Democrats Win Louisiana Bid to Extend Mail Vote: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Democrats win a bid to expand mail-in voting in Louisiana. Jim Carrey will play Democratic nominee Joe Biden on “Saturday Night Live.” And Arizona is preparing for an election in which as many as 88% of ballots may be cast early.

There are 48 days until the election.

Other Developments:

• Biden Embraces Vaccines, Science: ‘I Don’t Trust Donald Trump’
• Trump Says Redfield Made Mistake on Vaccine Timeline
• Ohio’s GOP Leaders Escalate Bid to Curb Use of Ballot Drop Boxes
• White House Telegraphs Willingness to Increase Stimulus Offer

Democrats Win Louisiana Bid to Extend Mail Vote

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked an effort by Louisiana’s Republican secretary of state to roll back absentee and early voting expansions that were adopted for the primary elections due to the coronavirus.

Chief Judge Shelly D. Dick of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana described Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin’s proposals to undo the plans enacted over the summer as “bumbling attempts to fix what was not broken.”

The judge also ordered 10 days of early voting beginning Oct. 16.

Dick also rejected Ardoin’s arguments that rolling back the emergency rules would prevent voter fraud, saying the secretary of state had not offered “a scintilla of evidence of fraud associated with voting by mail in Louisiana.”

Louisiana’s Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, had opposed the effort to cut back on early and absentee voting. -- Jennifer Kay

Jim Carrey Will Play Joe Biden on This Season’s SNL (4:17 p.m.)

Comedian Jim Carrey, known for his elastic-faced expressions, will play Biden on the new season of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” next month.

After observing social distancing for most of the year, the long-running sketch comedy show will resume shooting in front of a limited in-studio audience on Oct. 3, the Saturday after Biden and President Donald Trump spar at the first presidential debate.

Biden has frequently been played by one-time “SNL” cast member Jason Sudeikis. Woody Harreslon sometimes appeared as the former vice president during the Democratic primary season.

Alec Baldwin has played President Donald Trump since 2016 on the show. -- Emma Kinery

Arizona Says It’s Ready for 88% of Ballots to Be Cast Early (2:55 p.m.)

Arizona election officials say they are ready for as many as 88% of the ballots in the November election to be cast early.

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said Wednesday that Arizona’s already robust vote-by-mail system should be able to handle an influx of new mail-in voters due to concerns over the coronavirus in the state, which has a sizable senior population.

Arizona “is in really good shape,” she said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

Voters can request mail-in ballots until Oct. 23, but 75% of voters are already on the state’s permanent early voting list, Hobbs said. Ballots will be sent out starting Oct. 7, and county recorders can immediately start verifying signatures once voters return them.

Election workers can also start tabulating ballots up to 14 days before Election Day. Apart from the possible impacts of pending litigation, Hobbs doesn’t foresee big changes to Arizona’s vote-by-mail process before Nov. 3, Hobbs said. “What’s in place now, I think, is where we’re at for the election,” she said. -- Brenna Goth

President Pelosi? Try President Grassley or President Leahy Instead (12:32 p.m.)

A far-fetched theory that election turmoil in November will end up with Speaker Nancy Pelosi becoming president has taken off among conservatives.

But there are a few holes in its logic.

Trump first floated the idea in a speech Aug. 21, saying that “there is a theory that if you don’t have it by the end of the year, crazy Nancy Pelosi would become president.” Former Reagan speechwriter Douglas MacKinnon, Fox News and conservative websites and Facebook groups have since run with the “President Pelosi” idea.

Here’s the problem. Under the Constitution, Trump’s term ends on Jan. 20, 2021. If, as the theory proposes, a president and vice president have not been chosen by then, the line of succession kicks in. While the speaker is next in line, it’s not necessarily the case that would be Pelosi.

While Democrats are favored to continue their House majority in January, that’s not guaranteed. Pelosi would also need to win the majority of her caucus to become speaker. And nothing in the Constitution prevents the House from choosing whomever it wants -- even someone who is not a member of the House.

Finally, if the election turmoil somehow also tripped up congressional elections, then the next in line would be the Senate president pro tem, typically the most senior member of the majority. If Democrats were in control, that would mean President Patrick Leahy; Republicans, President Chuck Grassley.

