Officials say the U.S. election system is so secure that no foreign nation could alter the results at a scale necessary to change the outcome. Nevertheless, authoritarian adversaries have leveraged disinformation and cyberespionage to target campaigns and voters while stoking distrust and discord.

Russia is the most active and sophisticated nation working to manipulate the U.S. election, using fake websites, state-controlled media and unwitting Americans to spread misleading and polarizing content aimed at undermining confidence in elections.

Here’s what we’re watching today:

• Trump’s Mar-a-Lago remarks: While he didn’t mention comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s controversial remarks about Puerto Rico, Trump expounded at length about his Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday, which he called a “lovefest,” a term he has also used to reference the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

• Harris in Washington: Harris will give a speech from the same location where Trump helped incite a mob on Jan. 6, 2021. Harris chose the spot to draw a contrast between her and her opponent.
• Fires in ballot boxes: Incendiary devices were set off Monday at two ballot drop boxes — one in Portland and another in nearby Vancouver, Washington — destroying hundreds of ballots in what one official called a “direct attack on democracy.”

The first presidential election since the Jan. 6 attack will test new guardrails from Congress
LISA MASCARO, October 29, 2024

This presidential election, the first since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, will be a stress test of the new systems and guardrails that Congress put in place to ensure America’s long tradition of the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

After the Jan. 6 attack, Congress set out to shore up the process and prevent a repeat of that unprecedented period when Trump, joined by some GOP allies in Congress, refused to concede defeat to President Joe Biden. Trump spent months pushing dozens of failed legal cases before sending his supporters to the U.S. Capitol, where they disrupted the electoral count with a bloody riot. He faces a federal indictment for the scheme, which included slates of fake electors from states falsely claiming he won.

Cannabis legalization may hit a ‘red wall’ at the ballot box,
William Garriott

Cannabis legalization is on the ballot again this November.

Voters in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota will decide whether to allow adults 21 and up in their states to use cannabis recreationally.

Voters in Nebraska will decide whether to allow medical access under a doctor’s care.

Voters in Arkansas will see a question about medical access on their ballot, but the state supreme court ruled that the votes can’t be counted because the name and title of the measure were “misleading.”

The results of these ballot measures obviously matter to residents of each state, but they also will be telling for the future of the cannabis legalization movement. That’s because these states are all so-called red states where Republicans dominate state politics. They are part of the legalization movement’s biggest obstacle – what I call the “red wall.”

Trump tries to change the narrative
The former president didn’t address the backlash to the racist rhetoric at his New York rally during an event at Mar-a-Lago.

Here’s what to know: