Voting 2020 live updates: Will Californians, Coloradoans, fleeing wildfires gain extension? Judge tosses out Michigan ban on guns at polls

Wildfires roaring through California and Colorado that have forced hundreds of thousands of residents to flee their homes have raised questions about if and how the displaced will be able to vote.

In Southern California, where 100,000 people have fled fires, Neal Kelley, the Registrar of Voters for Orange County, told Fox News that Nov. 3 remained a “firm deadline” but that election officials were closely monitoring the situation for a possible extension.

“That decision will depend on conditions as we move closer to opening our voter centers on Friday,” Kelley said.  

Some context: The National Interagency Fire Center reports that more than 50 major fires are burning across 10 western states – including 19 fires in California alone. President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed poor forest management in California for helping fuel the blazes.

In Colorado, state and local election officials are scrambling to help thousands of voters in Larimer and Grand counties who evacuated from the East Troublesome and Cameron Peak fires.

The Secretary of State’s Office this week announced that voters affected by the fires can vote using Colorado's emergency electronic ballot delivery system. The secure, online system allows voters to print out a ballot and all the necessary paperwork, including an envelope, needed to submit a ballot at a drop box. Officials encourage voters not to mail their ballots to ensure it arrives on time and gets counted. 

More news to keep in mind: We're just two weeks until Election Day. USA TODAY is keeping track of what's happening as voters around the country cast ballots. Keep refreshing this page for updates.

An in-depth look: A new report says five states, including several that are presidential battlegrounds, are at a high risk for activity by armed groups of civilians around the Nov. 3 election. The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project and MilitiaWatch highlighted Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Oregon.

Voters are already casting ballots: Numbers compiled by @electproject show at least 71 million people have already voted. In other numbers, from the Guardian reports 23%  (14.8 million out of 62.6 million) of registered voters in swing states have had their mail-in ballots accepted.

Judge tosses out Michigan ban on open carry of guns at polling places

A Michigan judge has struck down Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's directive banning the open carry of guns at the state's polling places on Election Day. Michigan Court of Claims Judge Christopher Murray said Benson did not follow the proper procedure and issued a preliminary injunction against her directive.

"This case is not about whether it is a good idea to openly carry a firearm at a polling place, or whether the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prevents the secretary of state’s ... directive," Murray said in a written opinion.

Murray handed down his ruling the same day the Detroit branch of the NAACP said its members and area attorneys will monitor polls across the city and state on Election Day and will report to police and prosecutors any instances of voter intimidation or voter suppression.

– Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press

2 accused of fraud, bribery in multistate voter intimidation case

Two men accused of voter intimidation against minorities in Michigan have been indicted on felony charges of telecommunications fraud and bribery in Ohio. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley said John "Jack'' Burkman, 54, of Arlington, Virginia, and Jacob Wohl, 22, of Los Angeles were indicted for an alleged robocalling scheme meant to intimidate voters in minority neighborhoods into not voting. More than 67,000 calls were made in August targeting areas of Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania -- three battleground states. 

"The calls purported to advise the people on the other end of the call that they ought to be very careful about asking for an absentee ballot because bill collectors were going to mine that information and come after them,'' Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said.

– Rick Rouan, The Columbus Dispatch

Tennessee to prep voting sites for people with COVID-19 

Tennesseans with COVID-19 or those showing symptoms should be able to vote in person with new safety measures on Nov. 3 if they choose to, state elections officials told counties this week. Tennessee Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins laid out precise guidelines on how counties could use election commission offices to safely let those voters who are quarantining or who have tested positive for COVID-19 cast a ballot. 

"Because normal polling locations are not suitable for voters with COVID-19, for the November 3, 2020, election, I grant statewide approval for the county election commission office to be designated as a voting site for any voter with COVID-19 symptoms," Goins said in a memo to the counties. 

– Mariah Timms, Nashville Tennessean

Headlines from elsewhere and resources on voting:

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Report warns five states are at high risk of activity by armed groups

Five states are at high risk for activity by armed groups of self-styled militias around Election Day, according to a new report. The analysis by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) and MilitiaWatch identified the states as Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Oregon. All but Oregon are regarded as tightly contested in the presidential race.

“Militia groups and other armed non-state actors pose a serious threat to the safety and security of American voters,” the report said. “Throughout the summer and leading up to the general election, these groups have become more assertive, with activities ranging from intervening in protests to organizing kidnapping plots targeting elected officials.”

– J.D. Prose, Beaver County Times

Huge early-vote totals encouraging – and spreading out election workload

The 64 million-plus votes already cast represent 37% more than all pre-election votes cast for the 2016 election, according to University of Florida Professor Michael McDonald's U.S. Elections Project. The current vote total is almost half of all votes cast four years ago. All this, McDonald says, is good news. Concerns about the ability to conduct an election during a pandemic appear somewhat allayed. Not only are people voting, but they are voting over a longer period of time, thereby "spreading out the workload" election officials face, McDonald says.

"Yes, there have been problems, and in many places lines are intolerably long," McDonald says. "But, people are voting. And there are more opportunities for them to do so by Election Day. Americans’ resilience and support for their democracy is very heartening in these trying times."

What state has the most barriers to voting? It might be Mississippi.

The opposition to Black voters in Mississippi has changed since the 1960s, but it hasn't ended, some experts say. There are no poll taxes anymore, no tests on the state constitution. But voters face obstacles such as state-mandated ID laws that mostly affect poor and minority communities and the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of former prisoners. 

Voters face a series of government-created barriers that make it, according to a study in the Election Law Journal in 2018, the most difficult state in which to vote. And despite having the largest percentage of Black people of any state, a Black person hasn't been elected to statewide office in 130 years. 

"Sometimes I think we beat ourselves," said Kim Houston, a Black woman who leads the Meridian City Council. "There's this mindset that (voting) doesn't matter, that nothing is going to change, that the election system is rigged." Read more here.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Voting 2020: No extension despite California fires; Michigan gun ban