Trump refuses to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, Democrats fight to overcome mail-in voting shenanigans, and Republicans make appeals to QAnon supporters. Then Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer talks to Jon about the Democratic strategy around the coming Supreme Court battle.

Show notes

Election shenanigans 

• CNN: Trump refuses to commit to a peaceful transition of power after Election Day 
• WaPo: Parsing Trump’s ‘there won’t be a transfer’ comments
• WESA: PA Is Poised To Take An Usually Restrictive Approach To Mail-In Ballots
• Axios: How “naked ballots” could upend mail-in voting in Pennsylvania 
• WTAE: They’re called ‘naked ballots’: Here’s why they could play a pivotal role in the election 
• Philadelphia Inquirer: How ‘naked ballots’ in Pennsylvania could cost Joe Biden the election
• WaPo: Pennsylvania’s ‘naked ballots’ loom over Joe Biden’s mail-voting edge 
• The Hill: Alarm grows over ‘naked ballot’ ruling in Pennsylvania
• CNN: ‘Naked’ ballot rules put thousands of Pennsylvania mail-in votes at risk, Philadelphia official warns
• Politico: Pennsylvania election officials warn of 2000 Florida redux 
• CNN: ‘Naked’ ballot rules put thousands of Pennsylvania mail-in votes at risk, Philadelphia official warns 
• WESA: PA Is Poised To Take An Usually Restrictive Approach To Mail-In Ballots 
• MSNBC: Chris Hayes Explains How ‘Naked Ballots’ Could Cost Biden The Pennsylvania Vote | All In | MSNBC 
• Pro Publica: In North Carolina, Black Voters’ Mail-In Ballots Much More Likely to Be Rejected Than Those From Any Other Race
• FiveThirtyEight: North Carolina Is Already Rejecting Black Voters’ Mail-In Ballots More Often Than White Voters’ 
• Politico: More than 35,000 mail-in ballots were rejected in Florida primary
• AP: In battlegrounds, absentee ballot rejections could triple
• WaPo: More than 500,000 mail ballots were rejected in the primaries. That could make the difference in battleground states this fall. 
• NPR: More Than 550,000 Primary Absentee Ballots Rejected In 2020, Far Outpacing 2016
• CBS News: Why some mail-in ballots are rejected and how to make sure your vote counts 
• CAP: Young California Voters Had Mail-In Ballots Rejected At Three Times Overall Rate, Study Shows
• Cincinnati.com: Ohio threw out 1 of every 100 absentee ballots in its primary. What does that mean for November?
• NYT: Stickers, Highlighters and Other Ways States Hope to Save Mail Votes 
• Business Insider: 5 mistakes that can disqualify your November mail ballot and how to avoid them 
• WaPo: How to prevent your mail ballot from being rejected

