MIT engineers make converting CO2 into useful products more practical

A new electrode design boosts the efficiency of electrochemical reactions that turn carbon dioxide into ethylene and other products.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

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A new electrode design developed at MIT boosts the efficiency of electrochemical reactions that turn carbon dioxide into ethylene and other products.

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Credit: Courtesy of Simon Rufer, Kripa Varanasi, et al

As the world struggles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, researchers are seeking practical, economical ways to capture carbon dioxide and convert it into useful products, such as transportation fuels, chemical feedstocks, or even building materials. But so far, such attempts have struggled to reach economic viability.

New research by engineers at MIT could lead to rapid improvements in a variety of electrochemical systems that are under development to convert carbon dioxide into a valuable commodity. The team developed a new design for the electrodes used in these systems, which increases the efficiency of the conversion process.

The findings will be reported in the journal Nature Communications, in a paper by MIT doctoral student Simon Rufer, professor of mechanical engineering Kripa Varanasi, and three others. 

“The CO2 problem is a big challenge for our times, and we are using all kinds of levers to solve and address this problem,” Varanasi says. It will be essential to find practical ways of removing the gas, he says, either from sources such as power plant emissions, or straight out of the air or the oceans. But then, once the CO2 has been removed, it has to go somewhere.

A wide variety of systems have been developed for converting that captured gas into a useful chemical product, Varanasi says. “It’s not that we can’t do it — we can do it. But the question is how can we make this efficient? How can we make this cost-effective?”

In the new study, the team focused on the electrochemical conversion of CO2 to ethylene, a widely used chemical that can be made into a variety of plastics as well as fuels, and which today is made from petroleum. But the approach they developed could also be applied to producing other high-value chemical products as well, including methane, methanol, carbon monoxide, and others, the researchers say.

Currently, ethylene sells for about $1,000 per ton, so the goal is to be able to meet or beat that price. The electrochemical process that converts CO2 into ethylene involves a water-based solution and a catalyst material, which come into contact along with an electric current in a device called a gas diffusion electrode.

There are two competing characteristics of the gas diffusion electrode materials that affect their performance: They must be good electrical conductors so that the current that drives the process doesn’t get wasted through resistance heating, but they must also be “hydrophobic,” or water repelling, so the water-based electrolyte solution doesn’t leak through and interfere with the reactions taking place at the electrode surface.

Unfortunately, it’s a tradeoff. Improving the conductivity reduces the hydrophobicity, and vice versa. Varanasi and his team set out to see if they could find a way around that conflict, and after many months of trying, they did just that.

The solution, devised by Rufer and Varanasi, is elegant in its simplicity. They used a plastic material, PTFE (essentially Teflon), that has been known to have good hydrophobic properties. However, PTFE’s lack of conductivity means that electrons must travel through a very thin catalyst layer, leading to significant voltage drop with distance. To overcome this limitation, the researchers wove a series of conductive copper wires through the very thin sheet of the PTFE.

“This work really addressed this challenge, as we can now get both conductivity and hydrophobicity,” Varanasi says.

Research on potential carbon conversion systems tends to be done on very small, lab-scale samples, typically less than 1-inch (2.5-centimeter) squares. To demonstrate the potential for scaling up, Varanasi’s team produced a sheet 10 times larger in area and demonstrated its effective performance.

To get to that point, they had to do some basic tests that had apparently never been done before, running tests under identical conditions but using electrodes of different sizes to analyze the relationship between conductivity and electrode size. They found that conductivity dropped off dramatically with size, which would mean much more energy, and thus cost, would be needed to drive the reaction. 

“That’s exactly what we would expect, but it was something that nobody had really dedicatedly investigated before,” Rufer says. In addition, the larger sizes produced more unwanted chemical byproducts besides the intended ethylene.

Real-world industrial applications would require electrodes that are perhaps 100 times larger than the lab versions, so adding the conductive wires will be necessary for making such systems practical, the researchers say. They also developed a model which captures the spatial variability in voltage and product distribution on electrodes due to ohmic losses. The model along with the experimental data they collected enabled them to calculate the optimal spacing for conductive wires to counteract the drop off in conductivity. 

In effect, by weaving the wire through the material, the material is divided into smaller subsections determined by the spacing of the wires. “We split it into a bunch of little subsegments, each of which is effectively a smaller electrode,” Rufer says. “And as we’ve seen, small electrodes can work really well.”

Because the copper wire is so much more conductive than the PTFE material, it acts as a kind of superhighway for electrons passing through, bridging the areas where they are confined to the substrate and face greater resistance. 

To demonstrate that their system is robust, the researchers ran a test electrode for 75 hours continuously, with little change in performance. Overall, Rufer says, their system “is the first PTFE-based electrode which has gone beyond the lab scale on the order of 5 centimeters or smaller. It’s the first work that has progressed into a much larger scale and has done so without sacrificing efficiency.” 

The weaving process for incorporating the wire can be easily integrated into existing manufacturing processes, even in a large-scale roll-to-roll process, he adds.

“Our approach is very powerful because it doesn’t have anything to do with the actual catalyst being used,” Rufer says. “You can sew this micrometric copper wire into any gas diffusion electrode you want, independent of catalyst morphology or chemistry. So, this approach can be used to scale anybody’s electrode.” 

“Given that we will need to process gigatons of CO2 annually to combat the CO2 challenge, we really need to think about solutions that can scale,” Varanasi says. “Starting with this mindset enables us to identify critical bottlenecks and develop innovative approaches that can make a meaningful impact in solving the problem. Our hierarchically conductive electrode is a result of such thinking." 

The research team included MIT graduate students Michael Nitzsche and Sanjay Garimella,  as well as Jack Lake PhD ’23. The work was supported by Shell, through the MIT Energy Initiative.

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Written by David L. Chandler, MIT News

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-024-53523-8 

Article Title

“Hierarchically conductive electrodes unlock stable and scalable CO2 electrolysis”

Mattel says it 'deeply' regrets misprint on 'Wicked' dolls packaging that links to porn site

November 11, 2024 

Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande arrive at the premiere of "Wicked" on Nov. 9, 2024, at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

 (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Toy giant Mattel says it “deeply” regrets an error on the packaging of its “Wicked” movie-themed dolls, which mistakenly links toy buyers to a pornographic website.

The error gained attention on social media over the weekend, where numerous users shared photos of the URL printed on the back of the boxes for the special edition dolls, which feature characters from the movie adaptation of “Wicked” set to hit theaters later this month. Instead of linking to Universal Pictures' official WickedMovie.com page, the website listed leads to an adult film site that requires consumers to be over 18 to enter.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press, Mattel said it was “made aware of a misprint on the packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls," which it said are primarily sold in the U.S. “We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this,” the company added.


Mattel did not confirm whether this action included removing unsold products with the incorrect link from stores. But as of Monday morning, at least some of these “Wicked” dolls appeared to be no longer available or not in stock on sites like Amazon, Target and Mattel's.

