Home

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Democratic and Republican parties conventions are just a memory, the first and perhaps only debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is in the bag, and election offices are beginning to send out absentee ballots. Now come the voters. Friday is the start of early in-person voting for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, kicking off in Virginia, South Dakota and Minnesota, the home state of Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz. The first ballots being cast in person come with just over six weeks left before Election Day on Nov. 5. About a dozen more states will follow with early in-person voting by mid-October. “If I could wave a magic wand in this room right now, I would wish for two things: Between now and November 5th, I want to see high turnout and low drama,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said during a news conference Thursday that previewed his state’s efforts around the election season. Simon also serves as president of the National Association of Secretaries of State. Across the country, local election directors are beefing up their security to keep their workers and polling places safe while also ensuring that ballots and voting procedures won’t be tampered with. Officials and ordinary poll workers have been targets of harassment and even death threats since the 2020 presidential election. Federal authorities are investigating the origin of suspicious packages that have been sent to or received by elections officials in more than 15 states in recent days, including Virginia. As the start of early voting approached, Trump’s rhetoric turned more ominous with a pledge to prosecute anyone who “cheats” in the election in the same way he falsely claimed they did in 2020, when he lied about widespread fraud and attacked officials who stood by their accurate vote tallies. Trump has previously sought to sow doubts about mail voting and encouraged voters to cast ballots in person on Election Day. But this year, Trump and the Republican National Committee, which he now controls, have begun to embrace early and mail voting as a way to lock in GOP votes before Election Day, just as Democrats have done for years. In Virginia. early in-person voting has long been popular in the city of Chesapeake, especially during presidential elections, said its elections director, Mary Lynn Pinkerman. She expects early voting to help ease the crowds on Nov. 5, but also cautioned that Election Day voting “is certainly not a thing of the past” and that “voters could still encounter wait times.” Fairfax County Elections Director Eric Spicer said roughly a third of local voters came to the polls on Election Day during the 2020 presidential election, while the rest voted by mail or early and in-person. “We call them our cicada voters who come out every four years,” he said, adding that he expects this year’s presidential race to drive heavy turnout in his northern Virginia county. In South Dakota, the top election official in Minnehaha County, the state’s most populous, is planning for an 80% overall turnout. Extra seasonal workers began Monday, and an early voting area was set up in the county administration building in Sioux Falls. County Auditor Leah Anderson said the presidential race and several statewide ballot measures — including one that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and another to legalize recreational marijuana — will attract voters. “There’s a lot on our ballot,” Anderson said. Many early voters might opt for early in-person balloting instead of mail-in absentee ballots to ensure their votes get counted, given the ongoing struggles of the U.S. Postal Service. State and local election officials from across the country last week warned that problems with mail deliveries threaten to disenfranchise voters, and they told the head of the system that it hasn’t fixed persistent deficiencies despite their repeated attempts at outreach. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy responded in a letter released Monday that he’ll work with state election officials to address their concerns, but reiterated that the Postal Service will be ready. Simon urged voters to make their voting plans now. Mail delays vary across the country, he said, so voters should request mail-in absentee ballots early if they plan to vote from home, and return them early. Some states count ballots as long as they’re postmarked by Election Day, while Minnesota and other states count only the ballots that arrive by the time polls close. “My hope and expectation is that the USPS will do the things that we have recommended, and do them quickly over the next 47 days because the stakes really are high for individual voters,” Simon said. ___ Associated Press writers Olivia Diaz in Fairfax, Virginia, Ben Finley in Chesapeake, Virginia, and Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, contributed to this story. