If the U.S. is still waiting to learn who the president will be    days or even weeks after Tuesdays election, provisional    ballots are likely to be at the center of any disputes.  
    They are the ballots cast by voters whose eligibility is    questioned for some reason. Those ballots are set aside and    held for a period of days after the election while workers    determine whether they should be counted.  
    Experts say the number of provisional ballots this year may set    a record, exceeding the 2.7 million cast in 2012 and almost 2.5    million cast in 2016, in part because some voters who requested    ballots by mail are showing up at polls to vote in person. That    could lead to late results in key battleground states such as    Pennsylvania  where President Donald Trump won by only 44,292    votes in 2016  if the race is close and the source of    challenges and litigation.  
    Its just another one of those things that plays into the    unusual nature of this election, G. Terry Madonna, director of    the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and    Marshall College in Pennsylvania, said of provisional ballots.  
    Provisional ballots have come into play in the past. Democrat    John Kerry held off conceding the 2004 presidential race to    Republican George W. Bush until the morning after the election    because he waited until it was clear the 157,714 provisional    ballots cast in Ohio couldnt change the outcome.  
    In 2016, Trump carried Arizona by 91,234 votes, and there were    102,510 provisional ballots, according to the U.S. Election    Assistance Commission. Pennsylvania had 26,451 provisionals,    and that was before the commonwealth expanded voting by mail    last year.  
    Greater use of mailed ballots, coupled with disruptions in mail    service, may contribute to the bumper crop of provisional    ballots. After initially urging voters to request mail-in    ballots in response to the pandemic, Democratic leaders have    been telling people to vote in person or deliver the ballot to    an elections office or an approved drop box to avoid the risk    of it being disqualified on technical grounds or having its    delivery delayed by the U.S. Postal Service. Read    more from Mark Niquette.  
      Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg    
      Voters who requested mail-in ballots but opt to vote in      person could lead to more provisional ballots.    
    USPS Cites Covid, Holiday for Record Delays:    The U.S. Postal Service delivered 80.85% of first-class mail on    time for the week ending Oct. 23, compared with previous weeks    figure of 85.58%, according to a news release. The agency    listed factors including high mail volume, Covid-19 impacts,    the Oct. 12 federal holiday and ongoing efforts to prioritize    ballots for the Nov. 3 election. The on-time rate is the lowest    of the year, according to the Save the Post Office website that    tracks the agency. Read    more from Todd Shields.  
    BGOVs Downballot Races to WatchReddit    AMA: Join Bloomberg Governments elections    guru Greg Giroux this afternoon on Reddit for an AMA on the    congressional elections, where hell take questions on the    races to watch. Follow his AMA here at 2 p.m. today.  
    Biden Win Would Offer Path to Kill Pipeline:    Days after taking office, Trump cleared the way for    construction of an oil pipeline in the Midwest that had been    the focus of months of opposition by climate activists,    celebrities and Native Americans. Now opponents of the Dakota    Access Pipeline are pressuring Joe Biden to take the    extraordinary step of returning the favor should he win the    White House. Analysts said they couldnt recall a president    shutting down an operating pipeline before, which is why its    being viewed as a litmus test of how far hed go to appease    environmentalists who have supported him. Read    more from Ari Natter.  
    Biden Pledges Not to Extort South Korea:    Biden pledged not to use the threat of cutting U.S. troop    levels in South Korea as a bargaining chip, after the Trump    administration demanded Seoul pay far more for American    protection. Biden said if he wins the U.S. election next week,    he wont be extorting Seoul with reckless threats to remove    our troops, according to a special contribution he made to    South Koreas Yonhap News Agency published today. Read    more from Jon Herskovitz.  
    Trumps China Scorecard Shows Many Defeats:    Trump ran for office pledging to rewrite the U.S.s economic    ties with Beijing, which he blamed for hollowing out Americas    manufacturing base and impoverishing its workers. But his four    years in the White House have shown limited impact on the    metrics he laid out. U.S. companies cite much the same    concernsand the same growth objectiveswith regard to China    today as they did when Trump took office. The unprecedented    trade war that Trump launched, breaking GOP free-trade    orthodoxy along the way, has ended up costing American factory    jobs, not creating them, economists claim.    The state support for Chinese enterprises that Trump pledged to    confront remains intact.  
    Trumps term has, however, had a notable impact on American    attitudes toward China. In time, that could prove the dynamic    that affects economic ties in ways the current president has    struggled to achieve. And it underscores that Washingtons    policy on China is forever changed, regardless of who wins next    Tuesdays election. Read    more from Jenny Leonard.  
    Health-Care on the Ballot in Several States:    Big money is betting on health-care initiatives in California,    Oregon, and Colorado where voters are being asked Nov. 3 to add    taxes on vaping, mandate that doctors always be on site when    dialysis centers are open, and approve $5.5 billion in bonds    for the sole stem cell research funding agency in the country.    Tens of millions of dollars are fueling arguments over what to    fund and why because, essentially, people are more interested    in health-care initiatives, said Arturo Vargas Bustamante,    associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and    Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.    Read    more from Joyce E. Cutler.  