In the meantime, the company is advising consumers who already have the dolls to discard their packaging or obscure the link — and contact Mattel's customer service for more information.

Mattel unveiled its special “Wicked” collection earlier this year. Back in July, a promotion shared on Instagram showed Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who star as Elphaba and Glinda in Universal Pictures' upcoming film, seeing the line's singing dolls for the first time.

The beloved Broadway musical has been split into two parts for its movie adaptation. The first chapter of “Wicked” will hit theaters on Nov. 22, with part two set for a fall 2025 release.


The Associated Press

 

Study of mountaineering mice sheds light on evolutionary adaptation

Evolution enables a single species to thrive across diverse environments

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

 

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Nebraska's Naim Bautista (left) and Jay Storz are part of an international research team that studied how localized genetic adaptations can help a single species thrive across diverse environments 

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Credit: Craig Chandler | University Communication and Marketing |University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Teams of mountaineering mice are helping advance understanding into how evolutionary adaptation to localized conditions can enable a single species to thrive across diverse environments.

In a study led by Naim Bautista, a postdoctoral researcher in Jay Storz’s lab at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the team took highland deer mice and their lowland cousins on a simulated ascent to 6,000 meters. The “climb” ventured from sea level and the mice reached the simulated summit seven weeks later. Along the way, Bautista tracked how the mice responded to cold stress at progressively lower oxygen levels.

“Deer mice have the broadest environmental range of any North American mammal, as they are distributed from the plains of Nebraska to the summits of the highest peaks in the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada,” said Storz, Willa Cather Professor of biological sciences. “This study tested whether they are able to thrive across such a broad range of elevations by evolving adaptations to local conditions or by possessing a generalized ability to acclimatize.”

Conducted in a specialized lab at Canada’s McMaster University, the study divided each team of highland and lowland mice into two distinct groups — a control that remained at sea level throughout the study, and an acclimation group that embarked on the seven-week ascent.

After seven days at sea-level, conditions for the acclimated group advanced by 1,000 meters in elevation weekly, with oxygen levels reduced to reflect what climbers would experience. The research team monitored the ability of each mouse to cope with cold exposure by means of metabolic heat production. 

Data showed that the highland and lowland deer mouse cousins do not share a general ability to acclimate to hypoxia (low oxygen conditions). As the simulated elevations rose above 4,000 meters, the homefield advantage of the highland mice quickly became apparent. As oxygen levels dropped, the highland mice were better able to regulate body temperature than their lowland counterparts owing to more efficient breathing and circulatory oxygen-transport.

“The results show us that the highlanders and lowlanders do not share a generalized ability to acclimatize to changing environmental conditions,” Bautista said. “Rather, the mice living at higher elevations share evolved ways to acclimatize to low oxygen conditions that are distinct from those of the lowland prairie mice.”

The study also showed that the highland mice have a genetic advantage that helps suppress thickening of the right ventricle of the heart, a symptom of pulmonary hypertension, which is a common malady among lowland mammals that are forced to acclimatize to low oxygen conditions.

Bautista said the findings show how adaptation to local conditions can allow a widely distributed species like the deer mouse to thrive in diverse environments.

 

“It highlights how evolved changes specific to populations help shape their flexibility,” Bautista said. “Ultimately, it is these changes that influence their ability to survive within different habitats.”

Bautista is finalizing plans to repeat the study, taking it to new heights by measuring the responses of the yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse, the world’s highest-dwelling mammal. The species hails from the Andes mountains, living at elevations up to 22,110 feet, and was discovered by Storz.

The deer mice study was recently published in PNAS. Other members of the research team include Storz; Ellen Shadowitz and Graham Scott of McMaster University; Nathanael Herrera and Zachary Cheviron of the University of Montana; and Oliver Wearing of the University of British Columbia.

 

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Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2412526121 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Local adaptation, plasticity, and evolved resistance to hypoxic cold stress in high-altitude deer mice

Texas OB-GYNs urge lawmakers to change abortion laws after reports on pregnant women's deaths

Pooja Salhotra
Sun, November 3, 2024 

Thousands of people walk in a march in support of abortion rights near downtown San Antonio on June 24, 2022. Credit: Kaylee Greenlee Beal for The Texas Tribune

A group of 111 OB-GYNs in Texas released a letter to elected state leaders Sunday urging them to change abortion laws they say have prevented them from providing lifesaving care to pregnant women.

The doctors pointed to recent reporting by ProPublica on two Texas pregnant women who died after medical staff delayed emergency care.

Josseli Barnica, 28, died of an infection in 2021 three days after she began to miscarry. More than a dozen medical experts said Barnica’s death was preventable. However, the state’s abortion laws kept doctors from intervening until they couldn’t detect a fetal heartbeat, which didn’t happen until about 40 hours after the miscarriage started.

Nevaeh Crain, 18, died last year after developing a dangerous complication of sepsis that doctors refused to treat while her six-month-old fetus still had a heartbeat. Two emergency rooms didn’t treat her and a third delayed care, moving Crain to the intensive care unit only after she was experiencing organ failure. Medical experts said if the hospital staff had treated her early, they either could have helped Crain with an early delivery or saved her life by ending the pregnancy if the infection had gone too far.

“Josseli Barnica and Nevaeh Crain should be alive today,” the doctors wrote in their letter. “As OB-GYNs in Texas, we know firsthand how much these laws restrict our ability to provide our patients with quality, evidence-based care.”

In 2021, Texas lawmakers passed a law prohibiting doctors from performing an abortion after six weeks. The law allows members of the public to sue doctors or anyone who helps perform an abortion for $10,000.

After the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling overturned Roe v. Wade, Texas banned almost all abortions — including in cases of rape and incest. The law does create an exception for a doctor to perform an abortion when they believe it is necessary to save the life of the pregnant patient. Doctors who violate the state’s abortion law risk losing their medical license and potentially spending life in prison.

Doctors have said that confusion about what constitutes a life-threatening condition has changed the way they treat pregnant patients with complications. The Texas Medical Board has offered guidance on how to interpret the law’s medical exception, and the Texas Supreme Court has ruled that doctors don’t need to wait until there’s an imminent risk to the patient to intervene. But some physicians say the guidance is vague and that hospitals are navigating each situation on a case-by-case basis.

ProPublica’s reporting about Crain and Barnica comes as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Rep. Colin Allred of Dallas face off in a heated bid for one of Texas' two seats in the U.S. Senate. Their divergent views on abortion have been a central issue in the race, and both candidates have weighed in on Crain and Barnica’s deaths.

“Texas doctors can’t do their jobs because of Ted Cruz’s cruel abortion ban,” Allred wrote on X, linking to the story about Crain. “Cruz even lobbied SCOTUS to allow states to ban life-saving emergency abortions.”

In 2021, Cruz sponsored a 20-week federal abortion ban. He also co-introduced a bill that would allow states to exclude medical providers that perform abortions from receiving Medicaid funding. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Cruz celebrated the decision as a “massive victory.”

