🎧News Brief: Judge Overrules Arizona Official’s Decision in Unverified Voter Case; Georgia Official Says Viral Video Is Election Interference; Trump Gains Could ‘Tip the Scales’

Voters prepare to cast their early-ballots in Tempe, Arizona, on Oct. 10, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, we have some very compelling stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s going on just three days before the presidential election.

A judge makes a critical decision regarding voter lists in a key swing state, a top election official comments on a video alleging voter fraud in Georgia, and one particular portion of the population could tip the scales in favor of former President Donald Trump.

Also, Vice President Kamala Harris makes a final pitch to a large group of voters in a couple of western battleground states, and the job numbers from last month have just been revealed—if you’re looking for work, this is something you definitely want to hear about.

We have a great deal to get to today and we begin here: A Maricopa County judge says that Arizona must release a list of registered voters whose citizenship status has not been verified, and here’s what we’ve learned.

Judge Overrules Arizona Official’s Decision in Unverified Voter Case

The list contains over 200,000 voters, and it includes people who did not provide documentary proof of citizenship when they registered.

The affected voters were incorrectly marked as having provided the documentation due to a coding glitch in the state’s record-keeping system managed by the state’s Motor Vehicles Division and the secretary of state’s office.

The court ordered Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to turn over the list to a conservative watchdog group called the Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona, which is also known as EZAZ.org. The group had filed a public records lawsuit to access the data.

A lawyer for EZAZ.org said that the suit was about restoring transparency to the election process and making sure that county recorders can verify that each voter is actually a U.S. citizen.

The judge ordered Fontes to release the list to EZAZ.org by Nov. 4. However, the watchdog group is barred from contacting any of the individuals on the list until the day after the election and cannot distribute any personal information to anyone else.

So you know, Fontes has resisted disclosing the list, saying he’s concerned that the people who are on it could face harassment.

However, the judge pointed out that the state’s public records law favors revealing the list, unless there’s a clear threat either to the state’s interests or to individual privacy.

By the way, earlier this month, the secretary of state’s office said that all of the affected voters will remain eligible to vote in the 2024 general election, and that election officials will contact them if necessary after Nov. 5.

We continue now with more election news and a top official in Georgia says that a viral video that shows illegal voting in that battleground state is not real, and here’s what’s going on.

Georgia Official Says Viral Video Is Election Interference

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says that a video allegedly showing a Haitian immigrant claiming to have carried out voter fraud in the current U.S. presidential election is a fake, and that it’s an example of targeted disinformation.

The 20-second video recently appeared on social media platform X, and as of yesterday, nearly 1 million people had already watched it. The video appears to show a man with a number of state IDs claiming to have illegally voted for Harris many times in the presidential race.

Raffensperger says his office believes that the video is most likely the result of Russian interference, and that it’s “attempting to sow discord and chaos” on the eve of the presidential election.

He also said that his office is working with both state and federal officials to track down the origin of the video, and he urged social media companies to remove it from their platforms.

Earlier this week, several U.S. intelligence agencies issued a joint statement declaring that a recent video which apparently showed someone ripping up ballots in Pennsylvania was also part of the Russian disinformation campaign. The agencies said that the video was designed to raise “unfounded questions” about the integrity of the upcoming election.

U.S. intelligence officials have warned that Moscow’s efforts to influence the 2024 presidential election are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with bad actors using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate divisive content.

Additionally, the National Intelligence Council also recently warned that foreign adversaries including Russia, Iran, and China, are ramping up their election interference efforts in order to divide Americans and undermine their confidence in the U.S. democratic system.

Moving along, a recent poll shows that Trump and Harris are in a dead heat for the nation’s highest office, but one segment of the population could hand the win to Trump, and here’s what you need to know.

Trump Gains Could ‘Tip the Scales’

A new poll from a group called TIPP Insights shows that Trump has made “significant inroads” among black voters, and the group says that this substantial gain could “tip the balance” in a very tight election.

