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National

It's Election Day, and many Americans across the country who made their way to the polls early this morning were met with bad weather, long lines, power outages or no one to open the polling site. 

Why it matters: There have been reports and fears of election interference and voter suppression in certain states including Georgia. Even without intentional manipulation, lack of preparation or technical difficulties can cause miscalculations or prevent people from casting their ballots. Much of the eastern U.S. was hit with rain and storms Tuesday, which could decrease voter turnout, particularly among Democrats. 

New York: Throughout New York City, ballot readers failed, "thwarting thousands of would-be voters and forcing hundreds to abandon polling places rather than endure waits that sometimes exceeded an hour," Bloomberg reports. 

This morning, poll workers had trouble unlocking a polling site in Brooklyn, causing it to open late, according to PIX11.

Rhode Island: Some polls had a late start because of technical issues or workers arriving late. 

Pennsylvania: The judge of elections had a medical emergency and was unable to open one polling place in Pittsburgh, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The equipment needed to start the ballot machines was also not on site, and at 9:15 a.m. — more than two hours after the polling was slotted to begin — the machines were still not in service.

Tennessee: At a polling place in Knoxville, voters who showed up to the middle school that housed a polling site had to cast paper ballots as the location had a power outage Tuesday morning and its generator failed as well, CNN reports.

South Carolina: The Richland County elections director told CNN that he was seeing more frequent issues with calibration for older voting machines — meaning the wrong candidate was being accidentally selected.

When voting machines are not working properly, voters can submit emergency paper ballots at the polling place. Those will be tabulated later in the day. 

Arizona: One polling site was foreclosed on the day before Election Day in a town outside of Phoenix, Arizona, according to USA Today. The issue was eventually solved and the site was opened late. 

North Carolina: The North Carolina State Board of Elections released a statement explaining that in some polling locations, high humidity was causing issues with ballots being read by voting machines. 

Texas: One precinct in Arlington, Texas, ran out of enough paper ballots while dealing with machine issues, according to CNN. 

Go deeper: Trump makes voting great again

What a midterms split would mean for 2020

Election nightmares: Power outages, old machines and ballot deficiencies

Unexpected hurdles can prevent Americans from being able to cast ballots.

People stand in line to vote at a polling site. There is an old man with a walker and one woman stretching her legs. 

Politics

2018 midterm elections

Technology

Dan and Axios' Erica Pandey break down Amazon's reported decision to put half of its HQ2 in Northern Virginia, and the other half in Queens.

"Cities came forward with these elaborate applications that let Amazon in on all of their hopes and dreams, what they planned to build, what highways they planned to build, and now Amazon is... walking away with this incredibly granular economic development database of every major metro area in North America."

Go deeper: Amazon HQ2 and a breakup threat

Podcast: The future of Amazon HQ2 (or HQ3?)

Amazon picks the most predictable places, and walks away with all sorts of data.

Business

Pro Rata Podcast

Axios Re:Cap

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Podcasts

NASA simulation of the object known as Oumuamua tumbling through space.

NASA simulation of the object known as Oumuamua tumbling through space. Credit: NASA

Ever since it was first spotted in 2017, the interstellar asteroid known as Oumuamua, meaning "scout" or "messenger" in Hawaiian, has garnered much interest among astronomers and the public. Its origins, composition and shape have grabbed peoples' imaginations. Now a forthcoming study from Harvard University researchers make the bold claim that the object is actually an alien spacecraft — or a "light sail" of alien origin — tumbling away from Earth. 

The big picture: This study is not the first, nor is it likely the last time that an alien-origin hypothesis has been raised about Oumuamua. However, in science, the most outlandish claims are not usually the most likely, and they require rigorous examination by outside researchers before they can be accepted. 

The details: This new study, first posted to Cornell University's arXiv e-print archive prior to its publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters, has the imprimatur of Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard's astronomy department, which gives it some credibility. 

The study focuses on an apparent acceleration in the object as it moved through our solar system, which scientists discovered in 2018 and attributed to dust and gases escaping the object as the sun warmed it up. Such outgassing is regularly observed in comets, but Oumuamua is not clearly defined as a comet.

However, the new study puts forward the possibility that the increase in speed could have come from solar radiation pressure. If this was the case, then it might mean that Oumuamua (pronounced oh-MOO-ah-MOO-a) is "a new class of thin interstellar material" that formed naturally or is alien in origin. Specifically, it could be a solar light sail, designed to be carried along by the solar wind.

Or perhaps it's something more fascinating, and possibly even frightening. The study states: "A more exotic scenario is that 'Oumuamua' may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization."