Cruz has previously said he thought Texas’ exception to save the life of the pregnant mother was working. This week he reiterated that stance. He called Crain and Barnica’s deaths “heartbreaking” in an interview with The Houston Chronicle and said procedures necessary to save the life of the pregnant mother are legal in Texas.

Dozens of women have come forward saying that, after the state’s abortion ban went into effect, they were unable to get the health care they needed for their medically complex pregnancies.

Last year, state lawmakers passed a law allowing abortions for people with ectopic pregnancies, a nonviable type of pregnancy in which the embryo implants outside the uterus, as well as when a patient’s water breaks before the fetus is viable.

The doctors who signed the letter said they want to see a change in state law.

“Texas needs a change. A change in laws. A change in how we legislate medical decisions that should be between a patient, their family, and their doctor.”


Texas woman died after waiting 40 hours for emergency care during miscarriage: report

Ryan Chandler
Sun, November 3, 2024


AUSTIN (NEXSTAR) — A new report published Wednesday details the story of a 28-year-old Texas woman who died from an infection after doctors allegedly delayed treating her miscarriage for about 40 hours, reigniting concerns about the state’s strict abortion laws.

Josseli Barnica arrived at a Houston hospital at 17 weeks pregnant in Sept. 2, 2021, experiencing severe cramping and bleeding, according to the nonprofit investigative newsroom ProPublica. The next day, an ultrasound confirmed she was experiencing a miscarriage.

However, Barnica reportedly told her husband that doctors could not intervene.

“They had to wait until there was no heartbeat,” the husband, whose name was not disclosed, told ProPublica in Spanish. “It would be a crime to give her an abortion.”

As she waited, Barnica’s cervix remained open, leaving her uterus exposed to bacteria, according to the outlet. After a fetal heartbeat was no longer detected, she delivered the fetus with medical assistance and was discharged later that day.

See where abortion will be on the ballot in the 2024 election

On Sept. 7, as her condition worsened, Barnica’s husband brought her back to the hospital, where she died from a sepsis infection.

Barnica’s story has reinvigorated the concern that Texas’ abortion ban does not give doctors enough autonomy to treat pregnancy complications.

Rep. Colin Allred, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate who has made abortion access a central tenant of his campaign, quickly used Barnica’s story as a critique of Sen. Ted Cruz’s anti-abortion stance.

“Josseli Barnica should be alive today but because of Ted Cruz’s cruel abortion ban, Texas women have been denied the life-saving health care they need,” Allred wrote on social media.

Sen. Ted Cruz, left, and Rep. Colin Allred are pictured in these side-by-side images. (Photos: Getty Images)

Cruz called the story “heartbreaking,” but he said Texas’ law is not to blame.

“I’ve read the story here, and the facts of the case seem heartbreaking. That this woman lost her life is truly a tragedy,” Cruz told reporters after a rally in Georgetown on Wednesday.

“The Texas law makes clear that any procedure that is necessary to save the life of a mother can be done and should be done,” Cruz added. “We don’t know all the details of what happened here, but it is critical that we do everything necessary to save the lives of moms and we grieve with the family at the tragedy that occurred here.”

Texas law prohibits abortion in nearly all cases, without exceptions for rape or incest. Physicians may be punished for performing abortions with six-figure fines, the loss of their medical license, and prison time.

An abortion is permitted under the law if, “in the exercise of reasonable medical judgment,” the pregnant person has a life-threatening condition caused or worsened by the pregnancy that poses a risk of death or serious impairment to a major bodily function, making the abortion necessary

Physicians have sued to argue that language is too vague, claiming the “reasonable medical judgment” standard is too subjective to allow them to act freely without concern for their own liability.

In May, the Texas Supreme Court rejected those concerns, ruling that the abortion ban’s exceptions are acceptable and permit abortions before imminent emergencies.

“The law does not require a woman to surrender her life or to first suffer serious bodily injury before an abortion may be performed,” the court wrote.

According to October polling from the Texas Politics Project, 7% of Texas likely voters say abortion/women’s rights is the most important issue to their vote, trailing the economy, immigration/border security, and inflation/cost of living.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

How strict abortion bans impact women's health care

Brit McCandless Farmer
Sun, November 3, 2024 

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key Takeaways


The Supreme Court's landmark 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade has had an impact on women's health beyond abortion, accelerating a gap in obstetrics and gynecological care in some states across the country.

In Texas, the first state to implement more restrictive abortion laws, a fear of discussing abortion has impacted doctors practicing there and the medical students and OB-GYN residents looking to learn there.

"We asked for [abortion care] in our curriculum they're like, 'Oh, well, it's a state-funded school. And since the state doesn't support it, then we probably shouldn't teach it,'" said Dr. Dani Mathisen, who received her medical degree in Texas but relocated to Hawaii to complete her OB-GYN residency.

Doctors say strict abortion laws in Texas put pregnant women and their physicians at serious risk

Mathisen said she had discovered that education on anything to do with abortion was so limited, she and her fellow students had to teach themselves. They rented classrooms, where abortion providers came in to teach about abortion care and students practiced on papayas and dragon fruit.

"It's actually really common," Mathisen said. "[Fruit] is a really great model for a uterus."

OB-GYN resident Dr. Adrianne Smith began her residency in Texas but transferred to a hospital in New Mexico. Like Mathisen, Smith saw how abortion laws were impacting her education and said limits on education lead to restrictions on care — and not just in pregnancy.

"We're seeing now with these new restrictions, more OB-GYNs are leaving these states," Smith said. "You need OB-GYNs for pap smears, for birth control, for mammograms. And then not to mention routine pregnancy care. You need OB-GYNs staffing the hospitals and staffing those labor and deliveries, which in rural areas are already struggling to stay open. And so people are having to travel further for care — pregnancy or other care — and then waiting even longer to be able to be seen."

Texas women facing pregnancy complications are forced to travel out of state for care

These vacancies are contributing to what a recent report by the March of Dimes calls a "maternity care access crisis." According to the report, more than one-third of counties in America are considered maternity care deserts. That means they don't have a single doctor, nurse, midwife, or medical center that specializes in maternity care, impacting more than 2.3 million women of reproductive age.

"We've seen people leave states," said Dr. Stella Dantas, the president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. "We know we have maternal care deserts around the country that are being worsened by people leaving."

As an example, Dantas pointed to Idaho, where nearly one quarter of practicing obstetricians have left the state since its strict abortion laws took effect, according to a report by the Idaho Physician Well-Being Action Collaborative.

Dantas said that, in addition to practicing physicians leaving the state, restrictive abortion laws are also impacting training.

"When a medical student is applying to train for residency, they're now looking at residency programs and asking questions, 'What is the abortion training I'm going to get there? Am I going to get enough training to come out and feel competent and confident to practice the field that I desire?'" Dr. Dantas said.

