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FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida — Hillary Clinton had just started speaking at Delvoe Memorial Park for her third rally of the day when a man in the crowd raised a neon green sign into the crisp night air.

“BILL CLINTON IS A RAPIST,” he shouted.

The same message was written in black on the poster. The man flashed the sign at Clinton first, then turned to face the press. Reporters moved to photograph the protester while the crowd drowned him out with chants, but quickly pointed their phones back toward the lectern.

Clinton, usually taciturn and unperturbed in the face of a stray heckler, leaned into the microphone and issued her own pointed response, raising her voice above the chants of her supporters.

“You know, I am sick and tired of the negative, dark, divisive, dangerous behavior of people who support Donald Trump.”

With each word, she jabbed her finger in the direction of the man.

"It is time for us to say, 'No! We are not going backwards. We are going forward into a brighter future.'"

Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed News

The crowd of 4,300 cheered back as law enforcement officials surrounded the man. He wore a T-shirt featuring Bill Clinton’s face in the style of the red-and-blue “Hope" poster from Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, and emerged with his sign ripped. At the bottom, it read, “INFOWARS.COM.”

In September, the right-wing fringe website, run by radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, offered a “bounty” for protesters who would say on television, “Bill Clinton is a rapist!” Prizes ranged from $1,000 and $5,000, depending on certain factors, until $100,000 had been expended. The contest, inspired by longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, has since closed, but interruptions have continued.

Only rarely before has Clinton engaged so directly with one of the protesters at her events. Even in the seven-day stretch to Election Day — a tense, fraught final run that has drawn cutting attacks from both sides amid the news of a renewed FBI inquiry related to Clinton’s private email server — the Democratic nominee has made a point of saying she hopes to end her campaign with a positive, aspirational message.

"I have tried to stay focused in this campaign not on the barrage of insults,” Clinton said earlier on Friday evening at a canvas kick-off in Sanford, her second of three rallies here in the pivotal battleground state of Florida. "My opponent can say whatever he wants about me. I don’t care.”

In Fort Lauderdale, as she pointed her finger at the heckler, Clinton sounded a note of organic distress and frustration. Later, law enforcement had to escort a second Bill Clinton protester from the park.

"You may be angry about something. But anger is not a plan. Don’t be used. Don’t be exploited. Stand up for what we can do together,” she said. "Don’t buy into that dark, pessimistic vision. It’s not true and it’s not who we are as Americans.”

Clinton spoke for only about 15 more minutes.

By the end of her speech, the usual measure in her voice was back.

“This is so much fun,” she said, "but it's really late and I could be here all night talking about what is at stake in this election."

President Obama campaigned for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland on Oct. 13.

Jeff Swensen / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Priorities USA, the pro-Clinton Super PAC that's spent millions in an effort to mobilize black voters is in swing states, is out with a final 30-second appeal running on TV in Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida.

The ad, titled "Everything," juxtaposes Donald Trump's bleak outreach to black voters on the stump with a hopeful message from President Obama.

With a turnout election on their hands, Democrats are bracing for a close battle with Trump on Election Day, and one of the most effective keys to winning being turning out large numbers of black and Latino voters. So far, Democrats have seen bad signs for black turnout, and strong signs for Latino turnout.

The ad is the closing spot of a $3 million dollar ad buy that started in September, according to Priorities.

In the speech the ad draws from, Obama had cast Trump as a mean-spirited fraud who was trying to depress voters with negative rhetoric about black Americans living in poverty with terrible schools and no jobs.

"Sometimes politics can seem frustrating, something our democracy can seem mean-spirited," Obama is heard saying. "Don't fall for what Trump tries to do and just make everybody depressed."

Obama has been a fixture on the campaign trail for Clinton, touting his record over the course of the past eight years, and offering Clinton as his worthy successor: a sober, qualified choice.

At times, Obama has acknowledged cynicism casting a pall over the election. In his address, he took it on as an effort to depress the vote.

“Don’t fall for the easy cynicism that says your vote doesn’t matter," he said in the Cleveland speech. "I promise you, your vote matters. Send a message of progress, send a message of hope.”

Jeff Johnson, a strategist brought on to work on content related to black voters at Priorities USA, said in a statement "Donald Trump thinks that African Americans are ‘living in poverty, [our] schools are no good, [we] have no jobs,’ and that we have nothing to lose by voting for him. We know better, and so does President Obama. What do we have to lose by voting for Trump? Everything. There is one way to stop Donald Trump and his dangerous and divisive agenda from ruining everything we’ve fought for: Go vote.”

Watch the full ad:

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The Republican National Committee this week is launching TV, print, and digital ad buy aimed at black voters that features a more positive vision of America today for black people.

An RNC official said the total ad buy with black media was in the “roughly six figures."

The ad was designed in house at the RNC, and offers a more positive outlook on the black community than the party's nominee, Donald Trump, often gives.

At the RNC, the ad is seen as part of Reince Priebus’ legacy of investing in black engagement — something often discussed as his legacy before the nomination of Trump.

The ad was produced in house by engagement staff with input from black GOP advisory councils. “Many of the people in the ad are black Republicans and graduates of the Republican Leadership Institute — a program dedicated to recruiting new generation of black operatives to work for the GOP in communities of color,” an official said.

Kirk Irwin / Getty Images

Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's campaign CEO and former Breitbart chief, gave a rare interview Wednesday in which he hailed a "sea change" reshaping American politics and framed Trump's rise within a nationalist tide across Europe and the United Kingdom.

"This whole movement has a certain global aspect to it," Bannon said on Breitbart News Daily, a Sirius radio program he hosted before leaving Breitbart to join the Trump campaign.

"People want more control of their country," Bannon told Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow. "They're very proud of their countries. They want borders. They want sovereignty. It's not just a thing that's happening in any one geographic space."

"There's real engagement," he added. "Regardless of what happens next week, obviously I think that we're going to win and I've thought that from day one, but there's a sea change in American politics. This movement — as I keep saying— it’s just at the top of the first inning.”

Bannon argued that establishment leaders in both parties had missed grassroots anger that began with Tea Party victories in 2010. "I still think that most of the people in the establishment don't realize how deep this movement is and how powerful it is," he said.

The UK voting to leave the European Union this summer, Bannon argued, resonated with Trump voters and demonstrated that similar political currents existed in both countries: "Whether you're in Wisconsin or Maine or Mississippi, people know the details of it, and they know what drove that vote."

Bannon also announced that he would rejoin Breitbart's radio show after the election. "My term of duty here ends on the evening of the 8th. I look forward to getting back and being part of it," he said.

"I look forward to being a part of it again. It's something I miss a lot."