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. (AP) — The politics of immigration look different from the back patio of Ardovino’s Desert Crossing restaurant. That’s where Robert Ardovino sees a Border Patrol horse trailer rumbling across his property on a sweltering summer morning. It’s where a surveillance helicopter traces a line in the sky, and a nearby Border Patrol agent paces a desert gully littered with castoff water bottles and clothing. It’s also where a steady stream of weary people, often escorted by smugglers, scale a border wall or the slopes of Mount Cristo Rey and step into an uncertain future. It’s a stretch of desert where reports of people dying of exhaustion and exposure have become commonplace. “It’s very obvious to me, being on the border, that it’s not an open border. It is a very, very, very difficult situation,” said Ardovino, who pays for private fencing topped by concertina wire to route migrants around a restaurant and vintage aluminum trailers that he rents to overnight guests. “I wish the facts would rule this conversation, and being here, I know they do not.” As immigration politics have moved to the forefront of this year’s presidential election, they’ve dominated contests across the country for congressional seats that could determine which party controls Congress. But the urgency of the situation is greater in some districts than others. Three of 11 congressional district races along the southern U.S. border are hotly-contested rematches in districts that flipped in 2022 with the election of Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez in New Mexico and Republican Reps. Juan Ciscomani in Arizona and Monica De La Cruz in Texas. A partner in a decades-old family business, Ardovino lives in one border district in Texas and works in Vasquez’s district in New Mexico. He was disappointed by the collapse in February of a bipartisan border bill in Washington, and he bristles at politicians talking from afar about an “open border.” What he wants, more than anything, is a collective fix — one that doesn’t diminish the work of border agents or gloss over real-world challenges like migrants fleeing dictators. “It’s frustrating for people who need a border bill of any kind, any time, to start dealing with the big picture,” Ardovino said. “I’d rather be running a restaurant than working on these fences.” Early voting starts Oct. 8 in Sunland Park, on the edge of a whiplashed congressional district that flipped in 2018, 2020 and again in 2022 with the election of Vasquez. Democrats in Congress are promoting border enforcement as seldom before, including a half-dozen bills from Vasquez. He touts his knowledge of the region as the U.S.-born son of immigrants with relatives on both sides of the border. “With migrant activity along the border, we have had to adjust our approach,” said Vasquez. “I can say here that the sky is blue for 50 years, but when it turns red, you have to admit that it’s turning red.” Here, border politics are literally matters of life and death. Federal and local authorities describe a new humanitarian crisis along New Mexico’s nearly 180-mile portion of the border, where migrant deaths from heat exposure have surged and merciless smuggling cartels inflict havoc. Where Doña Ana County shares a 45-mile stretch of border with Mexico, the sheriff’s department reported 78 lifeless migrant bodies found between January and mid-August. “The death toll, in my 21 years of working with the Doña Ana sheriff’s department, we have not had this,” said Major Jon Day. In the Texas race, Democratic challenger Michelle Vallejo has taken a hard line on border enforcement, shocking progressive allies in her campaign to unseat De La Cruz. A recent ad from Vallejo describes “chaos at the border” and urges bipartisan cooperation to deploy more Border Patrol agents and fight human trafficking cartels. In Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, Republican incumbent Ciscomani calls border enforcement his No. 1 priority. But he has distanced himself from former President Donald Trump’s sometimes caustic anti-immigrant rhetoric and avoided presidential campaign events in swing-state Arizona. Instead, Ciscomani tells an immigrant’s story — about his own arrival in the U.S. at age 11 from Hermosillo, Mexico. He received citizenship in 2006 and says he is determined to fix the border. “We have a responsibility to enforce the law on the border, and we also are a community of immigrants — myself included — that came here to this country, and we’re seeking opportunity.” Experts say voters near the border have tangible concerns about smugglers and contraband but know the benefits of authorized cross-border commerce and commuting. “There is, I think, more of a nuanced view,” said Samara Klar, a pollster and professor at the University of Arizona School of Government and Public Policy. Border patrol arrests on the southwest border plunged to a 46-month low in July after Mexican authorities stepped up enforcement and President Joe Biden temporarily suspended asylum processing. But in New Mexico, where the decline has been less pronounced, surging migrant deaths prompted coordinated U.S. law enforcement raids in August on stash houses where smugglers hide migrants. Vasquez, looking to be the first Democrat to win reelection in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District since 1978, has pitched legislation to improve detection of fentanyl coming across the border and to disrupt cartel recruitment of young Americans to ferry migrants to hiding places — quick trips that offer $1,100 — amid a scourge of addiction and proliferation of homeless encampments in cities along the Upper Rio Grande. But he also has plans