The lawyer, Dan Cogdell, helped save Mr. Paxton from criminal charges and an impeachment, but now he says the Texas attorney general has “lost sight of his mission.”

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Other states with vote-by-mail manage to count much more quickly.

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The Georgia senator is excoriating Trump and his systemic corruption in a way that transcends the Democratic Party’s progressive-moderate divide.

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Experts say speeding up the count in California would take more resources, but also scaling back rules that expand voting access.

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