    Gerrymander Power on the Line: A shift toward    independent redistricting commissions helped spur national    political parties to spend record cash in the hope of    controlling the next congressional redistricting. The outcomes    in just a few races in a few states will determine the    Republican Partys chances of winning congressional majorities    for the next decade. And were fighting like hell to win,    Republican State Leadership Committee President Austin Chambers    said in an email. His group raised $23 million in the third    quarter and is targeting 115 districts that could hold the keys    to a 136-seat swing in the U.S. House.  
    Democrats are fighting money with money. The Democratic    Legislative Campaign Committee has pledged to spend $50 million    in state races this cyclemore than six times what it spent in    2010. Read    more from Alex Ebert.  
    Biden Courts Latino Voters as Tie-Breakers:    Biden appealed to Hispanic voters in Florida, a closely divided    battleground state where a win next week would give him the    presidency. The heart and soul of the country is at stake    right here in Florida. Its up to you. You hold the key. If    Florida goes blue, its over, Biden said in a neighborhood in    Broward County, which stretches south from Fort Lauderdale    toward Miami and is a key source of Democratic votes in the    state. Read    more from Jennifer Epstein.  
    Facebook Says Technical Hiccups Improperly Blocked    Campaign Ads: Facebook revealed yesterday how internal    technical glitches disrupted the delivery of some ads from the    Biden and Trump campaigns, but said it made changes to resolve    those hiccups in the run-up to the November election. The    social media giants admission followed complaints from the    Biden camp about how thousands of its ads were blocked.    Facebook said in a blog post it spotted unanticipated issues    affecting both campaigns, including technical flaws that caused    a number of ads to be paused improperly. Read    more from Sarah Frier.  
    Trumps Social Media Order Defeats Legal    Challenge: The Trump administration defeated a challenge by    Rock the Vote and Voto Latino to a recent executive order    targeting social media companies that fact-check the    presidents posts about the election, when a federal judge said    yesterday that the get-out-the-vote groups lacked standing to    bring the case. Judge William H. Orrick said the groups    couldnt show the order regulated Facebook, Twitter, or another    social media website in any way or credibly threatened them    with prosecution. Read    more from Mike Leonard.  
    BGOV    OnPoint: Section 230 Internet Shield Faces Bipartisan    Attacks.  
    Zeta Disrupts Early Voting in Georgia:    Hurricane Zeta caused disruptions to early voting across the    South yesterday, including in the key battleground states of    Georgia and North Carolina. Zeta, now a tropical storm, knocked    out power to more than 1 million homes and businesses as early    in-person voting enters a final stretch with five days to go    until Election Day. Friday is Georgias last day to vote while    voters in North Carolina have until Saturday. Read    more from Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou and Joe Ryan.  
    More Hawaiians Voted Early Than All of 2016:    Early voting in Hawaii has already surpassed the total number    of ballots cast in the state in the 2016 election. Data from    the U.S. Elections Project, which tracks early voting, found    Hawaii has seen turnout hit 104.5% of its total from the last    election. More than half of all registered voters in Hawaii    have already sent in their ballots, topping the record for the    total number of votes cast in the state for a general election.    Read    more from Emma Kinery.  
    U.S. Sets Daily Virus Case Record: New U.S.    cases topped 86,000, setting a new daily record, as the    outbreak intensifies ahead of next weeks presidential    election. Read    more from Bloomberg News.  
    U.S. Buying Gowns from Untested Makers: Several    U.S. companies that won almost half a billion dollars in    government contracts to make hospital gowns appear to have too    few workers and not enough factory space to complete the job    when the awards were made, according to a Bloomberg Law    analysis. At least 11 contractors and subcontractors began    making protective gear only after the pandemic began, according    to press releases and news reports. Of the 15 primary    contractors, eight had never received a federal contract prior    to 2020, according to federal government contracting records.    The Defense Department says contractors went through a rigorous    process and met stringent criteria.  
    Still, members of Congress are raising questions. Some of    those contracts have been to companies that have very little    experience with producing that kind of equipment, that the    standards have not always been up to par, and its created some    real challenges, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)    said during a Senate Armed Services committee hearing Oct 1.    Read    more from Shira Stein.  
    Covid Relief Laws May Bolster ACA Legal Case:    Republicans may have hurt their own legal case against    Obamacare by repeatedly expanding on and amending the signature    health law since 2017, most recently in their response to the    coronavirus pandemic. You cant build on the ACAs protections    for the Covid bills if the act doesnt exist, said Abbe Gluck,    a professor of law and the founding faculty director of the    Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School.  
    The U.S. Supreme Court will assess legal arguments on the    constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act on Nov. 10. What    Congress intended to do with the ACA is a central line of    dispute in the high stakes case, and the pandemic has given    supporters of the law a new opportunity to prove it was meant    to stay. Read    more from Lydia Wheeler.  
