Democracy Now!

U.S. Records Over 140,000 Coronavirus Cases on Wednesday, Another World Record, White House Political Director Is Latest with COVID-19 After Election Night Superspreader Event, Ukrainian President Hospitalized with COVID-19 as Global Cases Top 52 Million, President-elect Biden Names Ron Klain as White House Chief of Staff, Trump Continues Campaign to Overturn Election Results, Pentagon Leadership Reshuffle Prompts Fears of "Slow Moving Trump Coup", Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan Reelected; Georgia Runoffs to Determine Senate Balance of Power, Hong Kong Lawmakers Quit as China Tightens Grip on Semi-Autonomous Territory, ICE Plans to Deport Another Woman Alleging Nonconsensual Gynecological Procedure, Louisville Police Concealed 738,000 Records of Sexual Abuse by Officers, L.A. County Coroner Opens Inquest into Police Killing of Andrés Guardado, Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI Ignored Sex Abuse Allegations Against Theodore McCarrick, L.A. Times and Tribune to Pay $3 Million to Black and Latinx Journalists Denied Equal Pay, Typhoon Vamco Becomes Fifth Tropical Cyclone to Strike Philippines in Just Three Weeks , Lakota Activist Debra White Plume, Who Fought Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines, Dies

As President Trump continues to launch baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election, Democratic and Republican election officials across the United States have told The New York Times they uncovered no evidence to support Trump's claims. Despite his electoral defeat, Trump has not conceded, and his administration is proceeding as though it will continue into a second term, blocking President-elect Joe Biden from accessing government funding and other resources for a smooth transition. "The entire country is trying to figure out: Is this just going to go away?" says Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate magazine. "Or are we really in this slow-rolling denialist attempt to give this man a second term?"

In oral arguments Tuesday, the Supreme Court appeared to reject arguments to strike down the Affordable Care Act in the middle of the pandemic. The case was filed by a group of 18 Republican-led states, backed by the Trump administration, who argue the ACA's individual mandate is unconstitutional, and the rest of law should fall with it. "This was a terrible third attempt to have the Supreme Court strike down Obamacare. The first two had failed. This was even more ludicrous than the earlier cases," says Slate legal correspondent Dahlia Lithwick. We also speak with Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, who says Medicare for All remains the best way to expand healthcare in the United States. "We don’t need to raise the total cost of healthcare. We just need to go to an efficient system that excludes private health insurance," Dr. Woolhandler says.

We look at election results in Puerto Rico, where progressives have made historic inroads against the two traditional parties, the Popular Democratic Party and the New Progressive Party. "There is no question that the old monopoly of the two political parties that have dominated Puerto Rican politics for decades is coming to an end, and that's a very good thing," says historian Rafael Bernabe, who was just elected to the Puerto Rico Senate as part of the Citizens' Victory Movement.

About 160 million voters cast ballots in this election, setting a new record, and President-elect Joe Biden's lead in the popular vote has jumped to over 5 million. Much of the increased turnout was powered by people of color, while the total number of votes cast by white Americans barely increased from the last presidential election. "The main story is that in an election which saw historic turnout, people of color — and especially Latinos — had an unprecedented increase in voting," says Democracy Now! co-host Juan González. "After decades of political experts talking about the growing Latino vote, this year it actually happened."

Secretary of State Pompeo Promises "Smooth Transition to a Second Trump Administration", Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Backs Trump's Refusal to Concede, Joe Biden Calls Trump's Refusal to Concede Presidential Election an "Embarrassment", USPS Worker Recants Claim of Mail-in Ballot Tampering Cited by Top Republicans, Trump's Conspiracy Theories About Massive Election Fraud Could Spark Violence, U.S. Sets New Records for Coronavirus Cases and Hospitalizations, Conservative Supreme Court Justices Skeptical of Arguments Against Affordable Care Act, Republican Thom Tillis to Keep North Carolina Senate Seat as Cal Cunningham Concedes, Trump Administration Removes Scientist Overseeing National Climate Assessment, Guatemala Ends Rescue Efforts for Village Devastated by Hurricane Eta, Congressional Black Caucus Demands Halt to Deportation of Cameroonian Refugees, Reporter Israel Vázquez Assassinated, Becoming Third Mexican Journalist Killed in 2 Weeks

Republicans have aligned behind President Trump as he continues to make baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud and refuses to concede that he lost the presidential election to Joe Biden. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended President Trump's decision not to concede, and Attorney General William Barr upended long-standing Justice Department policy by announcing federal prosecutors could investigate "specific allegations" of voter fraud, a move that led to the resignation of Richard Pilger, the director of the Justice Department's Election Crimes Branch. The Trump campaign has launched a barrage of lawsuits seeking to invalidate last week's election results, including one in Pennsylvania attempting to block state officials from certifying Joe Biden's election victory. So far no evidence has emerged of voter fraud as alleged by the Trump campaign. "This is an unprecedented attack on democracy," says Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "The voters have spoken, and what we're seeing is a president who refuses to recognize and embrace the will of the people."

Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, has died at 65 after he became infected with COVID-19. Erekat was a key Palestinian negotiator involved in peace talks for over three decades and stood in staunch opposition to the Trump administration's Middle East plan, which he called the "fraud of the century," and condemned recent agreements normalizing relations between Israel and Gulf nations. "One must really reflect and admire the tireless commitment he had to communicating the Palestinian cause as best he saw fit … and the important voice that he brought to the conversation at a time when many people around the world had not really heard from Palestinians, particularly Palestinians living in Palestine, on the ground," says Palestinian American analyst Yousef Munayyer.

Today, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a case seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act, and millions of Americans could lose their healthcare in the middle of a pandemic. "In a way, we're committing mass suicide," says science journalist Laurie Garrett, who says scrapping the landmark Obama-era healthcare law would leave people "to potentially carry disease forward into the community, into their workplaces, and so on, without any treatment, any help, any assistance. That's just insane."

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced that a Phase 3, late-stage study found their potential COVID-19 vaccine showed more than 90% effectiveness. The two-dose vaccine still faces several challenges, including how to store and transport it, since it must be refrigerated at subzero temperatures. Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist Laurie Garrett says the news is hopeful, but urges caution. "There's been no scientific release. There's no published data," she says. "We don't have anything to go with except what the lawyers at Pfizer massaged carefully into a single-page press release. So, we have to take that with a big caveat."

William Barr Says Prosecutors Can Probe Voter Fraud Claims, as GOP Backs Trump Refusal to Concede, GA Republican Senators Call for Sec. of State to Step Down After They Fail to Win Their Races, Joe Biden Pleads for Use of Face Masks as U.S. Cases Top 10 Million, Saeb Erekat, Chief Palestinian Negotiator, Dies After Contracting COVID-19, Trump Fires Defense Secretary Mark Esper, SCOTUS Hearing Arguments in GOP Attack on Obamacare, Which Could Strip Healthcare for Millions, Evo Morales Returns to Bolivia, One Year After Coup That Ousted Him, Peru Removes President Vizcarra in Impeachment Trial, Protests Erupt in Armenia After Signing of Deal to End Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, Protests Rock Belarus and Georgia Following Contested Elections, Iran Calls for Regional Cooperation After Reports of New Trump Sanctions, Police Fire Guns at Cancún Protests After String of Femicides, 50 Cameroonian Asylum Seekers Set to Be Deported Despite Threat of Persecution and Death, Lawyers Cannot Find the Parents of 666 Children Separated from Their Families at the U.S. Border, Court Blocks Construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline in Victory for Environmental Activists

As President-elect Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris prepare to take power, we continue to look at the growing debate over the direction of the Democratic Party. House Majority Whip James Clyburn went on several Sunday talk shows to criticize calls to "defund the police" and argued the phrase hurt Democratic congressional candidates. "It is actually insane that we would think the way to respond to the scale of problems that we confront as a nation is to harken back to an older form of politics that … seems to try to triangulate and appeal to this Reagan Democrat that they are so obsessed with," responds Eddie Glaude, author and chair of Princeton University's Department of African American Studies. "It makes no sense that we would go back to the politics that produced Trump in the first place." We also speak to artist and antiracist activist Bree Newsome Bass, who argues Black voters "are scapegoated when it's convenient, and then we are thrown under the bus when it's convenient … That's a dynamic that has to end."

Former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris are set to take power, after a projected more than 150 million ballots were cast in the 2020 election. A debate is growing over the future of the Democratic Party as progressive lawmakers push back on Biden's centrist policy proposals and consideration of Republicans for Cabinet positions. Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California says progressive policies, such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, have popular support. "The policies that we are advocating are not just for deeply blue districts," Khanna says. "They are policies that will help people in the Midwest, in the South, across this country."