John Gurzinski / AFP / Getty Images

SALT LAKE CITY — When Mike Pence took the stage for a campaign rally last week in this most improbable of 2016 battleground states, he came with a request for the assembled Trump supporters: Pray.

"I know many of you in this room do what... I do from time to time — you bow the head, you bend the knee," Pence solemnly intoned to the crowd at the Infinity Event Center. "It'd be a good time to do it in the next 12 and a half days."

Indeed, Donald Trump could use some divine intervention in Utah. With less than a week to go until Election Day, his campaign has found itself scrambling to eke out a win in America’s reddest state — lining up last-minute Mormon surrogates, privately pressuring GOP officials not to defect, and openly going to war with an insurgent third-party candidate.

Don Peay, Trump's Utah chairman, acknowledged in an interview with BuzzFeed News that the race is unprecedentedly close. “The state is more politically divided than it’s ever been,” he said.

Several recent state polls show Trump tangled up in a tight three-way race against Hillary Clinton and independent conservative Evan McMullin, a Utah native and ex-CIA officer who has drawn considerable support from his fellow Mormons. While it's unlikely the Beehive State will play a deciding role in the election's outcome, it remains a fact that almost any realistic path for Trump to 270 electoral votes will require a win there.

Trump appeared to acknowledge his growing risk of defeat in Utah — a state that every Republican presidential candidate has won since 1964 — during an interview with Fox News over the weekend. Speaking to Bret Baier, Trump lashed out at McMullin and accused him of being a "puppet" for Bill Kristol, the Weekly Standard editor who has been a leading voice in the #NeverTrump movement.

"The guy takes votes away from me," Trump complained of McMullin. "You know, we're going to win Utah. But he takes votes away from me, this man who I never heard of... Now, if for some reason we lose Utah, that could have a very devastating impact on the overall."

The interview marked first time Trump has publicly weighed in on McMullin — but behind the scenes, Trump's team has been working furiously for weeks to beat back the conservative challenger and lock down Utah, according to half a dozen sources with knowledge of the effort.

People close to Trump say his campaign first began worrying about Utah in March, after he suffered a resounding third-place defeat in the state's Republican caucuses. Once Trump became the nominee, he made a few token appeals to the state, but there were other battlegrounds that more urgently demanded their attention — and besides, his team was confident that conservative Mormons would eventually "come home" to their party.

Then, last month, the Access Hollywood tape leaked, and all hell broke loose. Prominent Republicans across Utah denounced the nominee and withdrew their endorsements in rapid succession. The state's Mormon newspaper called on him to drop out of the race. Trump plummeted in the polls, McMullin surged, and the Clinton campaign — apparently sensing an opportunity, or perhaps just rubbing it in — added several staffers to their Salt Lake City office.

"I think the state is up for grabs," said Utah-based Republican operative Reed Galen. "I'm not sure how [Trump] can lock it down easily at this point."

In recent weeks, Team Trump has undertaken an aggressive — and occasionally bumbling — effort to keep Utah red.

The most high-profile element of this project has been Pence's surprise swing through Salt Lake City last week. According to one knowledgeable source, there was some discussion of sending Trump instead, but the idea was ultimately discarded as advisers worried that the candidate's high "unfavorable" rating in Utah would make the visit counterproductive. Pence ended up using his time to deliver a boilerplate pitch for party unity. But the onstage presence of two former LDS church leaders — Julie B. Beck and Robert Oaks — caught the attention of the Mormon Twittersphere and so-called "bloggernacle," emboldening Trump's boosters in the intra-faith political debates taking place on social media.

The Trump camp has had some other tactical successes here as well. Last month, as their candidate faced a wave of denouncements and disavowals from Utah's top GOP officeholders, McMullin moved to pick off some of their endorsements. According to two knowledgeable sources, several leading political figures in the state considered signing on with the surging candidate, but Trump's allies quietly exerted their influence in Utah.

In at least one case, the arm-twisting may have worked even better than hoped: Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz — the first member of Congress to retract his Trump endorsement in October — abruptly announced last week that he would vote for the nominee after all. The Washington Post declared this sudden change of heart "some kind of modern record for flip-floppery," and speculation has swirled as to what prompted it. Chaffetz did not respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News, but according to one Trump confidant, it was the campaign's lobbying that ultimately nudged him into voicing his support.

With national polls tightening in the final days of the race, some conservative voters in Utah may become wary of casting a protest vote — a development that would benefit Trump.

Still, his campaign faces significant hurdles. He remains deeply unpopular in the state, and his message has been widely rejected by Mormon voters here. He has no serious campaign infrastructure on the ground, and is forced to rely heavily on the Utah Republican Party — an organization that has at times struggled beneath an unexpected national spotlight this year. During a CNN interview last month, for example, the state party chairman floated a rumor about Bill Clinton fathering a child with a prostitute. Amid an ensuing onslaught of threatening phone calls, the chairman — worried for his safety and that of his staffers — decided to temporarily shut down the party's headquarters.

Meanwhile, Trump could face a backlash in Utah over his supporters' recent attempts to wage a sordid whisper campaign against McMullin. This week, a prominent white nationalist tried to smear the candidate with a robocall in Utah claiming, among other things, that McMullin is gay. (He's not.) The story garnered national headlines, but members of the Trump camp have been circulating rumors about McMullin for weeks. Last month during an interview with BuzzFeed News, Don Peay was interrupted by a Trump-supporting associate who came into the room and announced, "Evan McMullin's campaign is funded by the Clinton Foundation—" (it's not) "—so we need to get that out."

courtesy of Don Peay

Some of Trump's Utah allies grumble that they spent months urging the Republican's Manhattan-based campaign not to take their state for granted this year, but their appeals fell on deaf ears. As evidence, they point to the candidate's tortured dance with the Deseret News, the influential Salt Lake City daily owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Trump's trouble with the paper began in August, when editors solicited op-eds from the major presidential candidates. Hillary Clinton immediately seized the opportunity and submitted a carefully crafted article pitching Mormon voters on her candidacy. Trump's campaign, by contrast, didn't even bother to return the editors' phone calls. When Trump did eventually submit an op-ed, it was widely panned in the state for its paint-by-numbers rhetoric.

When Pence visited Utah earlier this year, his staff was unable to find time for an editorial board meeting with the paper. And when Donald Trump Jr. met with the paper's editors during a visit to Salt Lake City in September, the discussion became contentious.

"I've never been in front of a more hostile environment," said Peay, who accompanied Donald Jr. to the interview. "They asked a whole bunch of stupid questions, they didn't ask anything about jobs, the economy, what's going on with Russia, and foreign policy. It was probably the most hostile, trivial thing I've ever been involved in."