How Texas's abortion laws are driving doctors out of the state

She went on to explain that OB-GYN residents are required to have training in abortion care to become licensed physicians.

"Abortion is reproductive health care, and OB-GYNs are the people that provide reproductive health care," Dantas said. "Abortion is the same procedure that's used in miscarriage management [and] ectopic pregnancy management. It is used in … situations where the pregnancy's highly desired and it cannot go on for the health of the mom. So, you do need that training."

In May, the Association of American Medical Colleges released a revealing set of data on the domino effect of the overturning of Roe and its potential impact on maternal health. In the two years since Dobbs, states with complete bans saw OB-GYN residency applications drop 6.7% in one year, compared to a small increase of applications in states without restrictions.

For Smith, the growing gap in women's health care has made her want to practice medicine in a state like Texas or Georgia after she completes her residency.



"Patients need us there," she said. "We need OB-GYNs in these areas that can provide these procedures, and the education and counseling in the cases where we can still do them. And we need the OB-GYNs to advocate for changes. If no one is there advocating on behalf of these patients, then we may not ever see some of these laws get overturned."

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Jasmine Crockett Hits Ted Cruz With Brutal Reality Check On Texas Abortion Bans

Ben Blanchet
Updated Sat, November 2, 2024 

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) on Friday reminded Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that he’s a politician and not her doctor as she went after GOP officials for their defense of the state’s strictabortionbans.

“I don’t want my governor, I don’t want AG Paxton, I definitely don’t want Ted Cruz telling me what to do with my body if my doctor has a recommendation because the last time I checked, I don’t need any of them to be my doctor,” she told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, referring to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“I don’t want them to be my elected officials,” she added.

Crockett appeared on MSNBC as Hayes highlighted the death of Nevaeh Crain, a Texas teenager and one of at least two pregnant women in the state who died after doctors delayed treating miscarriages, ProPublica reported.

“When people talk about women’s lives being on the line in this election, it’s not a slogan, it’s not hyperbole,” said Hayes. He added that women are seeing “preventable deaths right now” due to GOP-backed abortion bans in multiple states following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide.

Hayes later turned to Republicans getting “slippery” on the abortion issue, including Cruz, who he noted has been “anti-abortion his entire career” and is currently in a tight race to defend his Senate seat in Texas.

The MSNBC host played a clip of Cruz giving a nonanswer on abortion during a debate last month with his Democratic opponent, Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas).

“Why is this an issue you won’t address, about saying whether you support or oppose exceptions like rape and incest?” asked moderator Jason Whitely after Cruz repeatedly dodged the question.

“Jason, I’m curious, why do you keep asking me that?” said Cruz, before pivoting to talk of Allred’s opposition to state law requiring parental notification for minors wanting abortions.

Hayes asked Crockett if she has “any doubt in her mind” over where Cruz is on abortion.

“I have zero doubts,” Crockett said.

She later continued, “When you can’t answer a question, that is the answer, right? And the idea that we should just trust you, we shouldn’t trust you. Not when people are dying. You guys are not going to save us. You are going to, again, inflict more pain.”

 WORD OF THE DAY

Otolaryngologists call on battery manufacturers to bring a safe button battery to the marketplace

Button batteries cause life-threatening injuries when lodged in the body putting children at risk

American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia —The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) along with a growing number of endorsing medical societies and organizations have called on battery manufacturers to act immediately to bring a safe button or coin cell battery to the consumer marketplace to mitigate the life-threatening results and risks when these batteries are lodged in the body.

Currently, no battery manufacturer sells a safe button or coin cell battery, nor has made the public commitment to produce them. These seemingly innocuous objects can cause life-threatening tissue injuries of the esophagus, trachea, or major vasculature. Swallowing a battery or applying a battery to a moist tissue surface can result in injury because the current of the battery causes rapid production of hydroxide at the battery’s negative pole. This will damage and liquefy the lining of the esophagus, nose, or ear drum, resulting in a severe burn or perforation.

“With the holidays upon us, the exposure and risk are even greater as toys, decorations, and electronics are powered by these types of batteries. Too many children have already been harmed and other children continue to remain at risk in their households.  The battery manufacturers have the opportunity and responsibility to step up and ensure that widespread industry and consumer adoption of a safe battery technology will prevent children from severe injuries or death,” said James C. Denneny III, MD, AAO-HNS Executive Vice President and CEO.

This risk is real, and this risk is growing. Over the last few decades, there has been a notable increase in miniaturized electronics—remote controls, toys, holiday decorations, tea candles, key fobs, greeting cards, and other devices powered by these batteries. It is estimated that every 75 minutes, a child under 18 years old presents to an emergency department in the United States with a battery-related complaint; unfortunately, this incidence has more than doubled in the last decade.1

“The clock is ticking from the moment a button battery becomes lodged in the body, and serious injury can occur in as little as two hours,” said Kris Jatana, MD, AAO-HNS member and Surgical Director of Clinical Outcomes and Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Ohio State University.

With the most recent endorsement by the American College of Surgeons of the Position Statement on Button and Coin Battery Technology,2 there are now 12 organizations and societies behind this effort to eliminate the risk button and coin cell batteries cause in the pediatric community. The full list of organizations supporting the Position Statement include: American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Broncho-Esophagological Association, American College of Surgeons, American Pediatric Surgical Association, American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology, European Laryngological Society, European Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology, Global Industry Research Collaborative, North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Society for Ear Nose and Throat Advancement in Children, and The Triological Society.

Consumer information: If anyone ingests a battery, immediately call the 24-hour National Battery Ingestion Hotline at 1-800-498-8666. To be prepared and learn more about what to do should your child swallow a battery, visit https://www.poison.org/battery.

References

1Chandler MD, Ilyas K, Jatana KR, Smith GA, McKenzie LB, MacKay JM. Pediatric Battery-Related Emergency Department Visits in the United States: 2010-2019. Pediatrics. 2022;150(3):e2022056709.

2AAO-HNS Position Statement: Button and Coin Battery Technology, published October 6, 2023, accessed October 30, 2024 https://www.entnet.org/resource/position-statement-button-and-coin-battery-technology/.

 

About the AAO-HNS

The AAO-HNS/F is one of the world’s largest organizations representing specialists who treat the ears, nose, throat, and related structures of the head and neck. Otolaryngologist–head and neck surgeons diagnose and treat medical disorders that are among the most common affecting patients of all ages in the United States and around the world. Those medical conditions include chronic ear disease, hearing and balance disorders, hearing loss, sinusitis, snoring and sleep apnea, allergies, swallowing disorders, nosebleeds, hoarseness, dizziness, and tumors of the head and neck as well as aesthetic and reconstructive surgery and intricate micro-surgical procedures of the head and neck. The Academy has approximately 13,000 members.

What is the Electoral College and how does it work?

