--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, October 31st. Here's what we're covering.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Across the U.S., more than 50 million voters have already cast their ballots. The election's mostly been running smoothly, but the country is still on edge. Authorities have warned about political violence and foreign powers spreading disinformation. There are also concerns about how the actual counting of the votes will play out.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One of the concerns that state and local election officials have right now is what they call insider threats. These would be people who are kind of well-positioned or even running elections offices who would have ability to impact the election based on conspiracy theories.
--:-- Alexandra Berzon: I'm Alexandra Berzon, and I cover voting for The Times. People steeped in Donald Trump's false claims about rigged elections are now, in some cases, in charge of the election process in communities across the country.
--:-- Alexandra Berzon: One example of this that came up just this week, in fact, is an incident that's been happening in Michigan in a very small town called Rock River. And there you had a clerk and his deputy who have taken over the election systems there.
--:-- Alexandra Berzon: He has decided that they want to do hand counting of ballots, which is an idea that's been promoted by a lot of the election denial activist groups that election experts and election officials really say could be disruptive to elections because it can slow down the process. It's actually not as reliable. It's been shown as machines are.
--:-- Alexandra Berzon: The director of elections in Michigan sent a letter earlier this week to the clerks, relieving them of their duties in the elections and basically saying that they could not oversee the elections because their plan to do hand counting of ballots, the state says, is not legal in Michigan.
--:-- Alexandra Berzon: I spoke with the clerk who was removed. He argued that he was protecting the integrity of the election.
--:-- Alexandra Berzon: The state of Michigan already had to take over supervision of elections in another town after the Republican clerk there was charged with a felony for his role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
--:-- Alexandra Berzon: I've seen other people steeped in the false theories have gotten involved this year by volunteering to be poll monitors. They're supposed to document disputes and irregularities at the polls. But this year, I say many feel their role is to provide proof of Trump's claims of fraud.
--:-- Alexandra Berzon: And officials are concerned they could delay or even disrupt vote counts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, President Biden's remarks from a Zoom call earlier this week are continuing to haunt Kamala Harris.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Biden appeared to call Trump supporters garbage on the call, though he's since said he was actually calling racist rhetoric garbage.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: First of all, I think that the president has explained what he meant. But I've said it earlier, I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.
--:-- Kamala Harris: Harris has faced repeated questions about the comments and tried to separate herself from them.
--:-- Kamala Harris: The vice president had already been trying to keep her distance from Biden. She did not include him at her Tuesday rally, even though it was just a few hundred yards from the White House.
--:-- Kamala Harris: Harris campaign officials tell The Times they view Biden as a liability and were concerned about potential gaffes even before his garbage comment.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For their part, the Trump campaign has been going all in on the soundbite. Trump even posed for photos at a Wisconsin campaign stop in a garbage truck.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump has a long history of disparaging comments of his own. He's called Democrats vermin, lunatics, and the enemy within. Just last month, he said Harris was surrounded by terrible people, calling them, quote, absolute garbage.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In eastern Spain, flash floods have wreaked havoc in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the country in years. At least 95 people are dead and more are missing, and the torrential rainfall was off the charts.
--:-- Emma Bubla: I'm Emma Bubla, and I'm reporting from Valencia, where the storm caught many people unaware.
--:-- Emma Bubla: All of the people I spoke to had similar stories of just being in their car and slowly seeing water levels, climbing up and reaching their legs, reaching their chests, even their chins sometimes.
--:-- Emma Bubla: I tried to go out to some of the villages that were the hardest hit, but it was very hard to get there because many bridges and roads were either broken or inundated by the water.
--:-- Emma Bubla: And a lot of these villages are still completely isolated from the rest of the country.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Right now, we aren't always at our best. I've heard that while people love Starbucks, some feel like we have drifted from our core.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In a call with investors yesterday, the CEO of Starbucks acknowledged the coffee giant has been struggling.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Starbucks has seen a 10% drop in sales in North America in just the past year, as customers have complained about long wait times and the chaotic feeling in stores as they jostle for their drinks.
--:-- Julie Cresswell: I'm Julie Cresswell, a business reporter at The Times. Starbucks had been riding a wave in recent years, luring in customers with expanded drive-thrus and ever more customizable drinks.
--:-- Julie Cresswell: But the complex orders have bogged down baristas, and the focus on to-go orders made the stores feel more like frantic frappuccino factories instead of cozy coffee shops.
--:-- Julie Cresswell: Now the company CEO says he's setting a goal of delivering all orders in four minutes or less. And he wants people to enjoy the ambiance again.
--:-- Julie Cresswell: For example, some stores will lean into using ceramic mugs for customers who want to linger.
--:-- Julie Cresswell: But I say that for Starbucks, vibes are not the only issue. So whereas Starbucks is trying to do hot food, hot drinks, you know, beverages, they want to be a cafe, they want to have mobile orders, they want to have drive-thru.
--:-- Julie Cresswell: You're seeing competitors in different parts of the country that are just cleaving off sort of one piece of that. So they're just going to do the only drive-throughs and only cold beverages is going to be what they're focusing on.
--:-- Julie Cresswell: And other competitors that are truly just a sit-down cafe experience. So I think that's one of the more interesting questions around Starbucks is that can it be everything for everyone? Or is it trying to be too much?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally... Start the party, Los Angeles! Your Dodgers have won the World Series!
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Dodgers roared back to beat the New York Yankees last night and win their eighth World Series title.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For the Los Angeles team, the win validates the massive spending spree it took to pull this team together. To get superstar Shohei Otani, the Dodgers offered him the largest contract in pro sports history, $700 million over 10 years.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The last time the Dodgers won the World Series was in 2020, but that came with an asterisk. It was a short season because of the pandemic, and COVID restrictions meant there was no citywide celebration.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This year, the Dodgers will get their parade. They'll roll through downtown Los Angeles tomorrow morning.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, a look at how the relationship between Black Americans and the Democratic Party is changing through the story of one family in Georgia. That's next in The New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
