According to the source article, James Talarico's two-week absence from the campaign trail has moved from a vague flu explanation to a far more serious and disputed report. Talarico disappeared after a September 28 fundraiser in New York, then resurfaced Friday, October 9, at the ACL music festival in Austin, Texas. Campaigns usually schedule events, interviews, and voter meetings, not a two-week vanishing act followed by a brief medical explanation. That is why the episode has become a political problem, whether the campaign likes it or not.When questions grew, a Talarico spokesperson responded, “Hate to disappoint the conspiracy theorists, but James is still alive and meeting with voters at ACL today.” That statement may have confirmed that Talarico was alive, but it did not explain where he had been for nearly two weeks. It was not exactly a model of transparent political communication. The explanation now has more loose ends than a bargain-bin campaign banner.President Trump challenged the flu account during a rally in Clarksville, Tennessee. He said, “TalaFreako Had the Longest Flu Ever Recorded… I Don’t Think it Was the Flu.” President Trump had also previously warned that “bad rumors are coming out” while Talarico remained out of public…

Maricopa County election employees are at the center of another election-security controversy after video presented by the Phoenix-based We the People Alliance appeared to show flash drives being used on certified voting equipment shortly before the November 3 election.According to the watchdog group, employees left for the day at approximately 6:20 p.m., returned around 9:08 p.m., and remained inside the facility until about 11:15 p.m. Additional footage reportedly shows an employee using flash drives on computers at 10:38 p.m. on October 7. Maricopa County performed logic and accuracy testing for the November 3 election on October 5, meaning the activity occurred shortly after that testing.The county said the employees were “working on a legitimate election task, late into the night.” That explanation might sound comforting if the public were told what the task actually was. Calling something legitimate without explaining it is a little like putting a label on a locked box that says “nothing to see here” and expecting nobody to ask questions.We the People Alliance co-founder Shelby Busch challenged the county’s transparency claims, stating, “There are two flaws with the Maricopa County Election Department’s statement of transparency. First, they fail to disclose to the public what this ‘legitimate…