ELECTORAL COLLEGE IS A VESTIGIAL REMNANT OF WHITE SUPREMACY

THE TELEGRAPH
David Millward
Fri 25 October 2024

The Signing of the Constitution of the United States at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 - GraphicaArtis/Archive Photos


In 2016 Donald Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton but became president as a result of his winning a majority in the Electoral College.

It was the fifth time in the history of the United States that a president has won the Oval Office and lost the popular vote.

Regarded as an anachronism by critics, there have been an estimated 700 attempts to scrap the College or reform it.

The first was made by Alexander Hamilton, one of the College’s original architects in 1802 and the most recent was in 1969 when a constitutional amendment was given overwhelming backing by the House of Representatives, but talked out by opponents in the Senate.

When the amendment was finally brought before the Senate in 1979, it was backed by a majority of senators but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for a constitutional amendment.
Where did it begin?

The Electoral College dates back to the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, which gathered to put together a constitution for the fledgling nation.

At the time no country directly elected its head of state, so handing the choice over to the popular vote would have been entering uncharted territory.

While some delegates felt that allowing the legislature to choose the president could pave the way to behind-the-scenes deals and corruption, the majority feared the consequences of handing the choice over to “the mob” who, it was argued, would know little about the qualities of the candidate.
How does it work?

The Electoral College was, in effect, a compromise, allowing the people to vote for “electors” who would make the choice on their behalf.

There are 538 members of the Electoral College – which means a presidential candidate must secure the backing of 270 electors.

States’ allocation of electors is based on population and, as a result of the 2020 census 13 states saw the size of its delegation change.


Texas gained two seats in the college. Five other states Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon each gained one.

California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia each lost one.
How are members chosen?

Members of the Electoral College are chosen by the nominee for president.

In reality they are chosen by the party campaign in co-operation with local activists.

To reduce the risk of electors going “rogue”, members of the College would be reliable party members with a track record of falling into line.

They meet in State Capitols on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December to cast their ballots.

The certified results are then sent to Washington where, on January 6, the votes are tallied in a joint session of Congress, presided over by the sitting vice-president.
How are the votes distributed?

Use our searchable tool to see how many votes each state receives.
What happened on Jan 6?

Until January 6 2021, the meeting of the Electoral College was regarded as a formality, with the vice-president presiding over the meeting where the votes were counted.

Richard Nixon in 1961 and Al Gore in 2001 found themselves in the position of formally ratifying the candidate who had defeated them for the presidency the previous November.

Mike Pence, who was both vice-president and Donald Trump’s running mate, was in the same position when a mob stormed the Capitol.

Had the mob succeeded in preventing Mr Pence from presiding over the count, the choice of president would have fallen to the congressional delegations, with each state getting one vote.

With the Republicans having a majority of state delegations, this would have led to Mr Trump returning to the White House.
Does my vote count?

Yes, with certain qualifications. It is an indirect election and candidates with a minority of the popular vote have won the presidency.

On five occasions the Electoral College system has resulted in the election of a candidate who did not receive the most popular votes in the election:

1800, 1824, 1876, 2000, and, most famously, and recently in 2016, when the Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton claimed 2.1 per cent more of the popular vote than Donald Trump, who, with 304 votes compared to 227, won the Electoral victory, and, therefore, his place in the White House.

These seven states will decide the election. Here’s what we learned reporting on the ground

Lauren Gambino, George Chidi, Chris McGreal, Maanvi Singh, Ed Pilkington, Joan E Greve and Alice Herman

THE GUARDIAN
Sat 26 October 2024

Election workers at the Maricopa county Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) in Phoenix, Arizona, on 23 October 2024.Photograph: Olivier Touron/AFP/Getty Images


Spare a thought for beleaguered Pennsylvanians. During the past few weeks, they have been pummeled with $280m worth of election ads blazing on their TV and computer screens, part of an eye-popping $2.1bn spent so far on the US presidential election.

Pennsylvania is one of the seven battleground states that, when it comes to choosing presidents, can seem as revered as the seven wonders of the world. Forget Democratic California, ditch reliably Republican Texas – it is these seven states that, come 5 November, will decide the outcome of one of the most consequential elections in modern times.

Their names are seared into the minds of politically aware Americans: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Under America’s arcane electoral system, the occupant of the Oval Office is elected not through the popular vote but by electoral college votes harvested state by state.


Among them, the seven states control 93 electoral college votes (Pennsylvania has the largest number, 19, which is why its residents are so bombarded). In the final days, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and their running mates, JD Vance and Tim Walz, will be scrambling all over them in a bid to reach the magic number: 270 electoral college votes to win.

The states are called battlegrounds for a reason – their loyalty cannot be taken for granted by either side. This year, though, their unpredictability has reached dizzying heights. The Guardian’s presidential poll tracker shows five of them essentially tied within a three-point margin of error, with only Arizona (where Trump is up four points) and Wisconsin (where Harris is up five) pulling away. Nate Cohn, the New York Times’ polling expert, has drily noted that the presidential polls are “starting to run out of room to get any closer”.

Guardian reporters are on the ground in each of the seven battlegrounds to test these confounding waters.

– Ed Pilkington

***
Arizona

‘Why isn’t Trump doing a little better here?’

On a stiflingly hot afternoon last month, Lynn and Roger Seeley relaxed into an air-conditioned co-working space in a suburb east of Phoenix. They had come to hear the Democratic candidate for US Senate, Ruben Gallego, make his pitch to a roomful of small-business owners. Lifelong Republicans, they might have felt out of place at a Democratic campaign event in the pre-Trump era. But not now.

“The Arizona Republican party is not the same Republican party,” said Lynn Seeley, who plans to vote for Kamala Harris in November. “It just doesn’t represent me anymore.”

The Seeleys are among a group of disaffected Arizonans known as “McCain Republicans” – moderates and independents who prefer the “maverick” brand of politics of the late Arizona Senator John McCain to Trump’s Maga movement.

The Trumpification of the state GOP, as well as rapid population growth, a large number of young Latino voters and a suburban shift away from the Republican party have created an opening for Democrats in recent election cycles, turning once ruby-red Arizona into a desert battleground.

Polling shows Donald Trump with a narrow edge over Harris in the presidential race. The Senate race, which is critical to the party’s slim hope of maintaining control of the chamber, appears to trend in Gallego’s favor. The state also features two of the most competitive House races in the country, both key to winning the speaker’s gavel. Arizonans are also voting on an initiative to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.

Across the sprawling Phoenix region, one of the fastest-growing in America, Trump and Harris signs dot xeriscaped yards. But roughly a third of Arizonans are unaffiliated, and since Trump’s election in 2016 they have broken for Democrats in key statewide races.

In 2020, Trump lost the state by fewer than 11,000 votes, the narrowest of any margin. It was the first time a Democratic presidential candidate had won Arizona since Bill Clinton in 1996, and before then, it was Harry Truman in 1948.