The Trump presidency is coming to an end. Former Vice President Joe Biden is projected to have won the election after pulling ahead in Pennsylvania, giving him more than the 270 electoral votes needed to become president. Biden's running mate Kamala Harris will make history as the first female vice president, as well as the first African American, Indian American and Asian American elected to the office. Although President Trump has so far refused to concede as his campaign files a slew of lawsuits challenging the results in several states, plans are already underway to shape the next administration and prepare for the next four years. We speak with Bree Newsome Bass, an artist, antiracist activist and housing rights advocate in North Carolina, and professor Eddie Glaude, chair of Princeton University's Department of African American Studies, and get reaction from Indian American Congressmember Ro Khanna of California.

Joe Biden Elected 46th U.S. President as Pennsylvania Count Seals Victory, Kamala Harris Becomes First Woman, African American, Asian American Vice President, Trump Pursues Baseless Lawsuits as GOP Splits on Their Response to Election, Senate Control Hangs on Georgia Runoffs, Most World Leaders Congratulate Biden and Harris; Brazil, Russia, Mexico and China Hold Off, Biden Unveils Coronavirus Task Force as U.S. Cases Hit 10 Million, with Over 237,000 Recorded Deaths, WH Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and at Least 5 Others Test Positive for COVID-19, ACLU Files Suit over Gov't Handling of Pandemic in Immigrant Jails; COVID-19 Surging in Nursing Homes, Pfizer Early Trial Data Suggests Coronavirus Vaccine Is 90% Effective, U.N. Warns Yemen, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and South Sudan Facing Possible Famine Amid Pandemic, Aung San Suu Kyi's Party Set to Remain in Power in Burma, Luis Arce Sworn In as New Bolivian President, as Supporters Await Return of Evo Morales, Gunmen Raid Military Post in Baghdad, Killing 11; Soldiers Kill Protester in Basra, Former Broadcaster Killed in Afghanistan as Violent Attacks Continue, Ethiopia Replaces Tigray Regional Gov't, Launches Airstrikes, as Fears Mount of Outright War, Eta Makes Landfall in Florida Keys After Devastating Central America, Killing at Least 150

As most eyes were focused on the race for the White House, Puerto Rican voters on Tuesday narrowly approved a nonbinding statehood referendum. We get analysis from Democracy Now! co-host Juan González and speak with Afro-Puerto Rican human rights, feminist and LGBTQI activist Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, who was elected to the Puerto Rican Senate.

We go to Atlanta for an update, after Joe Biden pulled ahead of Donald Trump for the first time in Georgia. The 2020 presidential election could hinge on this extraordinarily tight race. Many credit the state's blue shift to community organizers on the ground, including Stacey Abrams, who lost a hotly contested race for governor of Georgia in 2018 amid claims of widespread voter suppression and has since led a massive effort to get out the vote through her organizations Fair Fight and Fair Count. Both Senate races in Georgia also appear to be headed to runoff elections, and the state could determine if the GOP holds onto its Senate majority. "There has been a wide investment that has been deeply driven by community to expand the electorate," says Anoa Changa, a freelance journalist based in Atlanta who focuses on electoral justice and voting rights.

We look at Donald Trump's attempts to undermine the U.S. presidential election with Jane McAlevey, a union organizer, negotiator and senior policy fellow at UC Berkeley's Labor Center who was an eyewitness to the 2000 Florida recount. She says the 2000 election holds lessons for today, when Democrats allowed Republicans to claim a controversial victory. "We have to have a counternarrative. We have to have very large numbers of people in the streets," she says.

As President Trump is doubling down on unsubstantiated claims of election rigging as election workers continue counting ballots in several states, concern is growing that some Trump supporters may use violence to disrupt the process. Trump's supporters have protested at ballot-counting locations in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Detroit and Philadelphia, where police arrested two men after receiving a tip that men armed with AR-15s were driving from Virginia to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where votes are still being counted. Meanwhile, Trump's former campaign manager Steve Bannon called for the beheading of Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray. "Trump and the extremist Republicans, who constitute a minority of the population and have a minority of the votes, are trying to consolidate their minority rule," says investigative journalist Allan Nairn. "Things wouldn't even be close now if you just based the presidency, like most countries do, on who gets the most votes."

