most enthusiastic in a long time for the city.

25 min ago

McAuliffe campaign optimistically eyeing high turnout in Fairfax and Prince William

From CNN’s Dan Merica

Terry McAuliffe’s campaign is optimistically watching high turnout in northern Virginia, specifically Fairfax County and Prince William County, a source close to the campaign tells CNN.

Turnout in both vote rich, Democratic strongholds is already more than 100% of their 2017 levels. 

They are also monitoring a situation in Albemarle, the county surrounding Charlottesville, where there was such high turnout that some precincts ran out of ballots. It’s a good sign for McAuliffe, the source said, but could delay counting.

Democrats believe that a high turnout election will benefit the McAuliffe campaign. But this source offers a word of caution: “It’s high everywhere, so…”

26 min ago

About 20% of registered Virginia voters cast their ballots early

From CNN’s Sara Murray

Voters wait in line to cast ballots at an early voting center in Alexandria, Virginia, on Sunday.
Voters wait in line to cast ballots at an early voting center in Alexandria, Virginia, on Sunday. (Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images)

Candidates from both parties urged voters to take advantage of the commonwealth’s early voting opportunities this year — and it appears the voters listened.

Nearly 1.2 million voters — about 20% of registered voters in the commonwealth — cast their ballots early this year. That’s six times size of the early vote in 2017. Officials are hoping that new measures put in place will make for smoother counting this time.

For the past week, election officials across the state have been scanning in early votes – checking envelopes for any issues, removing ballots from those envelopes – to get them ready for counting.

The Virginia elections commissioner says most localities plan to start tabulating the results of their early votes as soon at the polls close at 7 p.m. ET, which officials hope will help expedite tonight’s returns. 

35 min ago

These are the most important issues for Virginia voters, according to CNN’s exit poll

From CNN’s Ariel Edwards-Levy

About one-third of Virginia voters call the economy the most important issue facing the state, placing it ahead of other topics that have dominated headlines in the closing days of the gubernatorial race.

Just under one-quarter said education is most important, about 16% chose taxes, about 13% chose the coronavirus pandemic and just about one-tenth chose abortion. 

Terry McAuliffe voters call the economy their top issue, followed by the coronavirus and education. Among Glenn Youngkin voters, the economy is the top issue, followed by education and taxes. Most voters take a positive view of Virginia’s economy, with about 55% rating it either excellent or good.

Although the pandemic isn’t at the top of voters’ concerns, nearly all are vaccinated and a smaller majority are supportive of workplace vaccine mandates. The vast majority of Virginia voters, close to 9 in 10, say they’ve gotten at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and just over half say they favor employers requiring their employees to get vaccinated.

Virginia voters in this year’s elections hold negatives of both President Biden and former president Donald Trump. 

Biden, who won comfortably in Virginia last year, now faces approval ratings significantly underwater in the state, with roughly 43% approving and the rest disapproving – likely a consequence both of his declining ratings since taking office, and the composition of the electorate that turned out to vote this year. Only about one-fifth of voters say they view their vote as a way to express support for Biden, with nearly 3 in 10 saying it’s a way to express opposition, and the remaining half of the electorate saying Biden wasn’t a factor. Trump isn’t any more popular in the state: only about 4 in 10 view him favorably. 

A narrow majority of voters say the Democratic Party is too liberal overall, while fewer call the Republican Party too conservative. About two-thirds of Democratic voters say their own party’s ideology is about right, while about two-thirds of Republicans say the same of the GOP. Independents are less satisfied with either party, with only about one-fifth saying the Democratic Party is generally about right, and only about one-third saying that of the GOP. 

More than 80% of voters say they’re at least somewhat confident that votes in the state will be counted accurately, but slightly below half call themselves very confident. Democrats are roughly four times as likely as Republicans to say they’re very confident about election accuracy. 

Note: The Virginia CNN Exit Poll is a combination of in-person interviews with Election Day voters and telephone and online polls measuring the views of absentee by-mail and early voters. It was conducted by Edison Research on behalf of the National Election Pool. In-person interviews on Election Day were conducted at a random sample of 35 Virginia polling locations among 1,211 Election Day voters. The results also include 2,068 interviews with early and absentee voters conducted by phone, online or by text. Results for the full sample have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points; it is larger for subgroups.  

45 min ago

With an hour to go, McAuliffe’s campaign is still knocking on doors

From CNN’s Jeff Zeleny

With one hour before polls close in the Commonwealth, Terry McAuliffe’s campaign is still knocking on doors and texting voters – particularly in the Northern Virginia, Richmond and Charlottesville areas – trying to maximize what they already believe has been higher-than-expected Election Day turnout. 

