Reserve troops of the US National Guard will be available for deployment in the US capital in case of trouble following the November 3 elections, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said Tuesday.

"There have been no requests from other agencies to support at this time, but we're always available to support" the city's police department of other federal agencies, McCarthy said at a press conference.

McCarthy, who has ultimate command of the National Guard in the nation's capital, defended the use of reservist troops during protests against police brutality and racism over the summer.

An inquiry has been launched into the actions of the National Guard during a heavy-handed crowd dispersal operation in Washington in June.

"We don't police America's streets," said McCarthy. "We support law enforcement, whether that is at the federal or state, local levels."

President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly made unsubstantiated warnings that his rival Democrats are plotting election fraud, has called on his supporters to turn up at polling stations and to "protect" ballots, raising fears of clashes if the race turns out to be very close.

On June 1, National Guard helicopters flew very low over anti-racism protesters close to the White House to try to disperse them, ripping the branches off trees and whipping other debris over streets.

The technique was criticized as it is usually only deployed on overseas theaters of combat to break up threatening crowds.

McCarthy said an internal Pentagon investigation into the incident had been wrapped up and the findings sent to the inspector general of the Department of Defense, and that their release was "imminent."

Trump was accused of trying to politicize the military after the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper accompanied him as he walked to a photo op by a church near the White House this summer, just after police had charged protestors to clear the square.

While the Army has been trying to play down any apparent politicization of its role, Trump campaign ads appeared this week showing the president with the two military chiefs at his side.

General Milley let it be known that he had not given his authorization for the use of his image in a political campaign advertisement.

Facebook's Zuckerberg adds $100 mn for election administrators
San Francisco (AFP) Oct 13, 2020 - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday he and his wife are donating an additional $100 million to help local election administrators, while brushing aside accusations of partisan motives.

The new donation is on top of $300 million Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan pledged last month and will pay for infrastructure including voting equipment, PPE for poll workers and additional polling staff, the entrepreneur said in a Facebook post.

"Between Covid and insufficient public funding for elections, there are unprecedented challenges for election officials working to make sure everyone can vote safely this year," he wrote.

Zuckerberg said the additional funds were being added due to "a far greater response than we expected" from election officials in the program being administered by the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life.

"So far, more than 2,100 local election jurisdictions have submitted applications to CTCL for support," he said.

Zuckerberg, with a personal net worth estimated at some $90 billion, said there had been "multiple lawsuits filed" seeking to block the donation "based on claims that the organizations receiving donations have a partisan agenda. That's false."

He said the funds "are being allocated by non-partisan organizations" from urban and rural jurisdictions around the country, with many from districts with fewer than 25,000 registered voters.

"To be clear, I agree with those who say that government should have provided these funds, not private citizens," Zuckerberg wrote.

"I hope that for future elections the government provides adequate funding. But absent that funding, I think it's critical that this urgent need is met."

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Campaigns sidestep Cambridge Analytica crackdown with new methods
Washington (AFP) Oct 11, 2020
"Your early vote has not been recorded," one text message said, with a link for more information. Other messages tell voters they are not registered, or offer unverified information about a political opponent. Fraudulent messages like these are drawing attention as political campaigns ramp up data collection and voter targeting using their own technology to circumvent restrictions imposed by social media platforms following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Facebook barred apps which scraped ... read more