Hal Boyd, the opinion editor for the Deseret News, said their questions for Donald Jr. focused on refugee relief and Trump's controversial record of philanthropy — two issues their Mormon readership care passionately about. "They certainly weren't easy questions, but we thought they were fair," said Boyd.

In any case, by the time the Access Hollywood tape came out in October, the Deseret News had apparently made up its mind about Trump. In a scathing — and largely unprecedented — editorial, the paper called on him to resign his candidacy: "Trump's banter belies a willingness to use and discard other human beings at will. That characteristic is the essence of a despot."

Peay called the editorial "the stupidest thing I've ever seen," and warned more broadly that his fellow Mormons could face lasting political consequences if they reject Trump.

"Mormons run the risk of being a people without a party," Peay said. "If Trump wins in spite of Mormon opposition, we've made ourselves irrelevant ... And if Trump were to lose Utah and it cost him the presidency, where is that gonna put the Mormon people amongst the Republican Party?"

"If you do cost him the election," he continued, "you're an exile for a generation."

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour knocked Donald Trump for lewd statements he has made about women in the past, but said he would vote for the GOP nominee over Hillary Clinton.

“Trump’s problem with women is not that Hillary’s a woman. It’s that he has said so many things that make it hard for women to vote for him. Let’s face it," Barbour, a longtime GOP powerbroker dating back to his tenure as chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in an interview with Fox News's Brian Kilmeade.

Barbour expressed lukewarm support for Trump, but maintained he was voting for him because he believed Clinton would continue President Obama's failed policies.

"Life's a series of choices. If the choice is Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump, I'm going to be for Donald Trump every time," Barbour said. "I don't know what he'll do on everything, and I certainly don't agree with him on everything. But I know what she'll do."

America needs change, he added, and, "Clinton can no more be the candidate for change than I can be the spokesman for Weight Watchers."

Asked whether he was dismayed that John Kasich and Jeb Bush weren't supporting Trump, Barbour responded, "We are getting more and more Republicans coming home. For those who don’t, I disagree with them. It does disappoint me because, like I say, I see the choice between Trump and Hillary and she is more of the same, which we can’t stand."

Alabama Department of Corrections via AP

Tommy Arthur is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on Nov. 3, for the 1982 murder-for-hire of a man. Arthur, 74, has maintained his innocence and had scheduled execution dates put off six times since his conviction — including once, in 2008, when another man confessed to the crime.

Arthur's attorneys appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court on Tuesday to stay his execution on the grounds that the state's death penalty sentencing law is unconstitutional based on its similarities to Florida's sentencing law which was struck down by the US Supreme Court in January, AL.com reported.

Arthur also wrote a letter in October to Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley asking him to place a moratorium of all executions and request the "United States Justice System" to "investigate Alabama's entire capital punishment procedure, arrests, trials, appeals," AL.com reported.

After three separate trials — his convictions were overthrown twice — Arthur was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1982 murder-for-hire of businessman Tory Wicker. At the time of Wicker's murder, Arthur was on a work release program while serving a life sentence for the 1977 murder of his sister-in-law.

According to court records, Arthur had an affair with Judy Wicker who paid him money to kill her husband. Arthur put on an "afro wig" and used "dark face makeup" to disguise himself as a black man and enter the Wickers' house, records showed. He then shot fatally Troy Wicker in the right eye at close range while Wicker slept in his bedroom. Arthur has maintained his innocence in Wicker's murder.

In 2008, another man confessed to the crime — leading to a stay of execution. Later DNA testing could not provide evidence that linked the other man to the crime scene, leading the court to discount the confession.

In October, with a new execution date set, Arthur's lawyers asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to review his case on the grounds that Alabama's lethal injection protocol will cause him unconstitutional pain and suffering. The court is yet to make a ruling on that or a related stay request before the federal appeals court.

In their appeal, his lawyers asked the court to overthrow a federal judge's ruling in July that dismissed Arthur's challenge over the state's new lethal injection method — a three-drug combination involving midazolam — a controversial sedative at the center of several botched executions in 2014. Arthur is among other death row inmates who have challenged the protocol. The US Supreme Court upheld the use of midazolam in a case out of Oklahoma last year — Glossip v. Gross — which used the same drug combination as Alabama.

In his appeal, Arthur's lawyers challenged the federal judge's interpretation of the Supreme Court's ruling in Glossip v. Gross which stated that a death row inmate must offer an alternate execution method that is less likely to cause pain in order to challenge the current protocol.

"Absent this court's intervention, Mr. Arthur will soon be executed without having been afforded the chance to prove that Alabama's method of execution is highly likely to subject him to agonizing pain," the appeal stated. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to reject his request for a stay.

Arthur could become the second person to be executed by Alabama's new lethal injection protocol using midazolam. The state executed Christopher Brooks in January after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal to stop the execution over claimed similarities between Alabama's and Florida's death sentencing laws, as well as Alabama's use of lethal drugs. Brooks was the first death row inmate put to death by the state since 2013.

In July, Strange asked the Supreme Court to set an "expedited execution date" for Arthur, saying that he "managed to evade justice" six times before.

LINK: Alabama Sets Execution Dates For Two Inmates For Later This Year

LINK: Alabama Executes Man Convicted Of 1992 Murder

Bop the Bigot video game

The election may almost be over, but not before you can hit Donald Trump, Joe Arpaio, and David Duke with a chancla (sandal) as was promised.

Bazta Arpaio, a group of Arizona activists trying to finally defeat controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and tie him to Trump, contacted game developer Kojo Kumah and illustrator Matthew Moss of Touch Touch Studio to create Bop the Bigot, an online game where the three men get thwacked.

It is a meme that Latino kids are familiar with the threat of an airborne sandal (chancla) from their exasperated mother or abuela.

"The chancla takes everybody back to when you weren’t acting right so your grandma would take care of you," said the respected community activist Carlos Garcia who leads the Bazta Arpaio efforts. "It’s something connected to our childhood, but it’s something that comes out when things are serious, everyone knows what the flying chancla is."

Duke, a former grandmaster of the Ku Klux Klan and Arpaio, who was found to be racially profiling Latinos by a judge that ordered him to stop (he didn't, which again sent him to court), supported Trump early. Trump has been criticized for his support from white nationalists, who he has disavowed, albeit in a waffling way. Arpaio — whose immigration views have been echoed by the Republican nominee — was given a plum speaking engagement at the GOP convention.

"We hope this gives people a fun outlet for the frustration and anger these candidates' racism causes and that it motivates them to get out to the polls on election day," Bazta Arpaio spokesman B. Loewe said.