A campaign aide says the doors of 160,000 voters have already been knocked on today, focusing on Virginians who helped elect Joe Biden last year, but have yet to cast ballots this year. Tonight, that remains an urgent challenge for McAuliffe: Trying to get those remaining Biden voters to the polls for McAuliffe.

“The higher the turnout, the better for us,” an adviser to McAuliffe tells CNN, suggesting they believe turnout will set a record in a Virginia governor’s race.

49 min ago

Murphy is trying to become the first Democratic New Jersey governor to win reelection in more than 40 years

From CNN’s Gregory Krieg

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy speaks during a rally in New Brunswick on Thursday.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy speaks during a rally in New Brunswick on Thursday. (Yana Paskova/Getty Images)

Virginia isn’t the only governor’s race tonight. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday is trying to become the first Democratic governor in more than four decades to win reelection in the Garden State, which has trended reliably blue in federal and local contests but has a history — like Virginia — of voting in the party out of the White House in its off-year gubernatorial races.

Murphy’s lead over Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli in a number of late polls appears to be at or near double digits, giving Democrats confidence about the outcome and shifting some focus to the eventual margin — and what it could portend for next year’s midterm elections.

In 2020, President Biden defeated Donald Trump by nearly 16 points in the state. Polling in the gubernatorial race suggests the results could be closer, but likely not as close as in Virginia, the country’s only other gubernatorial race on Tuesday.

Like Virginia’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, Glenn Youngkin, Ciattarelli — a businessman and former state lawmaker — has kept Trump at arm’s length, instead hammering Murphy over taxes and what he argues are the effects of the Democrat’s pandemic response on businesses. The race could also be a bellwether over the public’s attitudes toward mask and vaccine mandates, which Murphy has championed in a state that has suffered about 28,000 Covid-19 deaths.

The final Monmouth University survey of the race showed Murphy with leads ranging from 8 to 14 points, depending on different models of who comes out to vote. Those figures represent a modest narrowing of the race, in which taxes — an issue that Ciattarelli leads on — were listed as the top issue. But Murphy’s advantage on the question of who voters trust more to handle the pandemic is significantly higher, 45% to 26%, a gap that has stayed mostly consistent since the summer. The Democrat also enjoys a sizable lead on a question that has roiled the Virginia race — education and schools — leading Ciattarelli by 15 points.

Read more about the New Jersey governor’s race here.

1 hr 13 min ago

CNN’s Virginia exit poll shows how much the electorate has changed compared to recent elections

From CNN’s Ariel Edwards-Levy

Virginia’s electorate in the governor’s race between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin doesn’t look the same as it has in recent elections, according to the preliminary results of CNN’s Virginia exit poll. 

Roughly 73% of the electorate is white, compared with about two-thirds in the 2017 governor’s election and the 2020 presidential election, when President Biden won the state by 10 percentage points.

The electorate is also older than it was a year ago — only about 9% are under the age of 30, compared to 20% in 2020.

The 2021 electorate is slightly more female than it is male, about 53% to 47%.

Note: The Virginia CNN Exit Poll is a combination of in-person interviews with Election Day voters and telephone and online polls measuring the views of absentee by-mail and early voters. It was conducted by Edison Research on behalf of the National Election Pool. In-person interviews on Election Day were conducted at a random sample of 35 Virginia polling locations among 1,211 Election Day voters. The results also include 2,068 interviews with early and absentee voters conducted by phone, online or by text. Results for the full sample have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points; it is larger for subgroups.  

1 hr 17 min ago

Why the Virginia governor’s race will be the most closely watched contest of the night

From CNN’s Eric Bradner, Gregory Krieg and Dan Merica

Terry McAuliffe, left, and Glenn Youngkin are facing off in Virginia's gubernatorial race.
Terry McAuliffe, left, and Glenn Youngkin are facing off in Virginia’s gubernatorial race. (Getty Images)

Tuesday’s elections in states and cities across the country are set to serve as an early gauge of Joe Biden’s presidency and the political environment headed into next year’s midterm elections.

The Virginia governor’s race will be the most closely watched contest of the night, with both Republicans and Democrats viewing the neck-and-neck contest as a key bellwether for national sentiment headed into the 2022 midterms and beyond.

On the Democrat side: Terry McAuliffe, who served as governor from 2014 to 2018, is seeking a historic second stint in a commonwealth that bars governors from serving successive terms. McAuliffe has leaned heavily on the state’s leftward tilt during his campaign, hoping to energize the same voters who helped Biden win Virginia by 10 percentage points in 2020. And he has done so by spending millions on television ads that link his opponent, businessman-turned-politician Glenn Youngkin, to former President Donald Trump, a political figure who remains deeply unpopular in some of Virginia’s most vote-rich areas.