Biden Takes Lead in Georgia & Pennsylvania, Moving Him Closer to Presidency, Biden Calls for Counting Every Ballot; Trump Claims Dems Are Stealing Election, Trump Campaign Faces Legal Setbacks in Election-Related Lawsuits, Trump Campaign Adviser: "Hopefully Amy Coney Barrett Will Come Through" to Help Trump Win Election, Sen. Graham: State GOP Lawmakers Should Consider Invalidating Election Results, Philly Police Foil QAnon-Linked Plot to Attack Ballot-Counting Site, Bannon Calls for Beheading of Dr. Fauci & FBI Director Wray, 18 Protesters Arrested in NYC in Demo Against Trump Stealing Election, Georgia May Have Two Senate Runoff Elections as Perdue's Vote Count Falls, Int'l Election Observers: We Saw No Evidence to Back Up Trump's Claim of Voter Fraud, U.S. Records 120,000 COVID Cases in a Day, 750,000 File for Unemployment as 50 Million Face Food Insecurity in U.S., Kushner-Linked Firm Moves to Evict Hundreds of Tenants, Report: ICE Moves to Deport More Victims of Nonconsensual Invasive Gynecological Procedures, Freedom Friday: Campaign Grows to Release Hundreds of Cameroonian Asylum Seekers, Hurricane Eta Kills at Least 57 in Central America, Israel Demolishes Palestinian Village, Leaving 73 Homeless, Including 41 Minors, Jair Bolsonaro's Son Charged with Corruption, Imprisoned Saudi Activist Loujain al-Hathloul on 12th Day of Hunger Strike, U.S. to Sell 18 Armed Drones to UAE as U.N. Warns of Deadly "Second Drone Age", Court Rules Dairy Workers in Washington State Should Be Paid Overtime

In New York, Democrats Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres are set to become the first two openly gay Black men elected to Congress, replacing lawmakers who are retiring after decades in Washington. Jones will represent New York's 17th Congressional District, joining the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. He supports the Green New Deal, Medicare for All and a $15 minimum wage. "The era of small ideas is over," Jones says. "I ran proudly on a progressive platform from the very beginning of my campaign."

One of the crucial states that could decide the presidential election is Arizona, where Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump with thousands of ballots left to count. Trump won Arizona in 2016, and if Biden's lead holds, he will be just the second Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since 1948. "The lion's share of the credit belongs to sustained community organizing in the state," says Marisa Franco, director and co-founder of Mijente, a national digital organizing hub for Latinx and Chicanx communities. She says the Trump administration has been disastrous for immigrants and immigrant rights groups, and a second term would be even worse. "A shift in administration would give us a fighting chance," she says.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden appears to be inching toward victory as counting continues in several key states that could put him over 270 electoral votes, the threshold needed to win the Electoral College and take the White House. President Trump and his supporters, meanwhile, have attacked the process and falsely claimed Democrats are stealing the election, and the Trump campaign has launched a barrage of legal challenges in swing states related to ballot counting. With the results closer than many pollsters had predicted, Democracy Now! co-host Juan González says "a false narrative" is taking root that Latinx voters were primarily to blame for the weak Democratic result. "The main story is that people of color, especially Latinos, flocked to the polls in numbers that far exceeded what the experts had expected, while the total number of votes cast by white Americans barely increased from the last presidential election," says González. "How come none of the experts are asking why white voters underperformed the Democratic Party?"

Trump's Path to Victory Narrows as Biden Nears 270 Electoral College Votes, Trump "Claims" Battleground States as Campaign Sues to Stop Vote Counting, Trump Supporters in Arizona: "Count the Vote!" In Michigan: "Stop the Count!", Hundreds Arrested at Protests Against Trump's Bid to Steal Election, Balance of Power in U.S. Senate Hangs on Two Georgia Races, Democrats Mull Replacing Nancy Pelosi with Hakeem Jeffries as House Speaker, New Mexico House Delegation Will Be All Women of Color in Historic First, United States Daily Coronavirus Infections Top 100,000, Worst Toll of Pandemic, Italy and Kenya Become Latest Nations to Order New Coronavirus Lockdowns, Hospitals on Both Sides of U.S.-Mexico Border Reach Capacity Amid COVID-19 Surge, Denmark to Kill Millions of Mink Infected with Mutant Coronavirus, Philadelphia Police Bodycam Footage Shows Officers Fatally Shooting Walter Wallace Jr., Texas Sheriff, Indicted for Evidence Tampering in Javier Ambler's Killing, Loses Reelection, Mississippi Voters Overturn Reconstruction-Era Law Limiting Democracy, Missouri Voters Overturn Redistricting Measure, Cementing Republican Supermajorities, Delaware's Sarah McBride Wins Election as 1st Openly Trans State Lawmaker in U.S., Trump Administration Officially Withdraws U.S. from Paris Climate Accord, Extinction Rebellion Protesters in Spain Demand Action to Protect Biodiversity