Bazta Arpaio, a play on Stop Arpaio in Spanish, is one of the efforts driven by young Latinos and immigrants to take on the specter of both Trump and the hardline sheriff winning in Arizona. They have 100 people knocking on doors, phone banking, and planning rallies and events in Maricopa County ahead of election day.

- Play the video game here.

Flatbush, Brooklyn isn't exactly a crucial swing district, but Orthodox Jews gathered at a synagogue here Monday night nonetheless to debate the candidates — and offer a glimpse of a growing community's political leanings.

More than 100 people came to Talmud Torah of Flatbush for "Election 2016: The Jewish Perspective," a panel moderated by local radio host Leon Goldenberg. The event included New Jersey Rabbi Menachem Genack, who spoke in defense of Clinton, and Brooklyn assemblyman Dov Hikind, who said he plans to write-in Paul Ryan for president on Nov 8.

But while there were no Trump supporters on stage, the audience had its share, including Heshy Friedman, a member of "Jewish Democrats for Trump," a group that is running ads in Jewish newspapers in swing states including Florida and Ohio.

Rabbi Genack, a longtime Clinton supporter, noted that he had voted Republican the last three presidential elections, but would vote for Clinton on Nov. 8 because of her advocacy for Israel as First Lady, senator of New York, and secretary of state. Clinton distinguished herself from Obama during her tenure at the State Department and would be a stronger ally to Israel than the president, Genack argued.

“This notion that Hillary is Obama is inaccurate," Genack said. Clinton shared an "emotional bond" with Israel and “will hopefully move the party back to the center because she’s a moderate,” the rabbi told the audience.

Hikind, a Democrat whose political roots are in pro-Israel radicalism, took swipes at both Clinton and Trump and told audience members to vote their conscience. Hikind argued that Clinton's approval of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement disqualified her for the presidency and Trump's lack of foreign policy knowledge made him a threat to Israel. Instead, Hikind announced he would write-in Paul Ryan for president.

“This is the kind of person we really need,” he said of Ryan.

Hikind, who earned headlines in 2013 for dressing up in blackface to a party and once suggested Jewish support for Obama was "a disease," said he often crossed party lines to vote Republican. “Today, Republicans are our best friends. They really are our best friends.”

Both men offered scathing criticism throughout the evening of President Obama's approach to Israel, his contentious relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and the Iran deal. “Obama is a disaster for America,” Hikind exclaimed. “We both agree that the Iran deal was a terrible deal,” said Genack.

Hikind saved some of his sharpest comments for Bernie Sanders and the liberal wing of the Democratic Party that he believed was increasingly hostile toward Israel. "Progressive Democrats scare the daylight out of me," Hikind said. Sanders "represents everything that endangers the well being of the Jewish state.”

American Jews traditionally vote for Democrats, though a 2015 Gallup poll showed that nearly 30% of Jews identified as Republican—up from 22% in 2008 and with Orthodox voters leaning more toward Republicans.

Like Assemblyman Hikind, much of Flatbush's Orthodox community still identifies with the Democratic Party but supports national GOP candidates.

Friedman, the "Jewish Democrats for Trump" activist, said he voted Democrat in local New York races but supported Republicans at the top of the ticket.

Ayton Eller, another Flatbush resident who identified as a Democrat, wore a Trump logo on his skullcap.

"I'm an American Jew first, and I'm voting for Trump because he's a strong supporter of Israel," Eller said. "When Clinton was New York’s senator, she pandered to Jews. As soon as she became secretary of state, she flipped her policies and opposed Jewish settlements. She supported the Iran nuclear deal, which is a catastrophe for Israel that legitimizes Iran.”

One "Jewish Democrats for Trump" flier Friedman's group passed out read "4 Reasons Why Every Jew Must Vote TRUMP" and included a message at the bottom, "What is happening throughout Europe must NOT be allowed to happen to us." Another made reference to the Holocaust: "Hillary's facilitation of Iran's nukes could mean six million in 9 minutes. Never again dare we remain silent."

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the number two Senate Republican, signaled the hardline approach GOP leaders may take if Hillary Clinton becomes president in an interview Wednesday.

Appearing on radio host Joe Pagliarulo's program, Cornyn, the Senate majority whip, said congressional investigations would continue into Clinton if she wins the White House.

Senate Republicans would work closely with House Oversight Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, Cornyn added. Chaffetz told the Washington Post last week that "it’s a target-rich environment" for congressional inquiries into Clinton.

"If we retain the Senate majority, which I'm hopeful of, we should also work with our House colleagues to continue our investigations and oversight hearings. There are things we can do," Cornyn said.

Cornyn also told Pagliarulo that, although it was highly unlikely, it was "a fair question" whether Clinton would pardon herself if she were elected president and believed it was "possible" that President Obama would grant her a pardon before he leaves office.

Carlo Allegri / Reuters

MIAMI — Less than a week before the end of the election, Donald Trump has finally started to get on message.

Over several rallies on Tuesday and Wednesday, Trump refrained from tangents about the women who have accused him of sexual assault and focused on Hillary Clinton’s email scandal and his policy proposals, and even threw in correct local references tailored to where he’s giving his rallies, mentioning the Pulse shooting while in Orlando and the Three Mile Bridge in Pensacola.

Trump also attempted to help a down-ballot Republican on Tuesday, telling an audience in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to “get out and vote for Ron,” referring to Sen. Ron Johnson, who is running for re-election against former Sen. Russ Feingold (though not Marco Rubio during three stops in Florida on Wednesday).

With so little time left, it remains to be seen whether Trump’s newfound discipline will make a difference. And this is still Trump; he still at every rally incites the crowd against the media, and even singled out one reporter, NBC News’ Katy Tur, at a rally on Wednesday in Miami, prompting attendees to jeer her. As far as that local color goes, his references are still often off-key, for example talking about mining and steelworking in Pensacola. And for weeks prior to this Trump’s focus had been on fully embracing the dark, conspiratorial worldview of Breitbart, speaking of globalist conspiracies against him and a rigged election. But the aggressive darkness of his recent rallies has lightened somewhat in the past few days.

At Wednesday night’s rally in Pensacola, Trump mused out loud about the need to stay on track, speaking to himself in the third person.

“We’ve gotta be nice and cool, nice and cool,” Trump said. “Stay on point, Donald, stay on point. No sidetracks, Donald. Nice and easy.”

Trump appears to be taking almost a nostalgic view of his own campaign, telling a Florida crowd that “this is the end of the beginning, when you think about it” and ruminating about how his parents aren’t here to see him running for president.