“Arizona is not a blue state,” said Samara Klar, a professor of political science at the University of Arizona. “Arizona has had very high inflation rates, very high increases in the cost of living, and an increase in the cost of gas. It’s a border state during a border crisis. A Republican candidate should be cleaning up in Arizona. So the question is: why isn’t Trump doing a little better here?”

Lauren Gambino | Chandler, Arizona

***
Georgia

Early voting hits records – but offers few clues

Mary Holewinski lives in Carrollton, Georgia, which is home turf for the far-right representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. But Holewinski is a Kamala Harris supporter and has a sign in her yard. It draws nasty looks, she said: “I’ve lost neighbor friends.”

Those tensions are ratcheting up, because the presidential election is already well under way in Georgia. More than 2 million Georgians - a quarter of its electorate - have already gone to the polls, setting early voting records each day.

Both Harris and Trump consider Georgia – no longer a stereotypical “deep south” state but one propelled by the economic and cultural clout of Atlanta - a crucial pickup. In 2020, the state went for Joe Biden by 11,780 votes

– and Trump has since been charged in an election interference case after calling Georgia’s secretary of state and asking him to “find” those 11,780 votes. A Georgia victory would represent belated validation for the former president.

The candidates may as well have leased apartments in Atlanta, for all the time they’re spending here. The difference between a Democrat winning 80% and 90% of their votes could be larger than the overall margin of victory.

But Georgia is no longer a state defined by Black and white voters. Asian and Latino population growth has changed the political landscape in suburban Atlanta, which helped drive the Biden victory here in 2020. And the conflict between conventional conservative Republicans and the Maga insurgency may also be determinative: suburban moderates in the Atlanta region turned against Trump in 2020, and he has done little since to win them back.

Still, while historically Democrats in Georgia have been more likely to vote early than Republicans, Trump has pointedly instructed his supporters to vote early in person in Georgia, and many appear to be doing just that.

“I could care less about whether you like him or not. It’s not a popularity contest,” said Justin Thompson, a retired air force engineer from Macon. “It’s what you got done. And he did get things done before the pandemic hit. And the only reason why he didn’t get re-elected was because the pandemic hit.”

George Chidi | Atlanta, Georgia

***
Michigan

Turnout is key in state where many are angry over Gaza

The trade union official had much to say, but he wasn’t going to say it in public.

The leader of a union branch at a Michigan factory, he was embarrassed to admit that most of its members support Donald Trump – even though he’s also disparaging about what he saw as the Democratic party elite’s failure to put the interests of working people ahead of powerful corporations.

“I don’t want to disagree with the members in public because they have their reasons to do what they think is good for protecting their jobs,” he said. “I’ve tried to explain that they’re wrong but they don’t want to hear it.”

Like many in Michigan, he found himself torn: despairing of Trump yet not greatly enthused by Harris. A Rust belt state that once prospered from making cars, steel and other industrial products, Michigan lost many jobs to Mexico after the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) by Bill Clinton, an enduring source of resentment against the Democrats for some voters that helped Trump to power.

That goes some way to explain why opinion polls continue to have the two candidates neck-and-neck in Michigan, even though the Harris campaign is heavily outspending Trump here and appears to have a better ground game with more volunteers.

Turnout will be key: Trump won here by just 10,704 votes in 2016, then lost narrowly to Biden four years later. High on the list of demographic targets are Black voters in Michigan’s largest city, Detroit, whose low turnout in 2016 was a factor in Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the state. Harris is also targeting white suburban women, many of whom previously supported Trump but have cooled on him over abortion rights, his continued false claims of election fraud and his criminal convictions.

For all of that, the election in Michigan may be decided by events far away.

More than 100,000 Michigan Democrats, many of them from the state’s Arab American community around Detroit, abstained from supporting Biden in the Democratic primaries earlier this year because of his support for Israel’s war in Gaza. So far, Harris has not significantly wavered from Biden on the issue. With polls this close, it could be decisive if Harris loses a fraction of these voters.

Chris McGreal | Saginaw, Michigan

***
Nevada

Is Harris or Trump better for the working class?

Urbin Gonzalez could have been working inside, in the air conditioning, at his regular job as a porter on the Las Vegas Strip. Instead, in the final days before the US election, he had chosen to go door-knocking in the 104F (40C) heat.

“I don’t care because I’m fighting for my situation,” said Gonzalez, dabbing the sweat from his neck. “All Trump wants to do is cut taxes for his buddies, for his rich friends, not for us. Not for workers … This is personal.”

While the US economy broadly bounced back from the pandemic, Nevada has lagged behind. Nearly a quarter of jobs here are in leisure or hospitality, and although the Las Vegas Strip, where Gonzalez works, is back to booming with tourists, unemployment in Nevada remains the highest of any US state, and housing costs have skyrocketed.

Both Trump and Harris have promised to turn things around: both have promised to eliminate federal income taxes on workers’ tips, and both have vowed to expand tax credits for parents – though their plans widely differ when it comes to the finer points.

Although Nevada has leaned Democratic in every presidential election since 2008, winning candidates have scraped by with slim margins. About 40% of voters don’t identify with either Democrats or Republicans, and although a growing number of Latino voters – who now make up 20% of the electorate – have traditionally backed Democrats, the party’s popularity is slipping.

The state, which has just six electoral votes, is notoriously difficult to accurately poll – in large part because the big cities, Reno and Las Vegas, are home to a transient population, many of whom work unpredictable shifts in the state’s 24/7 entertainment and hospitality industries. But many voters remember the days early in the Trump administration when costs were lower. “I think the economy was just better when Trump was president,” said Magaly Rodas, 32, while shopping at her local Latin market. Her husband, an electrician, has struggled to find work since the pandemic, while rent and other expenses have continued to climb. “What have the Democrats done for us in four years?”

Maanvi Singh | Las Vegas, Nevada

***
North Carolina

A hurricane is a wild card that could depress turnout

Kim Blevins, 55, knows what it’s like to survive a disaster. She was locked inside her home without power for eight days when Hurricane Helene struck western North Carolina last month.

So when she uses the experience as a frame through which to view the impending election, she is not being frivolous. “If Trump doesn’t get in, it’s going to be worse than the hurricane,” she said.

“It’ll be world war three. Kamala Harris wants to make us a communist country and we can’t survive that. The illegals coming over the border, the inflation of food and gas prices, we can’t do that.”

Hurricane Helene has raised a critical challenge for Donald Trump.

It affected a rural mountainous region that is Trump’s natural base – some 23 out of the 25 stricken counties are majority-Maga. So any decline in turnout would most likely hurt him.

Trump needs to win North Carolina if he is to have an easy shot at returning to the White House. The state veers Republican, only voting for a Democratic president twice in recent times (Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008). Trump took it in 2020 by just 75,000 votes.

Yet Harris has succeeded since she took over the Democratic mantle from Joe Biden in making this race neck-and-neck.