But, but, but: More information is needed before making any firm conclusions about Oumuamua. Loeb himself told NBC News, for example, that "It is impossible to guess the purpose behind Oumuamua without more data." Other researchers have cast further doubt on the alien origin hypothesis with observations from 2017 showing that there were no signals coming from it to indicate it was communicating in any way, per Mashable.

Although the paper is online already, it is pre-peer review and provides evidence of an anomaly that could allow for the possibility that Oumuamua is of alien origin, but does not prove that this is the case.

In addition, jumping to the conclusion that this is an alien spacecraft or a light sail, which is tempting from online news headlines, is akin to grabbing hold of the least likely explanation. After all, scientists are confident that alien life exists, but the most likely scenario for finding it is the discovery of microbial life on another planet, rather than an encounter with an alien spaceship traveling from another solar system. 

In an interview with NBC, Coryn Bailer-Jones, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, summarized the reaction in the broader science community.  "In science," he told the network, "we must ask ourselves, 'Where is the evidence?' not 'Where is the lack of evidence so that I can fit in any hypothesis that I like?'"

Via Twitter, Ohio State astrophysicist Paul Sutter bluntly refuted the study's claims. "No, 'Oumuamua is not an alien spaceship, and the authors of the paper insult honest scientific inquiry to even suggest it," he stated.

An Axios Expert Voices conversation on how to search for alien life

Inside the Pentagon's multimillion-dollar program to explore UFOs

Scientists may have spotted the first known "exomoon"

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the timing of Oumuamua's acceleration. 

The interstellar object Oumuamua is almost certainly not an alien spaceship

In science, the least likely explanation requires clear evidence supporting it.

Science

Space

News and analysis of the scientific advances fueling AI and quantum computing, revolutionizing biology and medicine, and tackling climate change. Science is changing the world and colliding with the global politics that shape it.

Media Trends

Axios Media Trends

AT&T will alert a little more than a dozen customers within the next week or so that their service will be terminated due to copyright infringement, according to sources familiar with its plans. 

Why it matters: It's the first time AT&T has discontinued customer service over piracy allegations since having shaped its own piracy policies last year, which is significant given it just became one of America's major media companies.

Between the lines: AT&T owns a content network after its purchase of Time Warner earlier this year, an entity now called WarnerMedia. Content networks are typically responsible for issuing these types of allegations to internet service providers (ISPs) for them to address with their customers. 

A source said it's unclear whether WarnerMedia was involved directly in issuing piracy allegations in these instances, although it's possible. 

The details: A now-defunct industry Copyright Alert System used to be responsible for holding ISPs accountable for educating customers about the risks of pirating content.

It's unclear whether AT&T ever terminated a customer's service when it was a part of that group, as opposed to lesser responses to piracy.

AT&T, along with other ISPs, were forced to create and enforce their own policies after the group dissolved.

Per AT&T's policies, customers that AT&T is contacting about discontinuing service would have received at least nine separate notifications with allegations of copyright infringement from content owners prior to taking action to terminate the service. 

In a statement to Axios, AT&T says content owners — which could be TV networks, music rights groups, or another group involved in production — notified AT&T when they believed they had evidence that an internet connection controlled by the telecom company was sharing copyrighted material unlawfully.

"Based on the notices we received, we identified the customer on the account and shared with them the information we received. We also reached out to the customer to educate them about copyright infringement and offer assistance to help prevent the activity from continuing," said an AT&T spokesperson.  

"A small number of customers who continue to receive additional copyright infringement notifications from content owners despite our efforts to educate them, will have their service discontinued.”

The bigger picture: This is one of many complicated issues that is now surfacing in light of AT&T's historic $85 billion takeover of Time Warner in June. 

Last week, HBO went dark for the first time ever after a carriage dispute with Dish. Critics of the merger, include the DOJ, alleged that AT&T may have intentionally failed to come to an agreement with Dish, in an effort to steal Dish's Pay-TV subscribers.

The bottom line: Very few copyright infringers ever get booted from their broadband provider, pointing to the severity of these cases and the number of steps at which the customer is told they are violating copyright before they are cut off from AT&T's service. Copyright infringers are often illegally pirating hundreds of hours of stolen content, not a song or two from their favorite band.  

Scoop: AT&T to cut off some customers' service in piracy crackdown

The copyright infringers are often illegally pirating hundreds of hours of stolen content.

AT&T

Medicaid, Medicaid, Medicaid. It hasn’t been the dominant national theme, even in an election season dominated by health care, but Medicaid has more on the line tonight than any other area of health policy.

By the numbers: 17 states haven’t adopted the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. Three of those states — Idaho, Nebraska and Utah — have initiatives on the ballot today to expand Medicaid. And six more have gubernatorial races rated as toss-ups by the Cook Political Report. If all nine of those states ended up expanding Medicaid, more than 1.6 million people would be newly eligible for coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s estimates.