    New Projection Shows Higher Death Toll: The    Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, an influential    modeling group, is projecting a higher death toll in the U.S.    amid the surge in Covid cases and hospitalizations. The group    is now projecting about 405,000 deaths due to the virus by Feb.    1, representing a nearly 20,000 increase from a prior    projection of 386,000. Europe is seeing a surge right now and    Europe is ahead about a month from the United States, said Ali    Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences with IHME. So    basically we are watching what would unfold here in the United    States. Read    more.  
    CDC Evictions Moratorium Upheld by Judge: A    federal judge ruled against landlord groups trying to block the    U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions national    moratorium on evictions amid the coronavirus crisis. U.S.    District Judge J.P. Boulee in Atlanta yesterday rejected a    motion for a preliminary injunction brought by the New Civil    Liberties Alliance and National Apartment Association, which    represents some 85,000 landlords responsible for 10 million    rental units. The judge said the public interest in curtailing    the spread of Covid outweighed the landlords economic    interest. Read    more from Chris Dolmetsch.  
    Trump Rule Leads Contractors to Cut Training:    Trumps recent attempt to curb corporate diversity training    will linger even if he loses Tuesdays election to Biden.    Already, federal contractors are unsure of what they can say    about race. More than 300 events, training programs, research    projects and other diversity-related activities have been    delayed or canceled because of concern about a Sept. 22    executive order aimed at banning federal contractors and    agencies from using terms in diversity training that the    administration considers divisive and illegal, according to the    African American Policy Forum, a social justice think tank. A    Labor Department official said last week that the agencys    already received more than 100 complaints via a government    hotline to report possible violations. Read    more from Paige Smith and Jeff Green.  
    Hackers Plan More Attacks on U.S. Hospitals: A    Russia-based ransomware group responsible for a new wave of    attacks against U.S. hospitals is laying the groundwork to    cripple at least ten more, according to the cybersecurity firm    Prevailion. Prevailions analysis comes a day after the FBI and    two other federal agencies issued a warning about an imminent    and credible threat to hospitals and health-care providers from    cyberattacks, including ransomware capable of locking entire    computer networks. The hacking group responsible has already    hit at least nine hospitals in three weeks, crippling critical    computer systems and demanding multimillion-dollar ransoms.    Read    more from Alyza Sebenius, William Turton and Michael Riley.  
    Insurers Must Post Out-of-Pocket Medical Costs:    Health insurers will have to post on the internet personalized    out-of-pocket costs to patients under a new rule finalized    yesterday. Insurance plans will also be required to make their    in-network negotiated rates with doctors and allowable    out-of-network rates available to the public, according to the    multiagency rule. They will be required to post their    negotiated pharmaceutical prices and the historical net prices    for all their covered drugs. Read    more from Shira Stein, Lydia Wheeler and John Tozzi.  
    How the Google Case Could Play Out: Google and    the Justice Department are set to face each other in court    today for the first time since the government sued the company    for illegally monopolizing internet search. The hearing marks    the first time attorneys for Google and the government will    come together to start mapping out the the litigation process.    It will set the stage for whats shaping up to be a drawn-out    court battle that could ultimately weaken Googles gatekeeper    position over the web if the government is successful. Vicky    Graham lays out how to follow the case as it winds its way    through federal court.  
    737 Jet Crash Victims Demand U.S. Records: The    relatives of the 157 people who died in the crash of a Boeing    737 Max in Ethiopia are demanding more records from U.S. safety    agencies, according to a pair of letters sent on the second    anniversary of another accident involving the plane. A letter    to the National Transportation Safety Board, which assisted in    the investigation of both crashes, accused it of an    unreasonable pro-secrecy stance. Alan    Levin has more.  
    Gray Wolf Protections Stripped, Stirring Lawsuit    Threats: The Interior Department announced yesterday it    will strip endangered species protections from the gray wolf.    Environmental groups vowed to challenge the decision in court,    saying it violates the Endangered Species Act by ignoring the    best available science. If Democrat Joe Biden wins the    presidency, his administration could seek to overturn the move.    Todays action reflects the Trump administrations continued    commitment to species conservation based on the parameters of    the law and the best scientific and commercial data available,    said Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Stephen    Lee and Kellie Lunney have more.  
    Administration Appeals Court Order on Visa Ban:    The Trump administration is appealing a California federal    courts Oct. 1 ruling that blocked the departments of State and    Homeland Security from barring entry to the U.S. for certain    temporary work visa holders. In their filing, U.S. Justice    Department lawyers signaled theyll ask the San Francisco-based    U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reinstate    Trumps proclamation in full, Genevieve Douglas reports.  
    To contact the reporters on this story: Zachary    Sherwood in Washington at zsherwood@bgov.com;    Brandon Lee in Washington at blee@bgov.com  
    To contact the editors responsible for this story:    Giuseppe Macri at gmacri@bgov.com;    Loren Duggan at lduggan@bgov.com;    Michaela Ross at mross@bgov.com  
The rest is here:
What to Know in Washington: Provisional Ballots May Play Role - Bloomberg Government