AP: “The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday left in place Virginia’s purge of voter registrations that the state says is aimed at stopping people who are not U.S. citizens from voting. One Virginian, whose registration was canceled despite living in the state her entire life, called the purge “a very bad October surprise.” The high court, over…

NY Times: “When Brad Raffensperger, the Republican secretary of state in Georgia, had to pay more than half a million dollars from his own pocket to defend himself in a frivolous lawsuit about the 2020 election, he and his allies had a sudden fear. What if this happened to a local official? What if that threat of…

WaPo: “The rate of firearms deaths in several U.S. states is similar to their frequency in places around the world that are battling civil unrest or bloody gang wars, a new report shows. The report, published Wednesday by the Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group, found that theoverall rate of firearms deaths in Mississippi was nearly…

Politico: “It’s a tale about the rebirth in local manufacturing in this region, but it’s also the story of the Republican Party’s electoral resilience in North Carolina. Rural and exurban places like Davidson County may not be growing as fast as Charlotte’s Mecklenburg County and Raleigh’s Wake County, the two metropolitan engines of the state’s…

USA Today: “A Maryland Republican who leads a right-wing coalition in Congress says North Carolina’s legislature should consider awarding Electoral College votes to former President Donald Trump before citizens’ votes are counted, according to Politico. Rep. Andy Harris, the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, made the comments at a dinner on Thursday, saying the idea “makes…

NY Times: “Under Alabama prison rules, there are thin lines between work incentives, forced labor and “involuntary servitude” — which reforms to the Alabama Constitution in 2022 banned. From the viewpoint of Mr. Anderson and more than a dozen other Alabama inmates interviewed by The New York Times, the ultimate message, in practice, is straightforward:…

Political Wire: “A federal appeals court Friday ruled invalid a Mississippi law that allows election officials to count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by then,” the Washington Post reports. “The ruling came less than two weeks before the Nov. 5 presidential election and could have implications for other states…

Politico: “Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell asked Vice President Kamala Harris in a rare joint statement to tone down her rhetoric in the lead-up to Election Day, days after Harris said she considered Donald Trump a fascist…. Their statement does not mention Trump’s recent rhetoric, in which he’s referred to Harris…

USA Today: “A federal appeals court on Sunday rejected Republican efforts in Virginia to reinstate a purge of suspected noncitizens from voter rolls. U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles on Friday blocked a state program that had removed about 1,500 names since Aug. 7 because federal law prohibits voter purges within 90 days of an election. She also ordered the…

Fox News: “Anti-death penalty advocates held a rally over the weekend in Texas calling for capital punishment to be abolished, as several high-profile death row cases in Texas and other states have sparked debate over whether the death penalty should remain. Former death row inmates spoke at the 25th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty on…