President Trump has prematurely declared victory and falsely accused Democrats of "major fraud," even as millions of ballots continue to be counted across the United States amid an unprecedented wave of mail-in ballots widely believed to favor Democratic challenger Joe Biden. The two campaigns appear neck and neck in several battleground states key to winning the White House, but early results suggest Democrats performed worse than they had hoped, setting up a potential legal fight over uncounted ballots reminiscent of the 2000 election. We spend the hour discussing the results and what comes next, with Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former head of the NAACP; Briahna Joy Gray, formerly the national press secretary for the 2020 Bernie Sanders campaign, and co-host of the "Bad Faith" podcast; and The Nation's John Nichols in the battleground state of Wisconsin. "The tragedy of this election, regardless of what the outcome ends up being, is that it was ever this close at all," says Gray. "The crime here is that the vote is this close."

Joe Biden Urges Patience as Vote Tallying Continues in Too-Close-to-Call Race, Trump Falsely Claims Reelection Victory as Battleground States Continue Count, Republicans Poised to Hold Senate as Democrats Come Up Short in Several Close Races, Democrats Poised to Retain House Majority, But Republicans Flip Several Seats, All Four Members of "The Squad" Reelected to House of Representatives, Jamaal Bowman Wins New York House Seat on Medicare for All, Green New Deal Platform, Mondaire Jones, Ritchie Torres Elected First Openly Gay Black Congressmen, Cori Bush, Who Led Ferguson Black Lives Matter Protests, Wins Missouri House Seat, QAnon Conspiracy Supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene Wins Georgia House Seat, Puerto Rican Pro-Statehood Candidate Pedro Pierluisi Leads Governor's Race, USPS Ignores Court Order to Sweep Mail Processing Centers for Mail-in Ballots, U.S. Coronavirus Infections Top 92,000 on Election Day as Death Toll Rises, Category 4 Hurricane Eta Slams Honduras and Nicaragua, Californians Approve Measure Stripping Labor Rights from Gig Economy Workers, Florida Voters Approve $15/Hour Minimum Wage; Nebraskans Cap Payday Loan Fees, Arizona and New Jersey Voters Legalize Marijuana as Oregon Decriminalizes Hard Drugs

Acclaimed poet and activist Nikki Giovanni has a new collection of poems called "Make Me Rain," a celebration of her Black heritage, as well as an exploration of racism and white nationalism. In the poem "Vote," Giovanni offers her thoughts on the importance of voting. It was filmed by The Meteor, a feminist collective of activists, journalists and creators, part of a daily Instagram series focusing on voting rights.

While most eyes are trained on the contest between President Trump and Joe Biden, down-ballot races and state ballot measures will also have major consequences for racial justice, immigration, reproductive rights and more. "The issues and policies that affect people day in and day out are often determined on the bottom of the ballot," says Ronald Newman, the national political director for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa joins us to discuss her new book, "Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America," which tells the story of U.S. immigration through her own journey to the United States from Mexico as a small child to her groundbreaking work as a reporter. She says it wasn't until the height of the family separation crisis under the Trump administration that she learned about her own family's near-separation by U.S. immigration agents. "That was almost you," Hinojosa says her mother told her through tears. "The babies that have been taken, they almost did that to you."

The 2020 general election is on pace to have the highest turnout rate in over a century, with nearly 100 million ballots cast early — nearly three-quarters of the 2016 vote total. We look at how Latinx voters could play a key role in deciding the presidency and who controls the Senate. Many key battleground states, including Florida, Texas, Arizona and Pennsylvania, have large Latinx communities. Many polls show Biden is not doing as well among Latinx voters as Hillary Clinton did in 2016, and one recent poll in Florida showed a majority of Latinx voters supported Trump over Biden. "The Latino vote will be the single most important factor in this election," says Chuck Rocha, a former campaign adviser to Bernie Sanders. "More Latinos will vote in this election than anytime in the history of America." We also speak with Maria Hinojosa, award-winning journalist and founder of Futuro Media, who says young Latinx voters like her daughter are extremely motivated. "They are the ones who are saying, 'I'm absolutely voting. … I'm voting as if my life depended on it.'"

