People are voting tomorrow all over the country, every state, “the great mystery of democracy” as a 20^th-century political sage called it will actually happen and the polls will be history, right or wrong. The era of early voting including mail-in has muddled that sense of one-day-settles-all. Here is the morning tally from Pluribus News: More than 40.5 million Americans have voted already this year, according to University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald’s U.S. Elections Project. In the 23 states where voters register by party, Democrats hold a 43%-34% turnout edge.

Also in News You Can Use this week: Election disruption attempts in Maryland and some other states; Congress's "lame duck" session; Wes Moore gets ink; a West Virginia refugee crisis here? Read on.

NATIONAL

People are voting tomorrow all over the country, every state, “the great mystery of democracy” as a 20^th-century political sage called it will actually happen and the polls will be history, right or wrong. The era of early voting including mail-in has muddled that sense of one-day-settles-all. Here is the morning tally from Pluribus News: More than 40.5 million Americans have voted already this year, according to University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald’s U.S. Elections Project. In the 23 states where voters register by party, Democrats hold a 43%-34% turnout edge.

After the results, what? Bets are being hedged for “the lame-duck session”…

Megan Essaheb of our national affiliate People’s Action is reporting that the group is “supporting conversations among some Congressional Democrats about using budget reconciliation to lift the debt ceiling without Republicans before the end of the year should Republicans win one or both houses of Congress. House Republicans have already promised to hold the debt ceiling hostage in order to extract cuts to Medicare and social security! And they mean it. Just threatening not to vote to lift the debt ceiling in the weeks leading up to the deadline will upset the financial markets, which could be harmful to employment (we may already be headed towards a recession). Politico reports that aides to President Biden are discussing this plan. “

National-local

MD candidate’s staffer alleged to attempt “disruption” of election

A top staffer for GOP attorney general candidate Michael Peroutka was recorded urging partisans of the Trumpish candidate to vote late and create long lines at the polls.

Maryland Matters reported “Vote on November 8th as late in the day as possible,” said [Peroutka campaign coordinator Macky] Stafford. “If everyone could stand in long, long lines at 6 o’clock, that would actually help us.” The video was obtained by WBAL-TV (Channel 11). In the brief snippet the station aired, it couldn’t be determined why Stafford believed that long lines on Election Day would benefit Peroutka.” Pluribus reports Activists in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Arizona, Michigan” as well as Maryland “are telling their voters to show up late.”

Most observers could guess that, in addition to being a form of voter suppression (the sight of long lines might cause voters to turn around and go home rather than vote), long lines could delay the closing of polling places and the completion of the count in the election. If the race remained officially unsettled for extra hours those hours could be filled with right-wing social media posts casting doubt on the outcome or its legitimacy. A Monday-morning WaPo dispatch amplifies this trend.

New FBI building location is newly unsettled

Congress, in the lame-duck session, will also be back on the case of where to put the new FBI building, and Maryland officials are hollering foul about some new wrinkles in the contract criteria that could point toward favoring Virginia. WaPo

STATE

Thanks to one or two senators the extension of the Child Care Tax Credit that rescued so many households during the height of Covid was not renewed in the stripped-down “Inflation Reduction” bill. But it’s not dead. Here’s a tool kit from the Progressive Caucus for pushing Congress to include it in the end of the year spending bill

And speaking of lifesavers during Covid… Md. officials: SNAP helped thousands during pandemic, but challenges navigating system remain

Assembly members heard at a hearing last week that state officials say the rolls of Marylanders seeking food stamps swelled by 35% during the pandemic, when a waiver on income requirements was in effect, but apparently poor communication with recipients meant many failed to renew the benefits, while fraudsters pounced and looted many accounts with varieties of identity theft. State officials’ performance presented a mixed picture. Maryland Matters

Very local

Capital News Service reports book banning resonates as an issue in Maryland school board races across the state.

Apparent gubernatorial frontrunner Wes Moore is suddenly getting surprise ink:

The New Republic: “Wes Moore is the most overlooked candidate …” while the WaPo is gaga about how military school saved him (remember, D-Trump was in that kind of uniformed space too)

And if he wins? From POLITICO PLAYBOOK last Wednesday; maybe this sounds like someplace you know?

“Several states next week are positioned to become places where one party controls the governorship and the legislature. “One-party rule is generally regarded as a good thing for the party in power, while divided government, the argument goes, allows for key checks and balances. But there are perils to unilateral power,” our colleague Lisa Kashinsky writes this morning . “It can bring dormant intraparty fault lines to the surface [our emphasis], torch relationships among lawmakers and splinter the party in power’s voter base. In some cases, unified control can lead to the sorts of insurmountable impasses and general gridlock it’s expected to avoid.”

But then again… WaPo columnist Courtland Milloy notes “There’s nothing like a drive from Maryland, where I live, to Louisiana, where I was born, to refresh my appreciation for the right to vote…. Heading back to my home in Prince George’s County, I cut through Alabama, where every highway sign resonates with historic heartbreak and hope — Birmingham, Selma, Montgomery. …In Maryland, the process of voting is as it should be everywhere in this country. I can vote early. I can vote by mail, by drop box or in person. The state board of elections website shows you how to register to vote, how to get a ballot sent to your home, how to properly cast and track your ballot. You can use the website to learn how to become a candidate and what some offices entail so you can match a candidate’s qualifications with the job requirements. …

“It’s a pity that Black people in nearly 30 states are having to find a way around the myriad voter suppression and voter restriction efforts now being legislated for maximum deterrence during the midterm elections.”

Refugee Crisis in our Future?

West Virginia county officials are “very, very nervous” about a measure on the November ballot that would deeply slash business property taxes in the state. Counties depend on their share of those taxes for big chunks of their budgets; “the taxes that could be eliminated make up between 20% to 35% of the revenue for counties in the state because property taxes are their main source of revenue,” according to the account in Route Fifty. Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, opposes the measure and blames business lobbyists for it, including the sweetener that would remove WVA residents’ taxes on their personal vehicles.