The FBI telling Congress that it is looking into additional emails possibly pertinent to its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email server has ignited a firestorm in the election, and recent polls have shown the race tightening up a bit from Trump’s mid-October cratering following revelations of a tape showing him bragging about assaulting women, and numerous accusations of assault.

Trump is at his most outrageous when he’s most under attack. In one of the rare weeks in the election in which Clinton is more beleaguered than he is, he seems more capable of controlling himself on the trail.

And his rallies have also been given an imprimatur of normalcy by the sudden re-emergence of Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, who was conspicuously absent from Trump events following the Access Hollywood tape bombshell but has campaigned with Trump several times this week so far, in Wisconsin and Florida. The Eau Claire rally in particular had the aura of a normal Republican affair, featuring appearances by Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Ron Johnson as well as Priebus (House Speaker Paul Ryan was conspicuously absent).

Priebus made an enthusiastic case for Trump at several rallies, telling audiences that Trump and running mate Mike Pence would “protect the sovereignty of the United States” and slamming Clinton for the email story.

On Wednesday, Trump supporters at his rallies appeared to respond well to the more toned-down Trump.

At Trump’s Miami rally, supporter Katrina Waugh said Trump’s change in tone helped secure her vote. “I love it," she said. "At first I would sink” when Trump said something offensive. “Oh my god, he didn't say that. And then, all of a sudden, he came out like a whole new man!” Waugh always knew she wasn’t going to vote for Hillary, but “I had doubts in the beginning,” when it came to Trump, particularly during “the bickering and fighting.”

“Today he said everything I liked,” Waugh said.

Santiago A. Cueto, who runs his own law firm in Miami, was selling boxes of novelty cereal called “Trumpies” outside the amphitheater. Cueto said the change in Trump’s demeanor was easy to explain. “When you're on the defense, you get angry. Now you're seeing a different Hillary and a different Donald.”

Although the public “never really got a glimpse of the cool and calm” Trump, Cueto said this is the candidate’s natural state. “That's generally him because things usually go his way.”

Hannah Knowlton, a supporter at Trump’s Orlando rally, said “I think from being a politician for this long of time his level of professionalism has risen. I think he’s keying in on key points that need to be discussed here in the last couple days before the election.”

Still, Trump’s rough edges form a large part of his appeal to his core supporters, whom he still spends most of his efforts focusing on. (In Pensacola he said people had mentioned to him that he might not need to still campaign in the area, where he already has strong support; “you don’t need to go there, you’ve got there vote,” Trump said he was told. “I said, that’s why I want to go there!”).

“Unlike Hillary Clinton, where she’s already admitted she’s got a position for her public appearances and a position for her private appearances, I’d much rather have somebody like a straight-talker to just be totally honest with me,” said Teresa Rivers, a supporter at the Orlando rally. “I think he’s always going to be real.”

Nitasha Tiku in Miami and Paul McLeod in Orlando contributed reporting.

Don Emmert / AFP / Getty Images

With all the craziness of this long presidential campaign, who wouldn’t want to get the voting over with? If you live in one of 34 states with early voting, you can!

Alaska

Vote early in person through Nov. 7. Bring any valid photo ID or government-issued document with you to one of these locations to cast your ballot.

Check your registration status and polling location here.

Arizona

Vote early in person through Nov. 4. Bring sufficient photo ID or one of the options on this list.

Check your registration information and polling location here.

Arkansas

Vote early in person through Nov. 7. Bring photo ID or a government-issued document if you haven't voted in Arkansas before.

Read here for more information.

California

Vote early in person at your County Elections Office.

Bring photo ID or government-issued document with you if you haven't voted in California before.

Your official voter information guide can be found here.

Colorado

Vote early in person at any Voter Service and Polling Center in your county. Make sure you bring valid ID.

Click here to find your nearest VSPC.

District of Columbia

Vote early in person through Nov. 4. No ID required unless this is your first time voting in DC.

Click here to find an early voting center near you.

Florida

Vote early in person through Nov. 6. Bring sufficient photo ID.

Check your voter status and polling place here.

Georgia

Vote early in person through Nov. 4. Bring driver's license or other photo ID issued by the state of Georgia.

Check your voter status and polling place here.

Hawaii

Vote early in person through Nov. 5. Bring driver's license, state ID card, utility bill, or bank statement.

Find your polling place here, and take a look at some frequently asked questions.

Idaho

Vote early in person through Nov. 4. Bring accepted photo ID or sign a sworn statement of identity at your polling place.

Click here to find your polling place.

Illinois

Vote early in person through Nov. 7. Bring driver's license, state ID, or another government-issued document if you haven't voted in Illinois before.

Click here to find your polling place.

Indiana

Vote early in person through Nov. 7. Bring an Indiana- or US government–issued photo ID.

Click here to find your polling place.

Iowa

Vote early in person through Nov. 7. Bring photo ID, utility bill, or bank statement if you haven't voted in Iowa before.

Click here to find your polling place.

Kansas

Vote early in person now through Nov. 7. Bring accepted form of ID to cast your ballot.

Click here to find your polling place.

Maryland

Today (Nov. 3) is your last day to vote early! Bring driver's license, ID card, utility bill, or other government-issued document if you haven't voted in Maryland before.

Click here to find your polling place.

Massachusetts

Vote early in person through Nov. 4. You may need to show ID if this is your first time voting in Massachusetts.

Click here to find your polling place.

Minnesota

Vote early in person at your local election office through Nov. 7.

Bring ID if you plan to register to vote in person.

Montana

Vote early in person at your local election office through Nov. 7.

Read up on the process here.

Nebraska

Vote early in person at your local County Clerk/Election Commission Office through Nov. 7. Bring photo ID, utility bill, or government-issued document to cast your ballot.

Nevada

Vote early in person through Nov. 4. If you haven't voted in Nevada before, bring photo ID or other document showing your name and address.

Click here to find your polling place.

New Mexico

Vote early in person at your County Clerk's office through Nov. 5.

Read up on the process here.

North Carolina

Vote early in person at your county's one-stop early voting site. Bring photo ID, bank statement, utility bill, or paycheck if you haven't voted in North Carolina before.

Click here for additional voting information.

North Dakota

Some counties allow for early voting. Bring driver's license or your North Dakota or Tribal ID.

Click here to find your polling place.

Ohio

Vote early in person through Nov. 7. Bring driver's license, government ID, or military ID.

Click here to find your polling place.

Oklahoma

Vote early in person through Nov. 5. Bring driver's license or other government-issued photo ID.

Click here to find your polling place.

South Dakota

Vote early in person at your County Auditor's Office through Nov. 7.

