Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, we have some very pressing stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s going on.
Election officials in a critical swing state say it will take some time to count the ballots, the voting system in a different battleground state breaks down on its very first day, and prosecutors in the Midwest have just charged some noncitizens with illegal voting.
Also, the recent food recall caused by a deadly bacteria keeps being expanded, and a new report shows that most Americans can’t afford to pay for an emergency.
Arizona Officials Issue Election Warning
Officials in Arizona’s most populous county are warning that it may take them between 10 and 13 days to tabulate all of the ballots they receive in the upcoming election.Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said that counting the votes might take so long because the ballot is two pages in length, there are dozens of contests per ballot, and there is heightened interest in the presidential election.
Gates said that more than 2.1 million Maricopa voters are expected to cast their ballots for the upcoming contest, and he pointed out that so far, around 400,000 people have already voted.
The assistant county manager said that longer ballots and higher interest will create longer lines on Election Day, and he advised people to either vote by mail or early in person if they want to avoid waiting.
By the way, early voting data compiled by the University of Florida shows that Republicans hold a 38,000-vote advantage in terms of early voting in Arizona.
You should know that in 2020, state election officials certified the race for candidate Joe Biden over President Donald Trump by a margin of about 11,000 votes. For that election, Maricopa County officials certified the results 17 days after Election Day due to a significant number of early in-person and mail-in ballots.
In the aftermath of the 2020 contest, Trump and other Republicans alleged that Arizona’s election was marred by voter fraud. However, all of the lawsuits that they filed against Arizona and Maricopa County officials were ultimately dismissed.
By the way, Maricopa County includes the city of Phoenix and is by far the most populous area in Arizona. As of March, it had more than 4.5 million residents, which is more than half the state’s entire population.
Wisconsin Election Agency Confirms System Outages on First Day of Early Voting
Election officials in Wisconsin say that high voter turnout on the first day of in-person absentee voting on Tuesday caused the election system throughout the swing state to experience a number of slowdowns, problems, and complications.In Milwaukee, people told local media outlets that they were waiting for several hours to vote, and in Glendale, Wisconsin, the city reported on social media that high voter turnout there had caused “severe delays” as well as “periodic outages.”
The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) reported that the surprisingly large turnout had caused some very significant “system lags” in the state’s WisVote program, and that some of their election clerks had experienced what they were calling a “period of slowness.” Later, the WEC announced that both of these issues had been resolved, and that neither of them would prevent anyone from voting.
According to the commission, the delays were related to the large voter turnout that placed high demands on the state’s WisVote system, which can be used to print envelope labels for the in-person absentee ballots.
It’s worth mentioning that the WEC chairwoman said that early voter turnout was greater than election officials had anticipated. She also pointed out that even though the voting process had temporarily slowed down, it never came to a complete stop.
So you know, early voting in Wisconsin will continue until two days before the election, and the state’s voters do not need to provide a reason for voting absentee. So far, more than 360,000 absentee ballots have already been returned in the state, and voters can continue to return them by mail, in person, or at any available drop boxes until 8 p.m. on Election Day.
By the way, both Democrats and Republicans have been urging voters in the key battleground state to cast their ballots early, and in the last two presidential elections, the winner of the Wisconsin race has been determined by very narrow margins.
6 People Indicted in Ohio for Allegedly Voting as Noncitizens
Grand juries in Ohio have just indicted six people for allegedly casting illegal votes in past elections when they were noncitizens.The six state residents are each accused of illegally voting in multiple elections, even though they all lacked U.S. citizenship at the time. The suspects range in age from 32 to 78, and include a mix of both men and women.
According to the indictment, which was released earlier this week, five of the accused allegedly voted between 2014 and 2020, and another suspect allegedly voted in both 2008 and 2020. None of them had U.S. citizenship at the time they cast their ballots.
Five of the people were charged with one count of illegal voting, while one of them was charged with two counts.
Earlier this week, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said that it’s illegal to vote in his state if you’re not a citizen—whether or not you thought you were allowed to—and in Ohio, you will be held accountable if you do.
By the way, illegal voting is a fourth-degree felony that carries a potential sentence of up to 18 months in prison. However, Yost said he expects that none of the defendants will be sentenced to prison time if they are convicted.
It’s worth mentioning that the attorney general’s office acted after the state’s secretary of state referred 138 cases of alleged illegal voting to the office a couple of months ago.
The attorney general says that since then, special state prosecutors have prioritized those cases involving noncitizens. He also says that some of the cases involve voting more than once, and that additional charges will likely be filed.
12 Ready Meals and Deli Products Recalled Amid Risk of Listeria Contamination
Food products manufactured by Albertsons Companies are being pulled from the market because they contain chicken that was produced in a plant found to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently said that the Idaho-based grocery store chain is voluntarily withdrawing 12 types of ready-made meals and store-made deli items, including tacos, enchiladas, and salads, because they contain an ingredient supplied by Oklahoma’s BrucePac company.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service discovered traces of the deadly bacteria during routine tests at BrucePac’s plant, and so far, nearly 12 million pounds of the company’s ready-to-eat meat and poultry products have already been pulled from the market.
The items involved in the Albertsons recall were available across 11 stores, including Pavilions, Safeway, Star Market, and Vons. These stores are spread across 21 states, ranging from Alaska to Iowa to Maine and more.
The FDA announcement warned that listeria can cause very serious and sometimes even fatal infections in young children, elderly people, and individuals with weakened immune systems. Symptoms may include high fever, severe headache, nausea, and abdominal pain.
It’s worth noting that several other companies have also pulled food products from store shelves in the aftermath of the BrucePac contamination risk.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Listeria infection is the third-leading cause of death in the United States from foodborne illness. The CDC estimates that each year, there are around 1,600 Listeria infections, and that 260 of these people will eventually die from the illness.
Most Americans Lack Funds to Cover a Financial Emergency
A new survey taken by the financial firm Bankrate shows that nearly two-thirds of all Americans say they’re living on the edge financially, and they worry that they won’t be able to cover an unexpected expense or even a short-term loss of income.The survey, which was released yesterday, shows that over 60 percent of respondents said they were behind on their emergency savings, while just over 35 percent said they were either on track or ahead.
The survey polled over 2,500 U.S. adults last month, and it’s the latest indication that many Americans have lost their financial safety net and are now increasingly vulnerable to a medical emergency or other unexpected expense.
A financial analyst with Bankrate told The Epoch Times that emergency savings have long been the Achilles’ heel for many Americans, and that the inflation and high prices the country has endured over the last few years have eroded the savings of many households.
You should know that the savings numbers in this latest Bankrate survey are slightly worse than a few months ago, and that these reports appear to contradict U.S. employment and wage data, which have been generally positive.
However, the Bankrate survey suggests that these statistics don’t capture the entire picture of the ongoing struggle by Americans to cope with inflation and higher interest rates.
You should also know that another recent Bankrate survey showed that many Americans are increasingly going into debt to pay for essentials, and that nearly 40 percent of U.S. credit card holders have either maxed out or nearly maxed out their charge card limits.
And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re going to call it a wrap for the Thursday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
Don’t forget the News Brief Motto: We’re portable, affordable, and always on-demand.
And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote, and this one comes to us from Michio Kaku, who said: “The human brain has 100 billion neurons, each neuron connected to 10,000 other neurons. Sitting on your shoulders is the most complicated object in the known universe.”
Kaku is an American physicist, science communicator, futurologist, and so much more.
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times News Brief program is written each day by David Ross.
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Enjoy the remainder of your Thursday, and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow for another edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
For now, let’s all continue to watch out for one another, and have an absolutely superb day today. Bye for now.