The Court 

• CNN: Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in repose at Supreme Court
• WaPo: Ruth Bader Ginsburg eulogized as a ‘rock star’ and ‘fighter’ while mourners gather to say goodbye
• Axios: Trump says he wants 9 justices in case Supreme Court must decide 2020 election 
• NYT: Biden Calls Rush to Replace Justice Ginsburg a ‘Gigantic Mistake and Abuse of Power’
• Slate- Opinion: I’ve Never Been More Worried About American Democracy Than I Am Right Now
• WaPo: McConnell calls for ‘fair’ process to fill Supreme Court vacancy
• CNN: House Democrats unveil package of reforms aimed at Trump
• The Hill: Senate staff: No precedent for confirming Supreme Court nominee weeks before election 
• FiveThirtyEight: What the Supreme Court’s Unusually Big Jump to the Right Might Look Like 
• NYT: If the Supreme Court Ends Obamacare, Here’s What It Would Mean
• Guardian: AOC rallies liberals over supreme court battle: ‘This is not the time to give up’
• Politico: Senate fails to pass RBG resolution as dysfunction mounts
• Yahoo News: McConnell told Trump he thinks Barrett is best Supreme Court pick 
• Axios: Commission releases topics for first presidential debate 
• WaPo- Analysis: Supreme Court fight highlights the new political reality: America under minority rule
• CNN: Supreme Court prepares to start a new term with only eight 
• NYT: How the Supreme Court Could Affect Voting Rules on Election Day 
• WSJ: Supreme Court Opening Adds to Pressure on American Institutions
• Axios: The climate stakes of the Supreme Court fight
• WSJ: Five Women Trump Is Considering For Justice Ruth Bader Binsburg’s Supreme Court Seat
• CNN-Analysis: Why Supreme Court politics in 2020 look way different from 2016 or 2018 
• CNN: Mitt Romney backing of Supreme Court vote paves way for election-year confirmation
• NYT: Republican Senators Line Up to Back Trump on Court Fight
• WaPo: Where GOP senators stand on quickly filling Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat 
• BBC: Ginsburg Supreme Court: Republicans secure for replacement 
• Vox: RBG, the 2020 election, and the rolling crisis of American democracy 
• WaPo: The dramatic governing changes Democrats could make if they take power 
• WaPo: Democrats largely powerless to stop GOP from confirming Trump’s court choice 
• Bloomberg Law: Trump Supreme Court Nominee May Start Senate Hearing October 12 
• AP: Senate GOP plans vote on Trump’s court pick before election
• NYT: Enthused by G.O.P Support, Trump Says he Will Announce Court Pick on Saturday
• NYT: How a Supreme Court Justice Is (Usually) Appointed 
• CNN: Here’s how long it’s taken to confirm past Supreme Court justices
• The HIll: Senate staff: No precedent for confirming Supreme Court nominee weeks before election
• WaPo-Opinion: Trump is counting on the Supreme Court to help him steal the election
• Newsweek: Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee Could be ‘De Facto Running Mate’ to Win Female Voters
• NYT: With Nothing Else Working, Trump Races to Make a New Supreme Court Justice the Issue 
• Slate: Democrats Can Still Play Hardball
• The Hill: Democrats shoot down talk of expanding Supreme Court
• ABC: ‘No serious conversation’ about packing Supreme Court: SEn. Dick Durbin, D-Ill
• CNN: Democrats weigh how to handle Trump’s potential Supreme Court pick after past flap over Barrett’s faight
• Slate- Opinion: Expand the Court
• VOX: The Supreme Court’s role in economic policy, explained
• WSJ: Supreme Court Plays Bigger Campaign Role for Trump Than Biden 
• ABC: Some Dems, not yet Biden, talk of expanding the Supreme Court
• Politico: What pandemic? Trump tries rapid shift to Supreme Court 
• Aljazeera: Supreme Court fight could elevate Kamala Harris’s profile
• NYT Opinion: Democrats Need a Plan. Fast. 
• NYT: Biden warns Supreme Court would gut women’s rights if Trump’s nominee is approved
• Politico: Why Biden is stiff-arming the left on court-packing and the filibuster
• VOX: Biden calls for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee to be withdrawn if he wins the election
• FiveThirtyEight [podcast]: The Potential Pitfalls In Rushing To Confirm A New Supreme Court Justice 
• FiveThirtyEight: Election Update: The Senate Races The Supreme Court Fight May (Or May Not) Affect 
• New Yorker: Why the Supreme Court Battle Seems Unlikely to Transform the Election 
• The Atlantic: Trump Takes Away a Lifeline for Swing-State Senators
• Data for Progress: A Majority of Voters Oppose President Trump Filling the Vacancy on the Supreme Court

QANON

• MinnPost: Under Tom Emmer, NRCC embraces QAnon-affilated candidates
• Yahoo News: In apparent play for QAnon supporters, GOP attack ads claim Democrat lawmakers are defending ‘sex offenders’ 
• WaPo: Attack ad falsely claims lawmaker helped sexual predators ‘hide in the shadows’
• The Advocate: Republican Group Slams Gay Candidate as ‘Pedo Sex Poet’
• AP News: Barr announces $100M more to combat human trafficking
• WSB-TV: Ivanka Trump, Attorney General Barr visiting Atlanta to discuss fight against human trafficking
• AP: Trump gives $35 million to aid human trafficking victims 
• WaPo: Anti-human-trafficking groups refuse to attend Ivanka Trump’s White House summit
• Media Matters: Here are the QAnon supporters running for Congress in 2020
• The Guardian: ‘Mind-bogglingly irresponsible’: meet the Republican donors helping QAnon reach Congress 
• ABC News: The men behind QAnon 
• NYT: What Is QAnon, the Viral Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theory?
• The Guardian: QAnon explained: the antisemitic conspiracy theory gaining traction around the world 
• Vox: QAnon, the scarily popular pro-Trump conspiracy theory, explained 
• The Atlantic: The Prophecies of Q 
• NBC News: Spanish-language disinformation intensifies among Florida Latinos, worrying Democrats 
• The Guardian: ‘The difference is QAnon’: how a conspiratorial hate campaign upended California politics 
• Pew Research: Political Divides, Conspiracy Theories and Divergent News Sources Heading Into 2020 Election 
• CIVIQs/Daily Kos National Politics Survey, September 2020
• WaPo: Who supports QAnon? Here’s what our poll finds. 
• NY Mag: QAnon Is Madness. But Believing In It Can Be Rational. 
• Business Insider: Nancy Pelosi wonders how top Facebook employees can ‘look themselves in the mirror’ because they ‘make money off of poison’ 
• NYT: Facebook Tried to Limit QAnon. It Failed. 
• WaPo: The QAnon problem facing local journalism this election season 
• Columbia Journalism Review: What should we do about QAnon now that it has gone mainstream?