to improve conditions at migrant detention centers and offer permanent residency to immigrants who fill critical jobs in the U.S. Vasquez ousted one-term Republican Congresswoman Yvette Herrell by only 1,350 votes in 2022 after Democrats redrew congressional maps to split a conservative oil-producing region into three districts. Herrell, seeking the seat for the fourth consecutive time, has described an “absolute chaotic scene” at the border, and joined Republican House leaders in claiming that Democrats undermined U.S. elections by opposing a proof-of-citizenship requirement for new voters. “It’s one or the other,” Herrell said at a rally in Las Cruces with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson. “It’s our sovereignty over the open border.” Noncitizens already are prohibited from voting in federal elections under penalties including prison or deportation, and Vasquez says the new requirement would make participation more difficult for legitimate voters, including Native Americans who couldn’t vote in New Mexico until 1948. Data from states indicate that voting by noncitizens happens — though not in high numbers. Herrell’s rhetoric on immigration takes aim at voters in a district Trump lost by a roughly 6% margin in 2020. “It’s a tightrope that she’s got to walk in trying to get any of the pro-Trump enthusiasm,” said Gabriel Sanchez, director of the University of New Mexico Center for Social Policy. The district’s voting age population is 56% Hispanic — with centuries-old ties to Mexican and Spanish settlement and a smaller share of foreign-born residents than the national average. “Republicans have been focused more and more on the Hispanic vote because they sense that they can make some inroads,” Albuquerque-based pollster Brian Sanderoff said. “And in fact the Hispanic vote in southeastern New Mexico is split. If you’re a Hispanic right now in Lea County (in New Mexico), you’re almost as likely to be voting Republican as Democrat.” Recently retired Border Patrol agent Cesar Ramos of Alamogordo says he felt stymied by limitations on prosecuting undocumented immigrants, whose arrival he says contributes to higher prices for housing and essentials. He applauds Herrell’s tough talk. “People here in Alamogordo are 110% behind legal immigration, but despise that there are criminal acts of smuggling, and just breaking into the U.S. with no legal documentation,” said Ramos, a registered Republican of Puerto Rican heritage. In Sunland Park, a working-class community nestled between the border and a quarterhorse racetrack, Democratic Party orthodoxy is being tested, too. Sunland Park native Luis Soto said migrants who cross the border impact his own efforts to open a cannabis dispensary in a former post office. “I’m waiting for a fire marshal inspection and he’s busy saving people in the desert, rescuing bodies from the river, helping people out that are locked in a trailer,” said Soto, 43, the son of immigrants from Mexico in a family of lifelong Democrats. “We come from immigrants as well, but I think if the system was fixed, it would work out even better for them as well as for us.” He is leaning toward Herrell, and associates Trump with better times. “There was more money, more money rolling around,” Soto said. “Now there’s money, but it’s money to pay off bills.” Vasquez in New Mexico and Ciscomani in Arizona — youthful by congressional standards at 40 and 42 — are near ideological opposites, but they’ve co-sponsored at least three bills to modernize temporary farmworker visas, spur local manufacturing and combat opioid trafficking. Those bills haven’t gotten a floor vote, while the Republican-led House approved Ciscomani’s initiative to deter deadly highway pursuits of migrant smugglers by law enforcement. “Juan and I play basketball together, and he has become a good friend,” Vasquez said. “There are solutions on the border that we can do today that may not look like comprehensive immigration reform, but it’s biting off chunks and pieces.” Ciscomani said he’s eager to collaborate when he can. His Democratic challenger in Arizona’s 6th district, Kirsten Engel, scoffs at that notion, saying Ciscomani publicly opposed a major bipartisan border bill in February, days after Trump told GOP lawmakers to abandon the deal. The $20 billion bill would have overhauled the asylum system and given the president new powers to expel migrants when asylum claims become overwhelming. “It was actually a pretty conservative bill and (Ciscomani) rejected it right after Trump told him to,” said Engel, a law professor and former state legislator. “This is the kind of solution that … a lot of voters here really supported.” Engel lost in 2022 by about 5,000 votes. She hopes to win this time with a campaign against consumer price-gouging and for abortion rights. A constitutional amendment to ensure abortion rights on the statewide ballot could help turn out Democratic voters. Engel supports the abortion amendment and opposes a ballot proposal to allow local police to make arrests near the border, which she calls an unfunded mandate. Ciscomani did not say how he would vote on the initiatives but says he opposes a national abortion ban. At Sunland Park, an off-road Border Patrol vehicle kicks dust into the morning air. An unmarked bus arrives for detained migrants. Ardovino, from his deck, gazes at Mount Cristo Rey and wonders aloud what it will take to make this work for people coming in search of a better life — and for those already here. “The whole desert is unfortunately littered with people’s lives,” he said. ___ Associated Press reporter Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