Bring photo ID.

Tennessee

Today (Nov. 3) is your last day to vote early! Get moving and bring your photo ID.

Click here to find your polling place.

Texas

Vote early in person through Friday, Nov. 4. Make sure you bring one of the seven accepted forms of ID.

Click here to find your polling place.

Utah

Vote early in person through Nov. 4. Be sure to bring valid ID.

Click here to find your polling place.

Vermont

Vote early in person through Nov. 7. No ID required unless this is your first time voting in Vermont.

Click here to find your poling place.

Washington

Vote early in person through Nov.7. Bring valid photo ID.

Click here to find your polling place.

West Virginia

Vote early in person through Nov. 5. Bring photo ID, utility bill, or bank statement if you haven't voted in West Virginia before.

Contact your county clerk to confirm early voting hours and locations.

Wisconsin

Early voting dates vary by county. Read here for your in person ID requirements.

Click here to find your polling place.

Wyoming

Vote early in person through Nov. 7. Bring driver's license, government-issued ID, bank statement, or utility bill if this is your first time voting in Wyoming.

Click here to find your polling place, and here for a general voting guide.

Early voting has already closed in Maine, Louisiana, and New Jersey. You can still vote on Election Day.

But what if you live in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, New York, and Virginia?

Via giphy.com

Sorry, your state does not have early voting!

If you absolutely, positively cannot vote on Election Day and have an excellent excuse why, some of these states will allow you to cast an early absentee ballot, but otherwise you are going to have to wait until Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Hillary Clinton and Pharrell greet voters in North Carolina on Thursday.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

RALEIGH, N.C. — Hillary Clinton's campaign has reached out to dozens of Democratic House and Senate candidates this week to offer an endorsement and support from her massive digital organizing program in an effort to bolster down-ballot candidates and get out the vote in the lead-up to Election Day.

Clinton officials contacted a select group of House and Senate campaigns across the county with the same question: What do you need? On the table: Clinton’s endorsement, to use in whatever way best suits the candidate, along with a menu of options from the campaign’s digital field operation — social media posts, text messages, emails encouraging voters to volunteer, and access to Clinton’s online organizing tools.

Dozens of Democratic House and Senate candidates, including in non-battleground states Indiana, New York, and California, heard from the campaign early this week, in most cases from one of its state directors, according to a person familiar with the effort.

The down-ballot digital push, confirmed by a Clinton aide on Thursday, is aimed in particular at House races — smaller operations that typically don’t have as developed a field program as a large U.S. Senate race. (Some, for instance, have no SMS engagement plan for the Election Day homestretch — a gap Clinton can help fill with her own text message program.) Clinton aides describe their digital organizing operation, led by digital organizing director Jess Morales Rocketto, as the most advanced of any presidential campaign to date.

Dozens of down-ballot campaigns will receive the offer, one Democrat with knowledge of the outreach effort said. (The campaign declined to provide an exact number.)

As her aides opens access to the organizing program and its resources — including the campaign’s call tool and digital get-out-the-vote media and ads — Clinton has made more of an effort at her campaign events to boost House and Senate candidates, urging supporters at nearly stop this week to vote Democrat all the way down the ballot.

Priorities USA Action, the multimillion-dollar super PAC supporting her candidacy, has also released a series of new ads aimed at linking congressional Republicans to Trump.

As she’s made a final swing through the battleground states, hopping from Ohio to Florida and back to North Carolina here on Thursday, Clinton has also acknowledged that without more Democrats in Congress, her policy agenda would face instant and near insurmountable roadblocks. And after a highly divisive campaign, Clinton remains one of the least liked and trusted presidential nominees in the history of US elections.

It’s a hard reality to contend with for Democrats facing competitive races in some parts of the country — particularly those dependent on the non-college-educated white voters who widely oppose Clinton — turning even this week’s digital organizing opportunity into something of a political tightrope for some who received the offer.

For one such House candidate, a strategist on the race said, operatives agreed they would benefit from Clinton’s digital get-out-the-vote tools and fundraising apparatus. But they passed on the idea of a public media push from the Clinton team.

The strategist explained: “It’s a 'How do you politely decline a fruit cake?' kind of thing on some of these races.”

Clinton has long emphasized the need for a “deep bench" of new Democratic talent. And on the trail, senior aides say daily that high Democratic turnout is essential to their plan for a victory on Tuesday, countering what a senior Trump campaign official recently described as a three-tiered “voter suppression” effort underway, targeting key swaths of the Democratic electorate: women, young voters, and black voters.

“Complacency is probably our biggest enemy right now,” Mook, the Clinton campaign manager, told reporters late last week. “We’re running like we’re 20 points behind.”

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

SELMA, North Carolina — Donald Trump suggested that the Justice Department is preventing the FBI from releasing relevant information in its investigation into Hillary Clinton during a speech on Thursday.

"She’s protected by the Department of Justice, and what's going on in our country this has never happened, ever happened before," Trump told his audience at his third rally of the day. "And the FBI is in there, they're doing their job and they’re not allowed to be doing their job, what’s going on is a disgrace."

"Hillary created the server to shield her criminal activity and her corrupt pay-for-play schemes where she sold her office as Secretary of State to donors and special interests," Trump said. "And the FBI has it all. They have it all."

"They're not allowed to do anything with it because her protector is the Department of Justice," Trump said. "We’ll have to change the name of the Department of Justice."

Trump's remarks come at a time when internal divisions in the nation's law enforcement community over how to handle investigations of and relating to Hillary Clinton are spilling into public view. It was recently reported that Justice Department officials urged FBI Director James Comey not to send his recent letter to Congress informing them of the discovery of more emails relevant to the investigation of Clinton's private email server less than two weeks before Election Day. Subsequent leaks have detailed, in at times conflicting reports, investigations that concern Anthony Weiner’s alleged sexting of an underage girl, and the past investigative activity around the Clinton Foundation.

The FBI in particular has been the source of many leaks in the firestorm that followed the letters, with a picture emerging of both internal disagreement in the bureau about how to handle Clinton investigations, and disagreement with the Department of Justice.

One current FBI agent told the Guardian that the FBI is "Trumpland," with many agents supporting Trump.

Trump has made the FBI probe into a main feature of his stump speeches, mentioning it at every rally as part of his case against Clinton as "Crooked Hillary."

Some polls have showed the race tightening in the days since Comey's letter.

BuzzFeed News

Here at BuzzFeed News’ New York headquarters, we’ll cover the US presidential election Tuesday live across a wide set of platforms: our website, our own apps and push notifications, our native updates on social platforms, and a live video show right in the heart of the conversation, on Twitter’s live platform.