Biden Again Stops Politicking at the Water’s Edge (11:01 a.m.)

Biden has twice avoided criticizing the president’s foreign policy actions in recent weeks, sticking to a decades old practice of leaving politics at the U.S. border.

In a statement Tuesday, Biden praised a deal brokered by the Trump administration to have United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalize ties with Israel, saying if elected his administration would “build on these steps.”

The Biden campaign issued an even longer statement praising the UAE and Israel’s new steps in a statement after it was announced in mid August, and Biden said during a virtual fundraiser last week that Trump was “going to accidentally do something positive here.”

It wasn’t the first time. Biden said in 2019 that Trump was right to walk away from his second summit with North Korea, though he criticized his negotiating style. In an interview last week, he said Trump’s United States-Mexico-Canda Trade Agreement was “better than NAFTA” in an interview with CNN.

Despite the backhanded compliment, the Biden approach is closer to the bipartisan approach to foreign policy during the Cold War era than Trump’s own strategy of harshly criticizing President Barack Obama’s achievements even when he agreed with their goals.

New Poll Suggests Trump Campaign’s Minnesota Fallback May Fail (9:50 a.m.)

In four out of seven winning election night scenarios presented by the Trump campaign last week, the president flipped Minnesota from the Democrats.

But a new poll shows that it may be out of reach.

After losing Minnesota by just 1.5% in 2016, Trump has long mused about putting it in the Republican column for the first time since 1972. But a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday shows Biden ahead by 16 points.

In the poll, 57% of likely voters in Minnesota backed Biden, while 41% backed Trump. That’s the highest Biden has reached in a poll in the state this month, but four other recent polls show him with a comfortable eight- or nine-point lead.

The Trump campaign included Minnesota in states the president could win under scenarios it dubbed “Landslide,” “Midwest Strength” and “Working Class Surge” and “Rust Belt Strength.” In the latter two scenarios, Trump would lose without Minnesota’s 10 electors.

The survey of 615 likely voters in Minnesota was conducted Sept. 8-13. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Trump Says ‘Herd Mentality’ Could Cure Coronavirus (6:59 a.m.)

Trump said that the coronavirus pandemic could end naturally once enough Americans are exposed to the virus.

In a town hall with ABC News in Pennsylvania Tuesday night, the president said the coronavirus would go away without a vaccine “over a period of time,” misstating the term for “herd immunity.”

“You’ll develop like a herd mentality,” he said. “It’s going to be herd-developed. That’s going to happen. That will all happen. But with a vaccine, I think it will go away very quickly.”

Asian American Voters Back Biden by Large Margin

Biden is the overwhelming favorite of Asian American voters, who favor him over Trump, 54% to 30%, according to a new poll. But his advantage shrinks to 46% to 38% among Asian Americans in battleground states.

The Asian American Voter Survey is the most authoritative poll of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, which is often too small to accurately poll in a given state. It has an overall margin of error of plus-or-minus 2 percentage points.

Indian Americans are among the most loyal Democrats, with 66% support. But that number has declined from 77% since 2016, despite Biden’s decision to put Kamala Harris, whose mother was an Indian immigrant, on the ticket. The poll was being conducted when Harris’ nomination was announced Aug. 11.

Pollster Karthick Ramakrishnan of the University of California, Riverside said Trump has made inroads among Asian Americans in general, and especially Indian Americans, through his two-day tour of India in February and through his relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Even though Indian Americans have been really Democratic, what these data show is there’s still room for persuasion and being in the White House can make a difference,” he said. -- Gregory Korte

Biden Plays ‘Despacito’ on his Mobile Phone at Latino Event

Biden played “Despacito” on his mobile phone after being introduced by its singer-songwriter at a Hispanic heritage event in Florida.

After being introduced by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi at an event kicking off Hispanic Heritage Month in Kissimmee, Biden pulled his iPhone out of his pocket.

“I just have one thing to say,” he said before playing the chart-topping Spanish language pop song, even bobbing his head briefly to the music.

In his introductory remarks, Fonsi had cited the song’s massive success -- which included a cover by Justin Bieber and No. 1 spots on multiple charts -- as a reason to believe in America.

“‘Despacito’ proved to me that in this country we will never be defined by our differences,” he said. -- Tyler Pager

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