Another mission specialist who worked with the company that owned the Titan submersible that imploded last year while on its way to the Titanic wreckage is scheduled to testify before a U.S. Coast Guard investigatory panel Friday. The investigatory panel has listened to three days of testimony that raised questions about the company’s operations before the doomed mission. OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among five people who died when the submersible imploded en route to the site of the Titanic wreck in June 2023. Mission specialist Fred Hagen is scheduled to be the first to testify Friday. Other witnesses have characterized mission specialists as people who paid a fee to play a role in OceanGate’s underwater exploration. Earlier this month, the Coast Guard opened a public hearing that is part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion. The public hearing began Sept. 16 and some of the testimony has focused on problems the Washington state company had prior to the fatal 2023 dive. During Thursday’s testimony, company scientific director Steven Ross told the investigators the sub experienced a malfunction just days before the Titanic dive. Earlier in the week, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money. “The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.” Other witnesses scheduled for Friday include engineer Dave Dyer of the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab and Patrick Lahey of Triton Submarines. The hearing is expected to resume next week and run through Sept. 27. Lochridge and other witnesses have painted a picture of a company led by people who were impatient to get the unconventionally designed craft into the water. The deadly accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration. Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community. But Renata Rojas, a mission specialist for the company, told the Coast Guard the firm was staffed by competent people who wanted to “make dreams come true.” Rojas’ testimony struck a different tone than some of the earlier witnesses. “I was learning a lot and working with amazing people,” Rojas said. “Some of those people are very hardworking individuals that were just trying to make dreams come true.” OceanGate suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing. During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about the Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display. One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual recreation presented earlier in the hearing. When the submersible was reported missing, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Four days later, wreckage of the Titan was found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived. OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. The Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are scrambling to ensure that the U.S. Secret Service has enough money and resources to keep the nation’s presidential candidates safe amid repeated threats of violence. It’s unclear, though, how much they can do with only weeks before the election, or if additional dollars would make an immediate difference. The efforts come after an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a rally in July, and after Secret Service agents arrested a man with a rifle hiding on the golf course at Trump’s Florida club over the weekend. The suspect in Florida apparently also sought to assassinate the GOP presidential nominee. Democrats and Republicans have been in talks with the agency this week to find out whether additional resources are needed. And the House on Friday is voting on legislation that would require the agency to use the same standards for assigning agents to major presidential and vice presidential candidates as they do for sitting presidents and vice presidents. “Luck cannot be a strategy by the Secret Service to have stopped these attempts,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who himself was shot in 2017 while at a baseball practice with colleagues. “The Secret Service has to do better.” With the election rapidly approaching and Congress headed out of town before October, lawmakers are rushing to figure out exactly what might help, hoping to assess the agency’s most pressing needs while ensuring that they are doing everything they can in an era where political violence has become more commonplace and every politician is a target. “We have a responsibility here in Congress to get down to the bottom of this to figure out why these things are happening and what we can do about it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday. “This is not a partisan issue. We have both parties working on it.” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday that “we’ve got to get the Secret Service into a position where its protectees are shielded in the most maximum way possible.” After the July shooting, House Republicans created a bipartisan task force focused on investigating the security failures of that day and ensuring it doesn’t happen again. Johnson said this week that the task force would expand its scope to include what happened in Florida, even though the Secret Service successfully apprehended the suspect before anyone was hurt. The House could vote soon on expanding the panel’s mandate. In a letter earlier this month, the Secret Service told lawmakers that a funding shortfall was not the reason for lapses in Trump’s security when when a gunman climbed onto an unsecured roof on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and opened fire. But Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said this week that the agency had “immediate needs” and that he’s talking to Congress. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the Democratic chairman of the spending subcommittee that oversees the Secret Service, said Congress wants to make sure that if it is spending new dollars, “it’s going to help the situation between now and the inauguration.” Murphy said new money could go toward technology like drones, partnerships with other agencies that could provide immediate assistance and overtime pay for agents. It would likely be added to a stopgap spending bill that Congress will consider next week to keep the government running, either in the form of allowing the Secret Service to spend money more quickly or providing them with emergency dollars. “I’m confident we are going to take care of this one way or the other,” Murphy said. The agency says it’s doing what it can. Secret Service officials have told lawmakers behind closed doors that they have already increased Trump’s security to the same level as Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden. “There are a handful of specialized assets only the commander in chief gets, but the rest of his protection is at the same level,” Spencer Love, a Democratic spokesperson for the House task force, said after the agency briefed members on Wednesday. That could render the GOP House legislation unnecessary, at least for now. But lawmakers have said they want to make sure that Trump is protected after two people have tried to end his life. “I encourage every single one of my colleagues, regardless of their political views, regardless of whether they like or dislike one of the candidates, to recognize the fundamental fact that we have a responsibility to ensure their safety and well-being, and let the American people decide who will be president, not an assassin and not an assassin’s bullet,” said Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, one of the sponsors of the bill that the House will vote on Friday. In the Senate, Florida Sen. Rick Scott has also introduced a bill mandating similar protection for presidential candidates. Both bills would also require regular reports to Congress on the status of the candidates’ protection. Republicans have argued that an overhaul of the agency, and potentially reallocating agents, should be a higher priority than funding. Scalise noted this week that the Secret Service has received regular budget increases in recent years. “It’s not about the money,” Scalise said, but “what they’re doing with the money.” Rep. Mike Waltz, a Republican on the task force, said he pushed Secret Service officials Wednesday on what new resources they needed and they said they were still evaluating. “I think it’s irresponsible to just throw money at it when they’re not even sure what exactly they need and how quickly they can get it,” the Florida lawmaker said, adding that he hopes the agency shifts to a more threat-focused approach to protecting officials and candidates. It’s unclear, though, if Republicans would fight a funding boost. “It’s been made implicitly clear that they’re stretched pretty thin,” said Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey, a member of the task force. “I know that there’s some folks who see a $3 billion budget and think that should be enough. But when you look at where all of the bodies have to go, that’s a problem.” Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Going into November’s election, neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump has a decisive edge with the public on the economy, turning an issue that was once a clear strength for Trump into the equivalent of a political jump ball. About 4 in 10 registered voters say Republican Trump would do a better job handling the economy, while a similar number say that about the Democratic vice president, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About 1 in 10 voters don’t trust either candidate, and a similar share has equal faith in them. The finding is a warning sign for Trump, who has tried to link Harris to President Joe Biden’s economic track record. The new poll suggests that Harris may be escaping some of the president’s baggage on the issue, undercutting what was previously one of Trump’s major advantages. The economy has long been a weak issue for Biden: A separate AP-NORC poll conducted in late June, before Biden’s disastrous debate with Trump, found that about 6 in 10 Americans disapproved of his handling of the economy. Earlier this year, Americans were much more likely to say that Trump’s presidency helped the country on cost of living and job creation, compared to Biden’s. The new poll found that the economy is one of the most important issues for about 8 in 10 voters as they consider which