Judge rejects GOP effort to throw out 127K Texas votes

Federal District Judge Andrew Hanen has rejected a Republican effort to invalidate roughly 127,000 drive thru votes cast in Harris County, Texas, saying he believes the plaintiffs who brought the case did not have standing to sue -- a major victory to Democrats and blow to Republicans. 

The elections office of Harris County, the most populous county in the state which includes Houston and the surrounding area, argued it got state approval for the voting process back in June amid safety concerns with voting in a pandemic. Republicans, unsuccessfully, argued the Harris County clerk was acting on his own by implementing the practice.

The 127,000 drive-thru votes account for roughly 10% of the total early vote turnout in Harris County, and the ruling ensures the votes will be counted. 

Judge Hanen didn't give strong indications during questioning which way he was leaning. While he began the hearing telling the Republican plaintiffs that they have a steep uphill battle to persuade him to invalidate the ballots, he also pressed the counsel for the Harris County clerk to answer what the county would do in if he did rule drive-thru voting is illegal and what that would mean for their plans to continue offering drive-thru voting on Election Day. 

-ABC News’ Alexander Mallin

Former President Barack Obama took his talents to Georgia Monday afternoon to campaign for Biden and Democratic senate candidates there, telling supporters at a drive-in rally in Atlanta he had one word for them: "Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow, after four years of failure, you have the power to change America. Tomorrow, you can put an end to the politics that tries to divide a nation just to win an election, that tries to stoke conspiracy theories and -- and fear at a time when we need competence and we need hope," Obama began his remarks. 

"And right here in Georgia, you've got an even bigger power to deliver the change that we need. You can be a state that sends Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House," Obama said, projecting confidence as Democrats sense an opportunity to flip the state. 

Obama went on to rail against Trump's handling of COVID-19 and defend the nation's top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, whom he worked with during the Ebola and H1N1 crises. 

"They've already said they're not going to contain the pandemic. Now they want to fire the one person who could actually help them contain the pandemic," Obama said. "So Georgia, if you think they've done a bad job of managing COVID so far, basically what they're telling you now is you ain't seen nothing yet."

Arguing the case to elect Democratic senate candidates in the state, Obama also slammed the leadership of Georgia's incumbent Republican senators.

"If President Trump and your senators had been focused on COVID from the beginning instead of their portfolios or their TV ratings, cases wouldn't be reaching new record highs across the country just this week."

The former president also preemptively discredited Trump for trying to declare victory on election night, making a comparison to how he said Trump prematurely declared victory against the coronavirus pandemic. 

"Well, that's just what he did on this virus, and how's that turned out?" Obama said. "America deserves better than this. Georgia, you deserve better than this."

As Trump paints an apocalyptic-image of America if Biden were elected president on his rally tour, Obama concluded with a message of unity and a reminder to Georgians of the sacrifices made there and across the country to make the United States better for everyone.

"I'm asking you to remember what this country can be Georgia is a better place than it used to be. There used to be a lot of violence and cruelty in this place. And it's a better place because some folks went out there and made sacrifices, Black and white," Obama said. "And America, it's a better place than it used to be. But it can be better now. But you've got to do the work," telling Georgians, "It's all up to you now."

Justice Neil Gorsuch on behalf of the Supreme Court has denied, without explanation, a request from some Minnesota voters for an injunction against enforcement of mask-wearing rules at polling places across the state. 

Masks will still be required at polling locations as required by the governor's order. 

-ABC News' Devin Dwyer

Speaking at the first of five rallies in his final full day of campaigning, Trump railed against the Supreme Court for recent rulings not blocking Pennsylvania and North Carolina from accepting absentee ballots postmarked by Tuesday for several days after Nov. 3 -- stopping, at least for the moment, GOP efforts to stop counting ballots on election night. 

"What a horrible thing they've done. You know that puts our country in danger. Do you know what can happen? Cheating can happen like you've never seen. This is their dream," Trump said, without any evidence.

He went on to warn of voter fraud if states can continue counting mail-in ballots in the days after the election, demanding results be tabulated on election night -- though votes are always certified in the following days and sometimes weeks. 

“What can happen during that long period of time is a disgrace,” Trump said. "Our Supreme Court, I'm just so tired of some of these horrible political decisions that are being made. It's a shame. You know, I won't get into it too much. I'm going to start getting into it because they're hurting our country very bad."

Although Trump has projected confidence in winning the election, he also said "if" we win Pennsylvania when speaking to the North Carolina crowd, in perhaps a show of uncertainty in that critical battleground. 

"I think if we win this state, we win Pennsylvania -- we’re going to win Florida. We win Pennsylvania and you, we’re going to win the whole thing," Trump told the massive, mostly maskless, crowd.