On the Republican side: Youngkin has tried to walk a fine line with Trump: Although he has kept him at arm’s length in the close of the campaign, he has focused on many of the same issues that animated his base in 2020. Youngkin’s campaign has sought to localize the race, hoping to animate a series of grievances aimed at Democratic leadership in Richmond and Washington, from what is taught in Virginia schools to how strict the commonwealth should be in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Why it matters: Every four years, the Virginia and New Jersey governor’s races — one year after the presidential election and one year before the midterms — are seen as a test of the national political environment. Usually, but not always, the pendulum swings against the president in the commonwealth. In fact, the only recent governor’s race to buck that trend came in 2013, when McAuliffe claimed victory the year after then-President Barack Obama was reelected.

Would a Youngkin win simply reflect the typical ebb and flow of American politics — or would it indicate Democrats’ narrow congressional majorities are in grave danger in next year’s midterms? It’s impossible to know, and the electoral landscape could look very different by the fall of 2022.

But a strong performance by Youngkin would send a clear message that with Trump out of office, the dynamics have shifted, and Democrats cannot rely on their Trump-era gains in the suburbs — which turned Virginia increasingly blue — to be permanent in a post-Trump environment.

1 hr 52 min ago

Boston prepares for a historic night in mayoral race

From CNN’s Maeve Reston

Annissa Essaibi George, left, and Michelle Wu are running for mayor in Boston.
Annissa Essaibi George, left, and Michelle Wu are running for mayor in Boston. (AP/Getty Images)

Boston will make history regardless of who wins on Tuesday, with the city’s voters set to elect a Democratic woman of color after a long history of leadership by White men. Polls have shown Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu, a champion of progressive policies, opening a commanding lead over her more moderate rival Annissa Essaibi George, who also serves as a Boston city councilor-at-large.

Both women have highlighted their family roots as the daughters of immigrants. Wu’s parents came from Taiwan. Essaibi George is the daughter of a Tunisian father and a Polish mother, who was born in a displaced persons’ camp in Germany.

Essaibi George, who has joked about her thick Boston accent, has tried to make her experience as a lifelong Bostonian a key credential, pitching herself as a small business owner who attended and later taught in Boston schools, coaching softball on the side.

Wu grew up in Chicago and attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where she was a student of then-professor Elizabeth Warren — the Massachusetts senator whom Wu calls one of her personal heroes and her biggest backers. Wu has written extensively about how she was forced to put her career plans on hold in her early twenties to deal with her mother’s mental illness, becoming a caregiver for her mother and younger sisters at the age of 23. She was just 28 years old when she was elected to the Boston City Council in 2013, later serving as council president, and made it a point to tend to some of her duties with one of her young sons on her hip.

Essaibi George has criticized some of Wu’s ideas as too unrealistic and expensive, particularly her fare-free transit proposal, which Wu calls “Free the T.” She opposes rent stabilization, stating in a recent debate that rent control would unfairly impact “our mothers, our fathers, our grandparents — those who have built some legacy wealth for their families” and predicted it would create greater gentrification while driving families farther out of the city. Wu countered that the policy would give struggling renters predictability and a chance to stay in their communities. “I’m not willing to sit back and say this is something that is impossible and we’re not going to fight for what we need,” Wu said during the recent NBC10 Boston, Telemundo Boston and NECN debate.

Essaibi George has opposed reallocating funding from the Boston Police Department’s budget toward programs to address root causes of crime and said the city needs about 300 more officers. Wu’s public safety plan includes diverting non-violent 911 calls to alternative response teams and “civilianizing” traffic enforcement by having trained, unarmed civilian personnel handle routine infractions like broken tail lights or rolling stops — a change that she says could reduce the risks of armed confrontations.

Wu finished ahead of Essaibi George in September’s preliminary municipal election, but both women dispatched other candidates including Acting Mayor Kim Janey, who replaced Marty Walsh when he became President Joe Biden’s Labor Secretary in March.

Essaibi George’s decision to stake out a position in the center of the electorate helped her stay in the game in the first round by winning over more conservative and moderate White voters, said Tufts University political science professor Jeffrey Berry. But that positioning has presented challenges in her one-on-one race with Wu in a city where most of the electorate is to the left of center.

“It’s not a city divided between the haves and have-nots, but it is a city where there’s a lot of people who have a whole lot, along with a lot of people who are working class and are really just making it because of the high cost of living in Boston,” Berry said. “So, it’s not about poverty, but it is about working-class people and whether or not they can be taken up a level on the economic ladder.”

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/X8AVr4u8bHs/h_644bb32e16fd3c4bb84672eba14447f7