It's the Sunday before Election Day

Ohio's top election official affirmed that every legally cast vote needs to be counted in his state, including those that arrive after election day in accordance with Ohio law. 

When asked about what President Trump has said that he wanted the results of the election that night, LaRose added, “That's not the way elections work. It's just simply not, it's not the way elections work in Ohio or most any other state election night is a snapshot in time.” 

Ohio law allows for absentee ballots post marked by election date to be received up to 10 days after election day and still be counted. 

“Every legally cast valid deserves to be counted and will be counted by our boards collections and reported as part of our final certified result at the end of the month,” LaRose added. 

Some context: Last week, Ohio set two new daily records for new cases of Covid-19.

The state is under a statewide mask order, to try and slow the spread of the virus. The order has been contentious in some parts of the state. Voters who arrive to the polls who do not wear a facemask will be offered one, LaRose said. If they refuse to wear one other accommodations like curbside voting will be offered, he added.

“Of course, if somebody refuses all of those accommodations that we offer them, we can't turn anyone away. No one will be disenfranchised here in Ohio," he added.

First lady Melania Trump is set to make her fourth solo campaign stop of the election on Monday in Huntersville, North Carolina.

As of Sunday morning in North Carolina, 61.7% of the 7,345,481 registered voters in the state have already voted, by either Absentee Ballot or Early Voting. Early voting concluded Saturday at 3 p.m. local time.  

There were more than 3.6 million one-stop early voting ballots cast, and over 929,000 absentee by-mail ballots in the state.

Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, has similar numbers with 62% of the county’s registered voters having already cast their ballot via absentee ballot or early voting.  

President Trump’s election night party is expected to be moved to the East Room of the White House, a person familiar with the plans said.

While Trump had initially planned to hold a gathering on Tuesday night at the Trump Hotel in Washington, DC, the limits on the number of people who can gather indoors caused some problems for the planning. Discussions shifted to the idea of just holding it at the White House, where Trump will spend the evening of Election Day.

Trump on Saturday said he might be going to the hotel during some of the evening.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The New York Times first reported the plans.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris underwent PCR testing for Covid-19 Sunday and the virus was not detected, per a Harris aide.

Harris is in Georgia and North Carolina today and Pennsylvania on Monday for the last days of campaigning.

White House pandemic adviser Dr. Scott Atlas gave an extensive interview to RT, the Kremlin-controlled state media network in which he asserted coronavirus lockdowns “are killing people,” attacked public health experts and dismissed models predicting hundreds of thousands more pandemic deaths in the US.

Atlas gave the interview via satellite from the White House grounds, according to the footage. He said the pandemic is improving in the US, even as daily case counts and death counts hit new records for the pandemic as a whole.

Atlas, who is a radiologist and who has no expertise in infectious diseases or epidemiology, also dismissed forecasts from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine that forecasts 399,000 coronavirus deaths in the US by Feb. 1 under current conditions.

“The IHME model is really sort – it’s absurd to start looking at this model at this point,” Atlas said. “At this point in time anybody who’s even focusing on models has not learned from the past.”

Atlas tweeted an apology Sunday.

“I recently did an interview with RT and was unaware they are a registered foreign agent. I regret doing the interview and apologize for allowing myself to be taken advantage of. I especially apologize to the national security community who is working hard to defend us,” Atlas said in the tweet.

President Trump stepped into 37-degree Michigan underneath a black umbrella and descended the stairs into wind and hard rain.

Trump is now heading to Washington, Michigan, for his first rally of the day.

“It’s tough out here,” he said as he fought with the wind and the umbrella, climbing into the limo. 

From Michigan, Trump heads to Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Citing his record on the economy, reductions in unemployment for Black Americans, and his America-first trade policies, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, announced it was endorsing President Trump for a second term.

Some context: The presidential endorsement, the first for a Republican since 1972, was announced on the newspaper’s website late Saturday night. 

Republican Sen. Rick Scott, of Florida, admitted that the US has not beaten Covid-19, contrary to President Trump’s consistent messaging that America is “rounding the corner” on the pandemic.

When asked on the safety of Trump’s large campaign rallies, which have featured scarce masking of attendees and no social distancing, Scott emphasized the importance of public safety measures.

“There’s a way to do these things safely, and that’s what my expecting is, that every American does that. But it’s part of all of us, everybody has got to take this – I mean, take it seriously,” Scott said. “We haven’t beaten this yet.”