Trump and Biden Make Final Election Push as Trump Preemptively Sows Doubt over Results, U.S. Judge Thwarts GOP Effort to Toss 127,000 Early Votes in Texas, Judge Blocks Lawsuit by Nevada GOP over Ballot Counting in State's Largest County, Dr. Deborah Birx Contradicts Trump Claims and Actions in New Internal Coronavirus Report, U.K. Readies for Second Lockdown Amid Surge in Cases, Gunmen Kill at Least 22 People in Kabul University Raid, At Least Four Killed in Coordinated Attacks in Vienna, U.N. Calls for End to Attacks on Civilian Targets in Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, Protests in Washington State Call for Justice for Kevin Peterson, a Black Man Killed by Police, Police Union Posts Propaganda Photo with Black Child After Attacking His Family in Philadelphia, SCOTUS Sides with DeRay Mckesson in Lawsuit over Police Officer Injured at Protest, Kentucky Police Quoted Hitler, Instructed Officers to Be "Ruthless Killers" During Training, Central America Braces for Catastrophic Damage from Hurricane Eta

We go to Florida, which could prove decisive in the 2020 presidential election and where immigration is a key issue for many voters, to speak with Haitian American writer Edwidge Danticat, who says voters in the state should cast their ballots to protect immigrant families under threat of deportation by the Trump administration. Trump has repeatedly tried to end temporary protected status for Haitians in the country. We also speak with 13-year-old Christina Ponthieux, the U.S.-born daughter of two TPS recipients from Haiti. "Terminating TPS would affect all of us, especially kids like me who are U.S.-born children who have never been to their parents' country before," says Christina, a member of Family Action Network Movement, or FANM, and a co-chair of the group's Children for Family Reunification initiative.

This weekend, a caravan of Trump supporters in Texas tried to run a Biden campaign bus off the road, ahead of a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court Sunday rejecting a Republican effort brought by a QAnon supporter to throw out nearly 127,000 early votes from 10 drive-thru polling locations in Harris County, but now a similar lawsuit has been filed in federal court. The drive-thru polling locations allowed any registered voter to cast their ballot in a car instead of going inside polling centers, as polls show a close race between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden in Texas, a traditionally Republican state. Susan Hays, a special counsel to Harris County on election matters, says the drive-thru locations have been "enormously popular" during the pandemic, and tossing those ballots undermines the democratic process. "An election contest is the remedy to any issues with the voting process, not lawsuits that happen before the election," she says.

Police in Alamance County in North Carolina pepper-sprayed a peaceful get-out-the-vote march Saturday, descending on the crowd after they stopped near a Confederate monument to kneel in honor of George Floyd, who was killed by police in Minneapolis in May. Viral videos of the violent police action show officers in riot gear attacking the marchers, including young children and elderly people, who had intended to walk to a polling place on the last day of early voting in North Carolina. At least eight people were arrested, including march organizer Rev. Greg Drumwright, who says police gave the crowd of hundreds only 14 seconds to clear out before attacking. "We never made it to the polls," says Drumwright. "We believe that this interaction, this interference from local authorities, has obstructed our marchers from not only lifting up our First Amendment rights to protest, to speak out, but also our rights to vote."

Police Arrest, Pepper-Spray Peaceful Voters at North Carolina Rally, TX Court Denies GOP Attempt to Throw Out 127,000 Early Ballots as Case Goes Before Federal Court, Trump Outlines Post-Nov. 3 Strategy to Win Election as He and Biden Campaign in Battleground States, U.S. COVID-19 Cases Top 9 Million, as Study Finds Trump Rallies May Have Led to 700+ Deaths, Trump Suggests He May Fire Dr. Fauci After Election, Report Finds 25,000+ Migrant Children Locked Up for More Than 100 Days over Past 6 Years, Ongoing Protests Against Polish Abortion Ban Draw 150,000 People to Streets of Warsaw, At Least 12 People Killed in Ivory Coast in Election Day Violence, 8 Hong Kong Opposition Politicians Arrested as National Security Law Crackdown Continues, Super Typhoon Goni Kills at Least 16, Displaces 1 Million People in Philippines, Aegean Sea Earthquake Kills at Least 80 People as Rescue Efforts Continue, Robert Fisk, Noted Middle East Reporter and Critic of Western Imperialism, Dies at 74

As Donald Trump and Joe Biden make their final campaign pushes in battleground states that could decide the election, we speak with author and journalist Jesse Wegmen about the case for abolishing the Electoral College system altogether and moving toward a national popular vote for electing the president. Two of the last three presidents — George W. Bush and Donald Trump — came to office after losing the popular vote. "The framers who met at the Constitutional Convention really had no idea what they were doing when they established how to pick a president," says Wegman, New York Times editorial board member and author of "Let the People Pick the President."

Native American voters could sway key Senate races in next week's election in Montana, North Carolina, Arizona and Maine. Investigative journalist Jenni Monet says that for many tribal citizens, the contest is not just about Democrats and Republicans. These voters "support those who understand their sovereignty," says Monet, who writes the newsletter "Indigenously." She is a tribal citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna.

