It's the Saturday before Election Day

The windows of Macy’s on 34th street in New York City are being boarded-up over fears of Election Day protests, according to video taken by CNN.

The iconic retail store said it was boarding-up its widows to take “additional security measures.”

CNN has reached out to Macy’s to ask if the security measures are being put in place because of elections this week and if the stores being boarding up were only NYC locations. 

On Friday, businesses in Washington, DC, were also spotted placing boards over its windows.

“We do not have any intel on planned activity to suggest the need to board up; however, we remain vigilant and understand the difficult position building owners and operating businesses are in. We call upon all who participate in First Amendment activities to denounce violence and report it immediately should it occur,” deputy mayor for planning and economic development John Falcicchio said.

Former President Barack Obama spoke to residents of Flint, Michigan, today during a campaign stop for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Obama, as he's done along the campaign trail this cycle, implored Americans to vote.

The processing score for ballots, both inbound and outbound, is showing mixed results according to data submitted by the USPS to a federal court as part of a new preliminary injunction.

USPS defines processing scores as, "the time between its first and last processing operations." A higher score means that a higher percentage of ballots are travelling through the system on-time, as expected.

According to the data, outbound ballots — heading to voters — are seeing a drop in their on-time processing nationwide. On Tuesday, USPS reported the processing score is at 88.95%, down from 95.20% on Monday and 94.07% on Friday.

Inbound ballots — heading to election officials — have seen an uptick in its nationwide on-time processing score. On Tuesday, USPS reported they were at 95.05%, up from 93.39% on Monday and 94.73% from Friday.

Although the dataset is the most precise indicator available for tracking the movement of ballots within the USPS system, the Postal Service cautions in its court filing that the data doesn't provide the full picture. That's because not all ballots use the intelligent mail barcodes that helps track ballots.

More data: The on-time processing score for first-class mail, which election mail is shipped at, dropped significantly — 18.75% — on Tuesday. The processing score was at 88.56% on Monday and 86.17% on Friday.

The USPS argued that the data is not an indicative of its on-time delivery performance though, saying, "does not produce accurate, reliable information, as it is incomplete, subject to change, and overall, is not an accurate representation of the Postal Service’s performance."

Sen. Kamala Harris made a quick stop in Miami Gardens this afternoon, paying a visit to Rep. Frederica Wilson and members of the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project. 

After a brief indoors meeting, Harris came outside and spoke about the importance of the Miami Gardens area.

In their first campaign stop today, former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden will speak at a drive-in rally in Flint about what’s at stake in this election and encourage residents to vote early. 

This is their first joint in-person appearance this election cycle. 

In Detroit, Biden and Obama will hold a drive-in rally encouraging people across Michigan to turn out for the Biden-Harris ticket this cycle.

Biden and Obama will encourage voters to make their plans to vote at iwillvote.com/MI and vote early, and all voters will be able to watch the livestream of the President’s visit. The stop comes three days before Election Day.

Detroit and Flint voters can vote early in person right up until Election Day at multiple satellite offices across the city. The campaign is also making a push for voters with absentee ballots to drop them off at official drop boxes or clerk’s offices across the city. 

Some online tools for voters in Minnesota and sections of the statewide voter registration system (SVRS) went down Saturday morning, according to the secretary of state's office.

The public-facing tools, including the online tracker for mail-in ballots, are now operational, but officials are still working on restoring the SVRS. 

It appears that a hardware issue impacted the systems, but no further information is available at this time, said Risikat Adesaogun, press secretary for the secretary of state. 

Polling stations are able to administer absentee ballots while SVRS is unavailable, so voters should still be able to cast ballots today, she said. 

Some context: The malfunction comes three days before the election and as election officials expect higher voter turnout in the coming days.

In light of a federal appeals court decision that called for the segregation of ballots received after 8 p.m. local time on election night, Secretary of State Steve Simon encouraged voters to use the online tracker for mail-in ballots to make sure they arrived on time. If the ballot tracker doesn't show the ballot as received, voters are able to go in person to ensure their vote is counted before the deadline. 

Former Vice President Joe Biden will hold two events in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, continuing his focus in that critical battleground state.

During his first stop Sunday afternoon, Biden will deliver remarks at a “Souls to the Polls” event aimed at getting out of the vote with faith voters and leaders.

Biden also will deliver remarks at a drive-in event in the evening.

The Guardian Angels New York chapter, a non-profit crime prevention organization, will increase patrols to help prevent unrest around the city following election day results, the organization’s president Curtis Sliwa told media Saturday morning during a brief news conference.

This comes as Sliwa says businesses have already started to board up their windows in anticipation of the unrest.

“More importantly we know that there are thugs, there are looters who have no political identity who may take advantage of the situation and riot and loot again like they did on June 1, June 2. We stood in their way in midtown and Soho if necessary we are prepared to do it again,” Sliwa said.

As of this morning, 4,345,427 ballots have been cast in North Carolina, according to data provided by the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

This means 59.1 % of all currently registered voters in North Carolina have already voted in the 2020 election.