This is a high-stakes moment, and a moment in which Americans’ trust in their institutions is frighteningly low. And so we’d like to outline here how we and our partners at Decision Desk HQ are planning to inform you about the biggest story in the world — who is winning each state in the US presidential election — in the open, transparent spirit of the social web.

"Calling" States

Television networks have traditionally been the ones to decide who is elected president — even as state election officials don’t certify the votes for days. They call the states one by one with booming voices, flashy graphics, stirring music, and hints that they have a group of wizards in a back room — their “decision desks” — with special tools and exclusive information.

But behind that drama is the same conversation that you’ll see play out through the night on Twitter and on our platforms: dozens of nerds, at networks and elsewhere in the country, trying to figure out who won each state.

The Safe States

As soon as the polls close in about half of the country, you’ll see some networks “project” that one candidate or another has won those states. These projections are totally reasonable — they’re based nominally on the day’s exit polls, and in fact on expectations built up over years of elections and polls and confirmed by the exits.

But we’re going to do something a bit different on this front: We’ll be transparent about those expectations, and start the night with the map above — something you might recognize from 270toWin and other sites. We’ll color in the states that we expect to go to either candidate, and have our electoral college tally reflect that starting point. We’ll be doing that quite conservatively, starting with just the 26 safest states, and waiting for the results even in traditionally very safe Republican states in the South and Democratic ones in the Upper Midwest and West. (Come argue with us on Twitter about Oregon and South Carolina!). That starts Hillary Clinton with 175 electoral college votes, and Donald Trump with 78.

The Contested States

For the rest of the states, the networks rely on data collected by the Associated Press from state and local election officials, and analyzed by people who know that, for instance, that a poor Republican showing in Waukesha County spells trouble in Wisconsin for Trump, or a poor Democratic showing in Philadelphia could make Pennsylvania too close to call for Clinton.

We will be looking at what other media outlets are doing, but we won’t pretend we have a back room full of wizards with access to special data. Instead, we’ll be looking at data gathered directly from the states, at what other outlets are doing, and of course at the public tallies from the Associated Press and other sources.

BuzzFeed News and Decision Desk HQ

In particular, we’re adding one of the internet’s big new brains: Decision Desk HQ, a new grassroots media company that grew out of the conservative blogosphere, and that will have more than 200 volunteers around the country gathering data directly from state and local election officials. Decision Desk, led by Brandon Finnigan, will be operating from our New York office, and will provide live analysis on our show that mirrors the open conversation on Twitter — where things seem to be headed, what the key details are, and even why different media outlets might be making different calls.

Decision Desk HQ’s data will be powering a map on BuzzFeed.com, and they’ll be live on our show — and, of course, on Twitter and their own site. They’ll also be calling states based on their data, and BuzzFeed News will typically follow those decisions — with a rule of thumb that we’ll be looking for a second trusted source, from the great network decision desks to the analysts at 538, before we are confident telling our readers that a decision is final.

We Hope You'll Trust Us

At the root of all these decisions is trust. We’re a new media outlet, born in this swarming, chaotic, and polarized new ecosystem. We don’t believe that our audience is going to trust a news outlet because they’ve got dramatic music, great graphics, or great hair. (Our staff will also have great hair, btw.) We hope you’ll trust us, instead, because our wizards don’t hide behind the curtain — because we aren’t pretending we have any secrets, just dozens of smart, experienced journalists and analysts working hard and who are utterly open to what our friends and rivals in the rest of the media conversation have to say.

We believe that our site, our push notifications, our tweets, and our Twitter show will offer you a clear window into not just into who’s winning, but also how journalists and analysts are making these calls. And we hope that transparency is a good reason to trust us.

One of the closest presidential races in US history left us without a president-elect for over a month and introduced the word “chad” into the popular lexicon. Presented by Getty Images.

Republican presidential candidate and Texas Gov. George W. Bush (center), his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (right), and their father, former president George Bush, watch election night results at the governor's mansion in Austin, Nov. 7, 2000.

Rick Wilking / Getty Images

Supporters of George W. Bush react to results of the presidential election outside the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Nov. 8, 2000. Bush was prematurely announced the winner in the election early in the morning.

Joe Raedle / Newsmakers / Getty Images

A video screen broadcasts the results of the presidential elections on Nov. 8, 2000, in the early morning hours in Times Square in New York City. George W. Bush was prematurely declared 43rd president of the United States in one of the closest elections in history.

Chris Hondros / Getty Images

Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Al Gore (right) makes a statement to reporters with Sen. Joseph Lieberman by his side in Nashville, Nov. 8, 2000.

Mark Wilson / Newsmakers / Getty Images

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Rhona Wise / AFP / Getty Images

It’s clear that the GOP is preparing for the possibility of a Clinton presidency and several Republicans have already declared they plan to block Hillary Clinton’s picks for the Supreme Court should she win.

House Republicans believe there are “years” worth of material on Clinton to investigate and several other Republicans have already floated the possibility of impeachment.

But Democrats have made no such declarations in regards to a possible President Donald Trump. That’s because they find the idea of Trump actually winning so unimaginable, no one has given much thought to how they’d handle him winning the election.

“It’s never talked about in much depth or detail because the guy is such a joke. We can’t fathom it and therefore are not planning for it,” said Texas Rep. Marc Veasey.

“My personal opinion is that Hillary is going to win,” he said. “If Donald Trump wins it would be chaos. He can’t hold a thought for more than one or two minutes.”

Several senior Democrats laughed at BuzzFeed News when asked if they had any contingency plan for a Trump presidency.

“No one is sitting around planning for a President Trump,” said a senior Democratic Senate aide. “No one is meeting, no one is contemplating, no one is meditating about this.”

The aide said that Senate Democrats haven’t even planned too far down the road for a Clinton presidency because they were “focused on winning the Senate,” but that the working assumption was that Clinton would win the White House.

A senior Democratic aide in the House, confident of a Clinton win, said that there wouldn’t really be anything for Democrats to plan for in the case Trump wins because they disagree with everything he says.

“We don’t want to build a wall, we don’t want to give tax cuts to the wealthy, and these are long-held positions by Democrats,” the House aide said. “So no, we aren’t planning for what we will do because it is obvious we will oppose these things.”

Rep. Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut, said he felt Clinton’s numbers were “quite encouraging” though he did let himself contemplate a Trump presidency about a month ago.

“While my initial reaction was that it would be a total disaster to have a man with with a fourth-grade knowledge of the Constitution running the country, Congress would be forced to have a watchful check and balance on this guy. In particular, we’d need to reclaim war-making authority and I suspect many Republicans would join us in doing that,” Himes said.