As the 2020 campaign enters its final days, we go to Georgia, where two Senate seats are up for grabs and both Republican incumbents face stiff opposition. Joe Biden is also spending significant time in the state, which no Democratic presidential candidate has won since 1992. "Georgia is truly in play," says Emory University professor Carol Anderson. "We have had grassroots organizing and mobilizing, registering folks to vote, working through getting through all of the voter suppression barriers to bring people out to the polls in unprecedented numbers." Anderson is the author of "One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy."

U.S. Records Nearly 90,000 Daily Coronavirus Infections, a New Record, Trump Admin Cleared Nursing Homes Where 40,000 Died of COVID-19 of Infection-Control Violations, Trump and Biden Hold Competing Rallies in Battleground State of Florida, Pennsylvania On-Time Mail Delivery Plummets as Voters Cast Record Number of Mail-In Ballots , Family of Walter Wallace Jr. Calls for Police Reforms Rather Than Murder Charges for Officers, Justice Department Quietly Ended Probe into Police Killing of 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice, "Reckless Incompetence and Intentional Cruelty": Lawmakers Blast Trump Family Separations, ICE Sued for Records on Forced Sterilizations at Georgia Immigration Jail, Family of David Villalobos Demands Justice After Fatal Shooting by U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Speeds Deportations to Haiti, Risking Further Coronavirus Spread, 60 Bodies Found in Mass Graves in Mexico's Guanajuato State, U.S. Drone Strikes and Raids on Yemen Accelerated Under President Trump, U.K. Labour Party Suspends Jeremy Corbyn After He Challenged Findings of Anti-Semitism Report, IRS Audited Just 0.03% of Wealthiest U.S. Families Under President Trump in 2018, Glenn Greenwald Resigns from The Intercept, Citing "Censorship" of His Story on Hunter Biden, Trump Administration to End Protections for Endangered Gray Wolves, Peace Activist Ted Glick Nearing End of Month-Long Fast to Defeat Trump

The massive $2 trillion CARES Act — which sent households one-time payments and boosted unemployment checks with an additional $600 a week through July — helped keep millions afloat, but more than 8 million people have been forced into poverty since the aid ended. "The relief was temporary, and much of it has now expired, so now we're seeing poverty rise again," says Megan Curran, a researcher at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University. "We know that families can be protected again, but it does require action at the federal level."

Big Tech CEOs were grilled Wednesday about how they moderate election disinformation and extremist content, and were accused by Republicans of censoring conservatives. Overlooked were reports that Facebook designed changes to its news feed algorithm in 2017 to reduce the visibility of left-leaning news sites like Mother Jones. Mother Jones editors wrote in 2019 that the site had seen a sharp decline in its Facebook audience, which translated to a loss of around $600,000 over 18 months. "The fact that we are trying to do everything we can to get the truth out and Facebook is deliberately sabotaging our readership is so disturbing, at the same time that Facebook is spreading all of this dangerous information by conservatives, by President Trump," responds Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones magazine, who has been reporting extensively on the 2020 election.

Lawmakers grilled the chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter just days before Election Day on how they moderate hate speech, extremist content and election disinformation, including tweets from President Trump. Republicans have long accused Big Tech platforms of censoring conservative views, but tech policy expert Ramesh Srinivasan says the argument is shaped around talking points that are aimed at invalidating election results. "What we see coming from the Republicans is this argument that lacks any evidence, frankly, that there are systematic biases in terms of censorship, as well as algorithmic biases that skew against conservative talking points," says Srinivasan, a professor at UCLA, where he also directs the Digital Cultures Lab. "In fact, in reality, the opposite is exactly what is true."

A record 76 million people have already voted in the U.S. election, but the battle over the counting of mail-in ballots continues, with the Supreme Court issuing rulings on how long after Election Day ballots can be counted in the battleground states of Wisconsin, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. We speak with Mother Jones senior writer Ari Berman, author of "Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America," who says the Supreme Court could yet decide who wins the presidency if a close result leads to legal challenges. "My message to voters in these states and other states is drop your ballot off," says Berman. "Don't leave it to chance that your vote could be thrown out."