In the final stretch, Trump is focusing on getting his base of largely white rural voters to the polls, hurricane be damned. His campaign has been heartened by the first week of early voting, which has smashed all records, with Republicans almost matching Democrats in turnout. (In 2020 and 2016, Republicans lagged behind.)

On her side, Harris is waging an intense ground game, with hundreds of staffers fanning out across the state to squeeze out every vote. The thinking is that if Trump can be blocked in North Carolina, he can be stopped from regaining power.

For that to happen, Harris has to mobilize her broad tent of support, with special emphasis on women in the suburbs of Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham. She is also trying to shore up the male African American vote, which has shown some softness.

Not least, she is trying to tie Trump to Mark Robinson, the state’s Republican gubernatorial candidate. Robinson has described himself as a “Black Nazi”, and has been revealed to have made extreme racist remarks.

Ed Pilkington | Creston, North Carolina

***
Pennsylvania

‘If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing’

Pennsylvania provided one of the most enduring images of the fraught US election cycle: Donald Trump raising his fist to a crowd of supporters after a gunman attempted to end his life at a campaign rally in July. As Trump left the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, with blood dripping from his ear, his supporters chanted: “Fight! Fight!”

Days later, Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race, clearing the way for Kamala Harris to ascend to the Democratic nomination.

Both Trump and Harris have returned to Pennsylvania dozens of times since, confirming that the Keystone state could play a definitive role in the presidential race. “If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing,” Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania last month. “It’s very simple.”

As the fifth-most-populous US state, Pennsylvania has the most electoral votes of any of the battlegrounds. Much of the population is clustered around Philadelphia and smaller cities like Pittsburgh and Scranton, where Biden showed strength in 2020, but the more rural regions could play an outsized role in the election. White, blue-collar voters in these rural areas have sharply shifted away from Democrats in recent elections.

Some Democrats expected Harris to choose the popular governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, as her running mate, given his impressive ability to secure consistent victories in such a closely-contested state. Harris instead chose Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, a decision that could come back to haunt her depending on the results in Pennsylvania.

In her bid to sway undecided voters, Harris has walked back some of her most progressive proposals from her 2020 presidential campaign – such as a ban on fracking, a major industry in Pennsylvania, on which she has now reversed her stance.

It could all come down to Pennsylvania. Tom Morrissey, a 67-year-old voter from Harleysville attending a Democratic campaign event last month, was optimistic . “We love the enthusiasm. It’s so important at this time,” Morrissey said. “We have to save democracy.”

Joan E Greve | Ambler, Pennsylvania

***
Wisconsin

‘Let the anxiety wash over you and then refocus’

Wearing matching hats emblazoned with the words “Sauk County Democrats”, Deb and Rod Merritt, a retired couple from southern Wisconsin, joined the crowd to hear Barack Obama stump for Kamala Harris.

“We’re so apprehensive that the polls say they’re close,” said Rod Merritt.

Sauk county is one of a handful of Wisconsin counties that has flipped from Democrats to Republicans and back. It’s exactly the kind of place – a swing county in a swing state – that the campaigns are fighting over.

A midwestern state in the Great Lakes region known for dairy production, manufacturing and healthcare, Wisconsin is considered to be part of the “blue wall” – the states Democrats consistently won in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Trade unions historically helped drive voter turnout for Democrats, but a series of anti-labor laws passed under the Republican-controlled state government in 2011 dealt them a blow. Rural areas have increasingly turned to Republican candidates, leaving cities like Milwaukee – Wisconsin’s most racially diverse – and the liberal stronghold of Madison as Democratic bastions.

With the economy the top issue, it all comes down to turnout, with Republicans focusing on rural voters and young men, who have increasingly looked to conservative politics.

The Democrats, meanwhile, hope the closeness of the race – in which a half-million people have already voted – will mobilize volunteers. “In some ways, the most important thing is learning some breathing exercises so that you can let the anxiety wash through you – and then refocus on knocking on the next door,” said Ben Wikler, the chair of the Democratic party of Wisconsin.

Alice Herman | Madison, Wisconsin

Far-Right House Leader Calls on North Carolina to Pre-emptively Give Donald Trump Its Electoral Votes

Lizzie Hyman

PEOPLE
Fri, October 25, 2024

Rep. Andy Harris, chair of the House Freedom Caucus, proposed that the swing state's Republican-controlled legislature could hand their 16 Electoral College votes to Trump regardless of the election results

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty; Emily Elconin/Getty

Maryland Rep. Andy Harris has proposed that North Carolina deviate from the democratic voting process in the 2024 election by preemptively allocating the state’s presidential electors to former President Donald Trump, according to Politico.

At the Talbot County Lincoln Reagan Dinner on Thursday, Oct. 24, the chair of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, 67, asserted that it "makes a lot of sense" for North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature to directly decide the winner, given the potential barriers to voting that some areas are facing amid the Hurricane Helene recovery efforts.

Related: Donald Trump Tells N.C. He 'Didn't Have to' Come See Hurricane Damage: 'I Could've Been on a Beautiful Beach'

"You statistically can go and say, 'Look, you got disenfranchised in 25 counties. You know what that vote probably would have been,' " the congressman said in conversation with MAGA operative Ivan Raiklin, who has endorsed a similar plan to ensure a Trump victory in North Carolina.

Rep. Harris continued by saying that the devastation from Hurricane Helene "would be — if I were in the legislature — enough to go, 'Yeah, we have to convene the Legislature. We can’t disenfranchise the voters.' "

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty

While Rep. Harris acknowledged that it would appear to be "just a power play" if other states started allocating Electoral College votes before ballots had been counted, he argued that in North Carolina, "it’s legitimate."

"There are a lot of people that aren’t going to get to vote and it may make the difference in that state," he said.

In response to his comments when he was asked to elaborate, Harris issued a statement to Politico, writing, “As I’ve repeatedly said, every legal vote should be counted. I would hope everyone could agree that legal American voters whose lives were devastated by the recent storms should not be disenfranchised in the upcoming voting process.”

Related: Kamala Harris Slams Donald Trump for ‘Playing Games’ with Hurricane Misinformation: ‘I Fear He Lacks Empathy’

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, the chair of the House Freedom Caucus

Raiklin, 46, posted his exchange with Harris on Thursday night on X, writing, "Breaking! @freedomcaucus chairman @RepAndyHarrisMD at Talbot County Lincoln Reagan Dinner agrees that NC Speaker of the House @NCHouseSpeaker and the State Legislature should convene a joint session to allocate the electors on Nov 5 directly to ensure the franchise of 25 counties is restored."

Raiklin himself has raised concerns by positioning himself as a potential "secretary of retribution" in a future Trump administration. He has reportedly compiled a "Deep State Target List" of 350 individuals he considers enemies, and has promised to appoint "Constitutional sheriffs" to go after those enemies if Trump is elected and offer them "the maximum punishment for treason." (The Department of Justice says that treason can be punishable by death.)