“The most immediate danger he would be irritated by a tweet and launch a war,” he added. “But this is not in the category of grand plans — this is just Jim Himes trying to find a silver lining in that particular cloud.”

Several Republicans who support Trump, like Marco Rubio of Florida, have pushed the “check and balance” line in their campaigns arguing that with either candidate, congress will need to push back.

“Donald and I do have some disagreements on foreign policy and things of this nature. At the end of the day, my obligations are to the Constitution and the state of Florida,” Rubio said Friday on the Mike Gallagher Show. “First and foremost I’m going to stand for those things no matter who’s president. If it’s a president of my own party and they get out of line or they nominate someone, let’s say, to the Supreme Court that doesn’t meet the standards I believe of a Supreme Court justice — even if it’s nominated by a Republican — I’m going to stand up to them on it."

Voters cast their ballots during early voting in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Chris Keane / Reuters

Federal courts on Friday issued a series of rulings mostly favoring Democrats affecting laws in three heavily contested states in the presidential election: Arizona, North Carolina, and Ohio.

A deeply divided 6-5 decision from an en banc panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals barred Arizona from enforcing a law that would make third-party collection of early voting ballots a felony.

The ruling, if it stands, allows someone other than the voter himself or herself to collect early vote ballots from several voters and then submit them all to the board of elections at once. This is sometimes referred to as "ballot harvesting" — efforts to ensure that potential voters actual cast a ballot.

On Friday evening, Arizona asked the Supreme Court, through a request to Justice Anthony Kennedy, to reverse the 9th Circuit's decision and allow continued enforcement of the law. Soon thereafter, Kennedy requested a response to the request by 9 a.m. Eastern Time Saturday.

In a second ruling on Arizona election laws, however, the appeals court split 7-4 to allow continued enforcement of a law that bars the counting of a voters' ballot when the person votes in the wrong precinct, even when the ballot filled out by the voter includes races or measures that the voter is qualified to vote for.

It was not immediately clear whether the plaintiffs would seek Supreme Court review of the ruling.

In Ohio, a federal district court barred several parties — including the presidential campaigns, and Roger Stone Jr. and his "Stop the Steal" effort — from engaging in any voter intimidation efforts. U.S. District Court Judge James Gwin added "groups associated with the Clinton for Presidency campaign" to the list of those covered by the order from what had been requested. The Ohio Republican Party, who Democrats had sought to include in the order, were excluded.

Democrats brought the challenge, seeking to stop efforts perceived as "prevent[ing] minority voters from voting in the 2016 election." The order, in part, bars the presidential campaigns and Stone and Stop the Steal from hindering would-be voters from getting to a polling place, interrogating or harassing voters or would-be voters, or taking photographs of voters or their vehicles "at or around" a polling location.

The Trump campaign has announced that it will appeal the order.

Finally, in North Carolina, a federal district court ordered officials there to reverse or otherwise alleviate the effects of several counties' recent voter roll purges.

It was not immediately clear whether there would be further appeals or attempted appeals in the North Carolina cases.

Elijah Nouvelage / Reuters

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Pittsburgh ruled on Friday that existing civil rights laws banning sex discrimination also protect against discrimination for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people.

The ruling is a victory for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which brought the case against Scott Medical Health Center. The agency has been fighting for the past several years to expand LGBT workers' protections under federal law.

The EEOC decided in 2015 that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBT people. It earlier had decided that the law protects transgender people from discrimination as well.

In March, the agency brought its first two cases advancing the sexual orientation-coverage theory in federal court — one of which was the Scott Medical case.

The company had asked US District Court Judge Cathy Bissoon to dismiss the case, in part, because sexual orientation discrimination, the company argued, isn't barred by the sex discrimination prohibition.

Bissoon disagreed, writing, "There is no more obvious form of sex stereotyping than making a determination that a person should conform to heterosexuality."

Explaining further, she cited to an earlier US Supreme Court case, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, which held that sex stereotyping is a type of banned sex discrimination under Title VII.

"Forcing an employee to fit into a gendered expectation — whether that expectation involves physical traits, clothing, mannerisms or sexual attraction — constitutes sex stereotyping and, under Price Waterhouse, violates Title VII," she wrote.

The ruling allows the EEOC to proceed in its case against the company.

While Bissoon is not the first judge to reach the conclusion she did on Friday, the decision is significant for a few reasons. The opinion itself — as direct and forceful as it is — is important, because it can be cited to in lawyers' briefs and in other judges' decisions. More importantly, however, is the fact that it comes in a case brought by the EEOC itself — the agency in the federal government responsible for interpreting Title VII.

Finally, it is notable that the ruling comes a few weeks before the full federal appeals court in Chicago is due to reconsider a decision of a three-judge panel from the court rejecting the argument that sexual orientation claims are currently covered under Title VII. The three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals held that only the US Supreme Court or a change in law could provide those legal protections. The full court — with the urging of the EEOC and others — agreed to reconsider that decision, which it will do on Nov. 30.

Read the order:

Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign rally in Detroit, Friday.

Paul Sancya / AP

Calling Hillary Clinton a "criminal," a Democratic Electoral College voter from Washington state has vowed not to cast his ballot for the Democratic nominee if she wins the popular vote in his state.

Robert Satiacum told the Associated Press Friday that Clinton "will not get my vote, period." Satiacum, a member of the Puyallup Tribe and former Bernie Sanders supporter, said he believes Clinton has "done nothing but flip back and forth" and does not sufficiently care about Native Americans.

Robert Satiacum, in a photo from his Facebook page.

Facebook / Via Facebook: robertindians

"This is a time we all need to stand up and speak out," he said.

Satiacum also does not plan to vote for Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Clinton is expected to win Washington, which would mean she would theoretically get all of the state's 12 electoral college votes. Satiacum, who is an elector in the Electoral College, was expected to cast one of those votes.

The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. A presidential candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes to win the White House.

Electors typically cast ballots that reflect the popular vote in their states. In other words, if a candidate wins a state in November, the electors usually honor that result and cast their ballots for the same candidate.

Electors, however, are not constitutionally required to vote in line with the popular vote. Some states do have laws penalizing electors who deviate from the popular vote, and according to the AP, Satiacum faces a $1,000 fine for not voting for Clinton.

Satiacum said he doesn't care about the fine, and has heard from other electors who thanked him for speaking out. He did not immediately respond to a BuzzFeed News request for comment Friday, but first raised the possibility of not voting for Clinton last month.

"I'm not going to be forced to go in there and pick out your poison," he told KING-TV. "Not happening. Maybe this will start with something, we'll all stand up and speak up.”