Money and Computing
2020 Election Wrap-Up, Women’s Congressional Policy Institute: As of press time,130 women have been elected to serve in the 117th Congress
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that in the same year we celebrate the centennial anniversary of women securing the right to vote we also recognize the unprecedented number of women who ran for Congress. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, nearly 650 women ran for seats in the House of Representatives and Senate in 2020, with more than 300 of these candidates making it through the primaries and into the general election. As of press time, 130 women have been elected to serve in the 117th Congress. This number includes the 18 incumbent Senators who were not up for reelection this year, as well as the four Delegates to the House of Representatives reelected from American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. However, a number of races have not been called, so the number of women serving in the next Congress is expected to include a record number. more »
Updated Subsidy Calculator and 300+ FAQs Help Consumers Understand the ACA Marketplaces as Open Enrollment Begins
Ahead of the annual Affordable Care Act (ACA) open enrollment period, the time during which consumers can shop for health plans or renew existing coverage, KFF has updated its Health Insurance Marketplace Calculator and its searchable collection of more than 300 Frequently Asked Questions about open enrollment, the health insurance marketplaces and the ACA. KFF’s Health Insurance Marketplace Calculator provides estimates of 2021 health insurance premiums and subsidies for people purchasing insurance on their own in health insurance exchanges. Users can enter age, income, and family size information to estimate their eligibility for subsidies and how much they can expect to spend on health insurance. more »
Decisions, Decisions: How National News Outlets Project And Call Presidential Winners
“When we declare a winner, it’s our final word,” AP Deputy Managing Editor for Operations David Scott said during a Sept. 23 briefing hosted by the American Press Institute. “We don’t make projections at the Associated Press. We don’t make predictions. There are no apparent winners or likely winners when we make a race call.” The AP will declare winners in more than 7,000 races around the country after Election Day. The standard is simple: If there is a path to victory for only one candidate, the AP calls the race for that candidate. Its call on the presidential race will take into account on-the-ground reporting — roughly 5,000 AP reporters will fan out across the country and feed information to a core team of 60 analysts — in addition to statistical modeling, pre-election polling, voting history in polling districts, vote counts and votes left to be counted.
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Stateline Editors Picks; What We're Reading: Top State Stories 10/26
Voters in New York City waited hours to cast ballots during the first time early voting has been allowed in the state in a presidential election. Recent mishaps involving mail-in ballots seemed to drive many voters to the polls. Massachusetts acknowledged it has not been able to determine the source of infection in about half of COVID-19 cases, an information gap that epidemiologists say could limit the ability to respond to outbreaks and control transmission of the disease. The Trump campaign and Nevada Republicans asked a state judge to stop the count of Las Vegas-area mail-in ballots, alleging that “meaningful observation” of signature-checking is impossible in the state’s biggest and most Democratic-leaning county. more »