Raiklin was the man who shared a two-page memo on X (then called Twitter) in December 2020 called "Operation Pence Card," which detailed a plan to have Vice President Mike Pence reject the certification of the 2020 election results. Trump retweeted the memo, and after the idea grew in popularity, Pence ultimately refused to participate.

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North Carolinians will play a key role in deciding the next president. The state is one of seven battlegrounds identified in the 2024 election, carrying a large prize of 16 Electoral College votes for the winner. Polls suggest that Kamala Harris has a chance at flipping the state blue, with Trump only an inch ahead in most surveys.

Republican draws criticism for call to bypass election in North Carolina

Moira Warburton
Fri, October 25, 2024 

Members of ReOpen Maryland hold a road rally procession calling for the re-opening for the state of Maryland amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Sailsbury, Maryland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican U.S. lawmaker this week suggested the storm-hit state of North Carolina should allocate its votes in the Electoral College to Republican Donald Trump before the Nov. 5 election has taken place, drawing criticism from Democrats.

Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, who chairs the hardline House Freedom Caucus, said in an exchange captured on video on Thursday that given the destruction caused in North Carolina by last month's Hurricane Helene, the state legislature should preemptively declare that Trump won the state's 16 Electoral College votes, to avoid "disenfranchised voters."

His comments were first reported by Politico.

North Carolina is one of seven battleground states expected to play a decisive role in determining whether Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris is the next U.S. president. Polls show Trump with a marginal lead in the state.

Democrats slammed Harris' suggestion.

"Voters decide elections, not far-right politicians," Viet Shelton, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement.

"It's really important to understand the mainstream Republican goal - to make Donald Trump President whether or not he wins the election," Senator Chris Murphy said in a social media post.

Harris' campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.

Twice this century, Democrats have won the majority of the national popular vote without securing the 270 of the 538 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House: in 2000, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared Republican George W. Bush the election's winner and in 2016, when Trump was first elected.

(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell)

Freedom Caucus chair says he was taken out of context on legislature deciding presidential electors

BRIAN WITTE
Fri, October 25, 2024 



The chairman of the House Freedom Caucus said Friday that news reports quoting him as saying the North Carolina legislature could allocate the state’s presidential electors to Donald Trump before the votes are counted were based on a conversation that was “taken out of context.”

The comments from Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland had been made at a Republican Party dinner in an exchange with a pro-Trump activist who had given the keynote address. The activist suggested that legislatures in several states, including North Carolina, could convene on Election Day and allocate their state’s electors to Trump. The comments from the Thursday dinner in Maryland were first reported by Politico.

Harris, speaking after the speech, referenced the counties in western North Carolina that had sustained major damage from Hurricane Helene. In reaction to the activist's proposal, he said, “for North Carolina, that makes a lot of sense,” according to a video.

“I mean, you statistically can go and say: ’Hey, look, you’ve got disenfranchised in 25 counties. You know what that vote probably would have been, which would be, if I were in the legislature, enough to go: Yeah, we’ve got to convene the legislature, and we can’t disenfranchise the voters. But how do you make the argument in other states? I mean, otherwise, it looks like it’s just a power play,” Harris said.

“With North Carolina, I mean, it’s legitimate. I mean, there are a lot of people who aren’t going to get to vote, and it may make the difference in that state,” he said.

Such a maneuver doesn’t appear to be possible under current North Carolina law.

The state’s law on awarding presidential electors limits the General Assembly’s role to extenuating circumstances after an election if other steps in the process aren’t met. Any attempt by a legislature to subvert the will of the voters and promote an alternate slate of electors also appears to run afoul of the Electoral Count Act, passed by Congress after Trump attempted to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election.


People wait in line at the polling place at Black Mountain Library during the first day of early in-person voting, on Oct. 17, 2024, in Black Mountain, N.C. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

The offices of North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, both Republicans, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Harris issued a statement Friday after his comments from the dinner drew widespread attention.

“Yesterday’s theoretical conversation has been taken out of context,” he said in a statement. “As I’ve repeatedly said, every legal vote should be counted."

He also said “voting is going well in western North Carolina."

There has been bipartisan agreement on the steps needed to improve voting access in the counties affected by Helene. The North Carolina State Board of Elections — made up of both Democratic and Republican members — unanimously approved a resolution earlier this month expanding opportunities for absentee ballot pickup and giving local boards more flexibility.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed legislation to expand those changes to the 25 affected counties. State lawmakers also passed a bill on Thursday that requires 13 mountain counties to have at least one early, in-person voting site for every 30,000 registered voters as soon as possible.

Early voting throughout the state, including in the areas hit hard by the hurricane, has been robust. The state elections board has repeatedly praised the efforts of local election workers to ensure that all voters are able to cast their ballots.

Asked for her reaction to Harris' comments, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said, "America deserves to have leaders who respect the importance of one of the pillars and foundations of our democracy, which is free and fair elections, and that they are not manipulated by elected leaders for the sake of their own political future or their own political strategy for how they themselves want to succeed.

"This has to be about what’s in the best interest of the American people.”

___

Associated Press writers Gary Robertson and Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

"Power play": Freedom Caucus head urges North Carolina to grant Trump electoral college votes

Griffin Eckstein

SALON
Fri, October 25, 2024 

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
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A high-ranking Republican congressman outlined a scheme to preempt the will of voters and award North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes to former president Donald Trump before ballots are tallied in that state.

Maryland Rep. Andy Harris argued on Thursday that the devastation of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, and the potential voting challenges in the deepest-red counties that remain, should push the state's legislature to award Trump their electoral college votes.

The chair of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, said that a plan to deliver Trump the state without an election “makes a lot of sense.”

“You statistically can go and say, ‘Look, you got disenfranchised in 25 counties. You know what that vote probably would have been,’” Harris argued. “Which would be — if I were in the Legislature — enough to go, ‘Yeah, we have to convene the Legislature. We can’t disenfranchise the voters.’”

The move was suggested during a Republican dinner in Talbot County, Maryland. Harris was responding to keynote speaker Ivan Raiklin’s plan to use GOP-controlled legislatures in multiple swing states to award electors to Trump regardless of election outcomes.

“It looks like just a power play,” Harris conceded about Raiklin’s scheme. “In North Carolina, it’s legitimate. There are a lot of people that aren’t going to get to vote and it may make the difference in that state.”

North Carolina Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry told Politico that he hadn’t heard about the plot, but dismissed the idea.
“It makes no sense whatsoever to prejudge the election outcome. And that is a misinformed view of what is happening on the ground in North Carolina, bless his heart,” McHenry said. “I’m confident we’ll have a safe and fair election in North Carolina, and then everyone that wishes to vote will have the opportunity.”

North Carolina has been in the cross-hairs of GOP operators since Hurricane Helene ravaged the area. Trump and his acolytes have spread the conspiracy theory that government officials are slow-walking recovery efforts in the area because of a supposed Republican bent. Officials on both sides of the aisle have debunked these claims repeatedly.