"Unrelenting, Broad Community Spread": U.S. Coronavirus Cases Surge to Record Highs, L.A. Dodgers' Justin Turner Celebrated with Teammates Despite Positive Coronavirus Test, France and Germany Lock Down Again as COVID-19 Cases Surge, Supreme Court to Allow Counting of Absentee Ballots Past Election Day in PA, NC, International Crisis Group: Trump's "Toxic Rhetoric" Fuels Election-Related Violence, 7 Hospitalized in Nebraska as Trump Campaign Leaves Hundreds Stranded in Cold, Former DHS Official Miles Taylor Was "Anonymous" Critic Within Trump Administration, Virginia to Curb Militarized Police Departments, Ban No-Knock Raids, Philadelphia Activist Anthony Smith Arrested Amid Protests of Police Killing of Walter Wallace Jr., Hurricane Zeta Is Fifth Named Storm to Strike Louisiana During Record 2020 Season, Trump to Open Alaska's Tongass National Forest to Logging and Road Building, 21 Civilians Killed as Azerbaijan and Armenia Continue War over Nagorno-Karabakh, Colombian Riot Police Evict Hundreds of Indigenous People from Homes in Amazonas, ICE to Pay $100,000 Settlement for Targeting Migrant Justice Leaders in Vermont, Baltimore Museum of Art Calls Off Auctions to Fund New Exhibits by Women and Artists of Color

We get an update from Chile, where an overwhelming majority have voted to rewrite the country's Pinochet dictatorship-era constitution and tens of thousands poured into the streets to celebrate, just one year after mass protests against social and economic inequalities rocked the country and set it on a path to social reform. Javiera Manzi, a spokesperson for Chile's largest feminist advocacy group, Coordinadora Feminista 8M, says the referendum is the result of people doing what politicians had refused to do for decades. We also speak with journalist Pablo Vivanco, who says Chile's neoliberal model has long been held up as an example to follow across Latin America. "Now with this vote … it really sends a signal throughout the region that this selling of the Chilean model and of the neoliberal state is a lie," Vivanco says.

Two members of a Kentucky grand jury convened after the Louisville police killing of Breonna Taylor have spoken on camera for the first time, calling the actions of the Louisville officers responsible for Taylor's death "criminal" and saying the state's Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron never gave them the option to consider murder or manslaughter charges against the police officers involved. "From the very beginning, we have seen a campaign of prevarication, of dishonesty, of outright neglect of any semblance of justice for Breonna Taylor or for her family," responds Marc Lamont Hill, professor of media studies and urban education at Temple University, who notes that in lieu of justice, her family at least deserves accountability.

Less than a week out from Election Day, we look at President Trump's call for poll watchers in battleground states like Pennsylvania that he needs to win. Trump is "framing this all as a left-wing conspiracy to take away his presidency," says Marc Lamont Hill, professor of media studies and urban education at Temple University in Philadelphia. "When he calls for people to come and form this sort of 'army,' when he calls for people to be his security force, he's calling in his white nationalist base. … Trump very clearly knows the numbers are against him."

Protesters in Philadelphia mark a second night of calling for the abolition of police after two Philadelphia police shot and killed Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old Black man, while he was having a mental health crisis. The shooting reflects decades of defunding of social services, including for mental health, while police departments have continued to grow, says author and activist Marc Lamont Hill, who argues, "If all you have is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail." Lamont Hill is professor of media studies and urban education at Temple University and author of "We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest, and Possibility."

White House Credits Trump with "Ending the COVID-19 Pandemic" as U.S. Cases Hit Record Highs, As 54 Million U.S. Residents Struggle for Food, Senate Adjourns Without Passing Relief Bill, Family of Walter Wallace Jr. Demands Justice After Fatal Police Shooting, Grand Jurors Call Actions of Louisville Police Officers Who Killed Breonna Taylor "Criminal", Trump Mocks Media Coverage of Coronavirus Crisis, Trump on Counting Votes Beyond Election Day: "I Don't Believe That's by Our Laws", Muslims Denounce French President for Defending Caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, Yemen's Humanitarian Workers Plead for International Aid as Malnutrition Soars, United Arab Emirates Opens Consulate in Moroccan-Occupied Western Sahara, Hong Kong Activists Arrested Under Chinese National Security Law, Hurricane Zeta Strengthens and Takes Aim at New Orleans, NXIVM Cult Leader Keith Raniere Sentenced to 120 Years for Sex Trafficking, Forced Labor, Federal Judge Will Allow E. Jean Carroll to Sue Donald Trump for Defamation over Rape Allegations, Poland Protesters Denounce Court Ruling Banning Nearly All Abortions

In her new book, "The Purpose of Power," Black Lives Matter co-creator Alicia Garza lays out how people can build power and effect change. "Movements are not just about protests," she says. "Movements are absolutely about how we get more power into the hands of more people."