That’s an upper bound, obviously — it’s by no means safe to assume all of these states will end up expanding. But Florida alone could cover more than 700,000 new people; the universe of possible coverage gains here is large, even without a clean sweep.

Two expansion states also face big decisions tonight. 

Maine’s gubernatorial race could determine whether it actually implements the expansion voters approved last year.

Montana voters will decide whether to retain the Medicaid expansion, relying on a tobacco tax to pay for the state’s share of the costs. Tobacco companies have spent millions urging Montanans to not to renew the expansion.

The bottom line: Expanded Medicaid coverage, much of it in red or purple states, is one of the most consequential on-the-ground changes these midterms could produce. 

1. The balance of power in Congress (duh).

Significant Democratic gains would take ACA repeal even further off the table, and would vindicate Democrats' relentless focus on health care throughout the campaign season.

It would also put more pressure on industry groups to get their small-but-significant lobbying priorities, like pharma's "donut hole fix," done in the lame-duck session.

But nothing major is likely to happen in the next 2 years.

2. California's dialysis initiative: The dialysis industry has raised a record $110 million to defeat a ballot initiative that would cap its profits.

Even in a state as liberal as California, cutting into the health care industry's bottom line is no easy task.

Ohioans will vote on a constitutional amendment that would classify offenses related to drug possession as misdemeanors — largely in response to the state's opioid epidemic.

A ballot measure in Massachusetts would enforce a new ratio of nurses to patients in some hospital facilities.

The soda industry is spending millions to support ballot initiatives in Oregon and Washington state that would ban local governments from enacting soda taxes, as the New York Times explained. (A similar approach has already worked in California.)

States are using Medicaid to target social needs

Trump's pre-existing conditions promise clashes with ACA lawsuit

The health care issues on the ballot in the midterms

It's set to be a big night for Medicaid expansion.

Health Care

The U.S. health system faces critical questions about cost, access and equity. Technological advances and new discoveries about diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s are transforming patient care and reshaping public health.

Health

Axios AM

It took Donald J. Trump to do what do-gooders, activists, politicians and TV ads failed to do: get the American public interested in midterm elections and the consequences of voting.

The big picture: The dirty, sad truth of congressional elections is Democrats typically suck at voting in midterms. Mostly old, mostly white voters are usually the only ones bothering to show up. Hence, GOP dominance, especially in House races these past few decades. But no more: Everywhere you look you see signs of record-setting voting on both sides. It’s the only bipartisan show in town! 

Polls show record interest in voting — both across the board, and among minority groups. The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that 81% of likely voters expressed high levels of interest, the most in any midterm since the poll began tracking voter interest in 2006.

Polls show the possibility of record youth voting. More than 2.3 million voters under 30 have already voted this year, according to Tom Bonier, CEO of the Democratic political data firm TargetSmart. At this point in the 2014 midterm cycle, 849,876 voters under 30 had cast ballots.

And early voting is setting records across the board (at least partly because it's more available): 30 states reported exceeding their total number of mail and in-person votes cast ahead of the 2014 midterms, per AP.

The current president, the last president and celebrities engaged as never seen before:

Trump's fall road show culminated with 11 rallies in eight states in six days, with a triple-header yesterday.

In an unprecedented swing for a former president, President Obama held a dozen rallies in 16 days. Yesterday, Obama surprised volunteers at a Fairfax County, Va., field office for Sen. Tim Kaine.

Jeff Bridges, who played The Dude in "The Big Lebowski," campaigned for Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.).

Be smart: To the delight of both sides, in a series of technically local and state races, Trump succeeded in his dream of putting himself on the midterm ballot.

P.S. ... The WashPost's Josh Dawsey has a look at Trump's final push: "Early in the day, the president said that people once didn’t care about the 'boring' midterm elections. 'Now it’s like the hottest thing,' he said."

It's going to be a long, nervous Election Day

Political ad spending hits new record for 2018 midterm elections

Trump makes voting great again

To the delight of both sides, Trump succeeded in his dream of putting himself on the midterm ballot.

Axios

Tuesday's top stories

Election nightmares: Power outages, old machines and ballot deficiencies

Podcast: The future of Amazon HQ2 (or HQ3?)

The interstellar object Oumuamua is almost certainly not an alien spaceship

Scoop: AT&T to cut off some customers' service in piracy crackdown

The health care issues on the ballot in the midterms

Trump makes voting great again

It's going to be a long, nervous Election Day

Exclusive poll: Trump gets credit on the economy, Republicans don't

Political ad spending hits new record for 2018 midterm elections

Facebook blocks more accounts ahead of midterms

Olympic Committee seeks to decertify USA Gymnastics' status

Trump administration asks Supreme Court for swift action on DACA