The poll says that Trump and Harris are deadlocked at 48 percent each, and it also shows that Trump has gained traction with both high school-educated voters and people over the age of 65.

Meanwhile, according to TIPP, Harris has gained ground with voters who have some college education, as well as with independent voters.

The pollster pointed out that the biggest shifts for both candidates are “education-based,” but the poll did not include whether or not Harris or Trump made gains with any other minority groups, including Latinos, Asian Americans, or Native Americans.

The pollster says that based on the data, Trump is not anticipated to win the popular vote because Democrats still have a significant edge in both California and the state of New York.

The research says that national polls, which are packed with blue-state voters, skew the numbers in favor of Democrats. It also concluded that the popular vote is irrelevant in the electoral college, and that the race is still “razor-close.”

A RealClearPolitics collection of recent national polls shows Trump with a very slight lead over Harris, including an average of a 1-percent lead in the seven battleground states.

Let’s stay on topic and now with Nov. 5 only days away, Harris is making her case to a critical voting bloc out west that could actually decide the election, and here’s more on that story.

Harris Targets Voter Group in Final Stretch

Harris held a number of recent campaign events in both Arizona and Nevada, two key battlegrounds with large Latino populations.

In both states, Harris began her speech by discussing economic challenges, especially the high cost of living. She said that bringing those living costs down would top her list and would be her focus “every single day” if she’s elected to the nation’s highest office.

Harris also said she would deliver tax cuts to more than 100 million Americans, enact a federal ban on price gouging for groceries, and ensure housing affordability.

In this year’s election, constitutional amendments dealing with abortion access will also be on the ballot in both Arizona and Nevada, and Harris has been targeting Trump for some comments he made earlier this week regarding this very divisive issue.

Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center reported that more than 35 million Latinos are eligible to cast their ballots in this election, accounting for nearly 15 percent of all U.S. voters.

Additionally, another report from Pew shows that 85 percent of Latino voters consider the economy to be very important in this year’s presidential election, followed by health care, violent crime and gun policy, and immigration.

By the way, a recent poll taken by NBC News and Telemundo showed that more than half of all registered Latino voters support Harris, compared to 40 percent who back Trump. However, some recent surveys show that a growing number of Latino male voters are now leaning toward the former president.

We have time for just one more story today and this one involves the economy, the labor market, and our nation’s most recent natural disasters, and if you’re looking for a new job, you gotta hear this.

US Adds 12,000 Jobs in October, Lowest in 4 Years

Yesterday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the final comprehensive snapshot of the national labor market before next week’s presidential election, and the numbers show that the economy added only 12,000 new jobs last month.

The number was far below the consensus estimate of over 100,000 jobs, and it represented the smallest monthly employment gain in nearly four years.

The report also showed that last month, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at just over 4 percent.

Earlier this week, the White House said that the October jobs report would be affected by a number of recent strikes, along with a pair of devastating hurricanes. However, BLS officials say that their household survey was conducted according to standard procedures, and that the response rates to their questions were in fact normal.

The BLS survey showed that last month, over 350,000 jobs were lost. Most of last month’s employment gains were centered in the health care and government fields, while the labor levels for the leisure and hospitality, retail, and financial activities industries stayed just about the same.

Full-time employment declined by over 150,000 people, and part-time jobs fell by more than 200,000 workers.

The gap between U.S.- and foreign-born employment levels widened last month, with U.S. workers dropping and foreign-born workers increasing from 12 months ago.

Now, here’s a bit of good news: Average hourly earnings rose slightly, after trending downward just a month earlier.

However, the economy continues to be a top issue for voters heading to the ballot box, and this latest employment data could add to growing discontentment about economic conditions.

And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re gonna call it a wrap for the Saturday edition (our weekend) of the Epoch Times News Brief.

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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 Billy Cox, who said:

“The two things in life you are in total control over are your attitude and your effort.”

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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For now, let’s all continue to watch out for one another and have an absolutely superb day today. Bye for now.