--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, November 8th, Election Day. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, how marijuana on the ballot could lead to a turning point in legalization. World leaders debate who should foot the bill for climate change damage. And historical photos tell a tense story about democracy and elections in America. But first, Election Day is underway, and there are already several lawsuits.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: The Washington Post reports on Republican efforts to disqualify thousands of mail-in ballots.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: In Wisconsin, Republicans want a lawsuit to toss some mail ballots that don't have the address of a witness filled out.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: There's another victory for the GOP in Pennsylvania, where a court said ballots without a written date on the outer envelope should not be counted.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: In Michigan, a judge denied a Republican's attempt to force Detroit voters to show up in person.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: GOP lawyers say that they're working to make sure voters follow the law. But Democrats are crying foul, saying it's not fair to throw out votes based on small technicalities.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: With so many tight races, a few thousand disqualified ballots could swing a race, maybe even control of Congress. And there could be many more lawsuits to come, as MSNBC's Eamon Mohedin explained recently.
--:-- Eamon Mohedin: Republican Party officials say they're actively preparing for recounts, contested elections, and even more litigation. And there are thousands of volunteers in place primed to challenge ballots and hunt down evidence of malfeasance, even though there's always scant evidence of that in our elections.
--:-- Shamita Basu: All these legal moves are part of why election experts are reminding people that some results won't be known tonight. It could take days, maybe weeks for some races to be called, which is a normal thing to expect in every national election cycle.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These lawsuits aside, there are other reasons we'll need to be patient. Many states don't allow counting of mail-in ballots until Election Day. Thus, several have a grace period. Mailed ballots are valid if they're postmarked by Election Day, even if they arrive after it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Close races will need recounts. And there's a strong chance that the Georgia Senate race will go to a runoff, which would happen next month.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The reality of American elections is not very satisfying if you're looking for instant gratification. But at least you don't have to worry about missing out if you're looking for an excuse to go to bed early.
--:-- Shamita Basu: After today, marijuana could be considered legal in almost half of the United States. The issue is on the ballot in five states: Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Just for some perspective, Colorado became the first state to fully legalize marijuana only a decade ago. Time reports on where things are going.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Legalizing appears to be a popular move. Gallup polling from last year found 68% of Americans in favor, with support from the left and the right.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At the federal level, marijuana is still classified the same way as heroin and ecstasy. But last month, President Biden issued an executive order to pardon people convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He also ordered a review of how the drug is classified. Supporters of legalization say that people of color have been unfairly targeted by pot enforcement and that police should focus on more dangerous drugs and crimes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: U marijuana law has changed a lot in a pretty short time and voters may push it even further today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A big climate summit is happening in Egypt, opening with an urgent warning from U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible. We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For the first time, the idea of climate reparations is on the official agenda at COP27.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: CNBC reports on how low-income nations are pushing for what are also known as loss and damage payments. It's money to make up for devastation caused by severe weather, like the deadly floods in Pakistan and Nigeria recently.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Climate change made those disasters worse, intensifying the rain. But it's emissions from wealthy countries that drive so much of climate change. That's why there's a growing movement to get them to pay for damages.
--:-- Shamita Basu: National Geographic reports on how what's called attribution science is adding hard data to the debate over climate reparations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now that computer modeling is more powerful than ever, scientists are able to better pinpoint how climate change makes deadly disasters worse, from heat waves to floods to rising sea levels.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Wealthy countries, including the United States, have been slow to get on board with paying for climate change damage in other countries. But now there's a stronger scientific argument to go along with the moral one.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And world leaders seem to be giving reparations more consideration than before.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We want to send you off into your election day with one last story. It's a series of photographs chosen by documentarian Ken Burns for The Atlantic.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He picked six photos that represent American elections through history, or as he puts it, images that hint at tensions between calls for more rights and freedom and calls for exclusion.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Several show people who fought to get the right to vote, including an image from 1912 of a few suffragettes holding up umbrellas that say votes for women.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Burns also picked out a regal portrait of Susan B. Anthony, who was arrested and fined for voting, and died just before the 19th Amendment gave women the right.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Anthony's name is in the history books, but one of the most striking photos here is of an unknown Black woman in 1964, walking into a courthouse in Mississippi.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The steps are crowded with white men. Some are looking at her suspiciously. As Burns writes, she may have registered to vote for the first time that day.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's a reminder that progress isn't just made by famous people in the spotlight. It's also a sum of a million quiet acts of courage by otherwise ordinary people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can see those photos and all the stories that we talked about today in the Apple News app, along with full coverage of election developments.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app, stick around for a narrated article from The New Yorker about film composer Carter Burwell, who scores the Coen Brothers films.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You'll hear about the art of making audiences uncomfortable. So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
