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Today's installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* A federal judge yesterday ordered two Georgia counties to return more than 4,000 voters to the state's voter rolls ahead of next week's U.S. Senate runoff elections.
* On a related note, a pro-Trump lawyer named Lin Wood recently filed a lawsuit to stop next week's elections in Georgia, claiming there's a problem with the state's absentee-ballot process. A federal judge yesterday dismissed the case.
* With a week remaining before the Georgia runoff elections, the Rev. Raphael Warnock (D) unveiled a new, minute-long ad today, pushing back against Sen. Kelly Loeffler's (R) attacks. "She's trying to make you afraid of me, because she's afraid of you," the Georgian said in his direct-to-camera message.
* Meanwhile, Loeffler and Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) this morning announced their support for $2,000 direct-aid checks -- a position Warnock and Jon Ossoff (D) have been pressing the Republican incumbents to take for weeks.
* Politico spoke to eight Georgia election officials, who agreed that the state should expect a smooth Election Day a week from today. That said, these election administrators are nevertheless "fighting bizarre conspiracy theories, ballooning costs and coronavirus-related staffing problems as they prepare for the state's contentious, nationally watched Senate runoffs next week."
* Rasmussen Reports, a pollster with an unfortunate reputation, published a strange Twitter thread yesterday that, among other things, cited Stalin and suggested Vice President Mike Pence help overturn Donald Trump's election defeat.
* For years, many political scientists have noted that incumbent presidents' vote totals tend to line up with their approval ratings. This held up in 2020: Trump's approval rating on Election Day was around 46%, and he ended up with roughly 47% of the vote.