candidate to support, dwarfing other top issues like health care and crime. The aftermath of inflation’s spike in 2022 to a four-decade high has pervaded this year’s presidential contest. Shoppers are upset over their grocery bills. Higher interest rates are financially squeezing the buyers of homes and motor vehicles. All that has appeared to matter more to the public than the low 4.2% unemployment rate and stock market gains. According to the AP-NORC poll, only about one-third of voters say the state of the national economy is somewhat or very good, although they’re more optimistic about their own situation, with about 6 in 10 voters saying their household’s finances are somewhat or very good. Both of those numbers have remained steady over the course of the year, despite falling inflation. The candidates have clashing ideas about how best to straighten out the economy, giving voters a stark choice that might hint at how partisan identity increasingly informs views of the economy and policy. But neither campaign has fully explained how its plans would be implemented. Harris insists her plans would be fully funded and not add to the deficit, while Trump’s team assumes — in defiance of most economic models — that growth will be high enough to offset the cost. Mark Carlough, 33, who works on medical records in Philadelphia, plans to vote for Harris and says he believes that the taxes on imports proposed by Trump would hurt most consumers. “The tariffs would be horrible for the economy,” he said. Richard Tunnell, 32, of Huntsville, Texas, plans to vote for Trump, just as he did in 2020. He’s not sure if the Republican has an advantage over Harris on the economy, but he noted that Trump has been a great businessman who remains one of the “richest men on the planet” even after filing for bankruptcy multiple times. ”I believe this country needs someone to reach their hand in it and work it like a game of Monopoly and that person is Donald Trump,” said Tunnell, a military veteran on disability. Chantelle Breaux, 38, a stay-at-home parent from Lafayette, Louisiana, feels neither candidate has much to offer on the economy. She doesn’t plan to vote — unless a candidate more to her liking enters the race. “Kamala wants to put a Band-Aid where major surgery needs to be done on this economy,” said Breaux. “Trump wants to run the country as if it’s a business, but it isn’t a business that is going to support all of the people.” Former President Trump suggests growth would come from tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy leading to more investment, while a universal tariff of as much as 20% would direct that investment to building U.S. factories. Harris has campaigned on more benefits for the middle class to be funded by higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy, saying that would help to contain costs and deliver growth. Her team has warned that Trump’s tariffs would lead to higher prices and worsen underlying inflation challenges. The economy is one of many issues shaping public sentiment as the campaigns seek to turn out their voters. More than half of voters said health care was a top concern, while roughly half said that about crime, immigration, abortion policy and gun policy. Only about one-third called climate change one of the most important issues for their vote, and about one-quarter said that about the war between Israel and Hamas. Trump and Harris are evenly matched in the poll on who would better handle crime and the war in Gaza. But the issues soon splinter in ways that reflect the distinct priorities of Republicans and Democrats. Trump has an advantage over Harris on whom voters trust to better handle immigration. This issue was a problem for Biden, as well: Illegal immigration and crossings at the U.S. border with Mexico have been a challenge during much of his administration. Republicans are more likely to care about immigration, the issue where Trump has a clear upper hand. Harris fares better than Trump when it comes to issues that Democrats care more about, including gun policy, health care, abortion policy and climate change. Rosamaria Nunez, a 68-year-old retiree in San Antonio, Texas, identified gun violence as the most important issue facing the country, saying it became personal when her grandson called her last year to be picked up because of a school lockdown. Nunez said she plans to vote for Harris, saying: “First of all, she’s a gun owner, so she can relate to the safety issue. She seems like she’s more in tune with a real person than Trump is.” Overall, voters see high stakes for the presidential election’s impact on the country’s future, the economy, and the future of democracy in the U.S., but they’re less likely to think the election will have an impact on them personally. About 8 in 10 voters say the election will have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of impact on the country’s future. About three-quarters say the election will have a similar impact on the nation’s economy and the future of democracy in the U.S. By contrast, half of voters say the election will have at least “quite a bit” of impact on them personally. — The poll of 1,771 registered voters was conducted September 12-16, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for registered voters is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com