While voting by mail has become more common since the pandemic, some recent troubles they shook the confidence of some voters in the system. Just this week, there were polls in Oregon and Washington onwhile in Miamia pile of sealed ballots fell from a poll worker’s truck, causing concern among voters.

If you’ve already voted by mail or plan to vote in the coming days but are worried about it getting to its final destination, your state may allow you to track the status of your ballot online. Beyond reducing the volume of calls to local election offices, these tracking systems can restore confidence in the voting process, said National Elections Expert Amber McReynolds.

Read here for steps on how to track your ballot.

Nicole Wallace, on her MSNBC show “Deadline: White House,” did one public plea Friday night to her old boss, the former president George W. Bushto speak out against former President Donald Trump before Election Day.

Wallace, who served as White House communications director in the Bush administration, said he understands better than many that after the presidency, he prefers to speak through his actions, his work with veterans and his presidential library.

But after Trump’s insults and his use violent language about the former rep. Liz Cheneyhis vice president’s daughter, Wallace said she reached out to his office to see if he would “change his mind about staying quiet before the election.”

An adviser told him that Bush did not want to enter the election.

After airing some of Bush’s own words about what Americans are doing to defend freedom in the face of threats, Wallace said, “We have a right to hope that those who have supported freedom and celebrated those who have protect her might have one last moment. -minute of change of heart in the closing hours of this campaign.”

Texas’ top election official, Secretary of State Jane Nelson said the state would not allow federal monitors into Texas polling places.

“Texans can trust the state’s strong measures to ensure the integrity of elections,” Nelson said in a post on X, where he also posted his letter to the Department of Justice.

The Department of Justice enforces federal voting rights laws that protect the rights of all eligible citizens to access the ballot. The department regularly deploys its staff to monitor compliance with federal civil rights laws in US elections

The Department of Justice, in enforcing federal voting rights laws, regularly sends monitors to ensure voting rights are followed. It announced plans Friday to send monitors to 86 jurisdictions in 27 states, including eight locations in Texas.

US Supreme Court on Friday refused to freeze a decision from Pennsylvania’s highest court, which required election officials to count provisional ballots submitted by people whose mail-in ballots were invalid because they did not have required secrecy envelopes.

The judges’ order means election officials in the key battleground state must count provisional ballots submitted on Election Day by voters who returned defective ballots either because they did not include secret envelopes or because they did not sign or dated outer envelope.

Donald Trump held his final Wisconsin rally of the 2024 campaign on Friday night, returning to the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, site of the Republican convention, to deliver his closing message to the Badger State. In 2016, he won Wisconsin, but lost the state’s 10 electoral votes to Joe Biden in 2020.

The rally was marred by microphone problems. People in the upper sections at the back of the arena could not hear Trump, and he expressed his frustration with the technical problems.

“I’m hot. I’m kicking my ass with a bad microphone,” Trump said.

He then rudely gestured at the microphone stand, complaining that it was too low. He held the microphone for the rest of the rally, but complained about how heavy it was several times. He also threatened not to pay the contractor.

“You want to see me fuck people backstage?” Trump asked. “I’m not asking for much. The only thing I’m asking for is a good microphone. And this is the second time today that this has happened.”

He blamed campaign manager Susie Wiles for the microphone problem.

By Olivia Rinaldi and Katrina Kaufman

Both Donald Trump Trump and Kamala Harris campaigned in the Milwaukee area Friday night, heading into the final weekend of the 2024 campaign. Harris didn’t deviate much from her standard speech in West Allis, Michigan, a suburb of Milwaukee. . She urged those who have not yet voted to vote.

“No judgment, no judgment — but get to it,” Harris said, before going over his list of campaign promises and litany of grievances against Trump.

Cardi B, who spoke shortly before Harris, told the crowd that she had no plans to vote this year, but “Kamala Harris changed my mind.”

She called Trump a “bully” and said, “I can’t stand a bully, but like Kamala, I can stand one.” Cardi B has repeatedly said she was nervous to speak at the rally. Women, she said, have to work 10 times as much as men “and yet people question us.”