If you're planning to cast your ballot by mail this year rather than voting in person, these are the most common mistakes to avoid so you can ensure your vote is counted.

Why it matters: About 1% of absentee ballots that were cast in the 2016 and 2018 elections were ultimately tossed, according to the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC). That could translate to hundreds of thousands of uncounted ballots this year — enough to potentially change the outcome of the presidential race.

1. Politics: Chris Christie released from hospital.
2. Health: U.S. sees third day of 50,000 new coronavirus cases — How genes might predict the risk for severe COVID-19.
3. Business: As job losses continue, doubts are rising about unemployment data.
4. Poll: 26% of Americans know someone who went to work while sick.
5. Sports: Guidelines may have caused college football's sloppy start.

Mike Pence's performance at the vice presidential debate set conservative media on fire, generating high interaction numbers on favorable coverage of him and critical coverage of Kamala Harris, according to data from NewsWhip provided to Axios.

The big picture: The debate was more notable for its return to civility than for generating strong emotions — but the NewsWhip data shows that the breakout moments saw more traction on the right.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) refused to take a COVID-19 test as demanded by his Democratic challenger, Jaime Harrison, forcing organizers of Friday's U.S. Senate debate to change the format at the last minute.

Why it matters: If Graham were to test positive for the virus it could delay confirmation hearings on Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

Hurricane Delta made landfall near Creole, La., Friday evening as a Category 2 storm, the National Hurricane Center said.

State of play: Delta is lashing parts of Louisiana's southern coastline with "damaging winds" and a "life-threatening storm surge," the NHC added.

President Trump will hold a rally from the White House on Saturday followed by a campaign event in Sanford, Florida, on Monday, the president tweeted on Friday and White House officials confirmed.

Why it matters: These will be the president's first public events since he announced he had tested positive for COVID-19. Saturday's event will come just five days after Trump was discharged from Walter Reed Medical Center.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said that Virginia and other states around the country have seen a "dramatic uptick" in early voting among those most likely to support Vice President Joe Biden during an Axios News Shapers event on Friday.

Why it matters: Early voting has taken on increased importance and use nationwide amid the coronavirus pandemic with as many as 80 million people expected to cast their ballots before Election Day, whether by mail or in person.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, told Axios that at next week's Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, he will call on Democrats to preemptively renounce any attacks on her Catholic faith.

• "I want to hear that out of their mouths from every Judiciary Committee member," Hawley told me during an Axios News Shapers virtual event. "I'm going to call it out at every single opportunity."

The Trump administration is pushing to get a nuclear arms control agreement with Russia ready for President Trump and Vladimir Putin to apply their signatures before Election Day.

Where things stand: The U.S. believes the prospective deal has buy-in from Putin — who has discussed arms control on a series of phone calls with Trump — and could be negotiated in as little as a week, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

After years of unmet promises, hydrogen vehicles could finally be catching on. If so, it'll be a convoy of clean semi-trucks — not a bunch of quirky passenger cars — leading the way.

The big picture: We've been hearing about zero-emission, fuel-cell vehicles for decades as the answer to our worries about fossil fuels and climate change. But even now, the economic and practical challenges are still too difficult to overcome — except, perhaps, for commercial truck fleets.

Twitter said Friday it would be making a slew of significant new product and enforcement changes to help clamp down on misinformation leading up to the election.

Why it matters: It's the most aggressive set of changes that Twitter has rolled out to date to curb election-related misinformation on its platform.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told a Kentucky event on Friday that a coronavirus stimulus deal is "unlikely in the next three weeks," per the Washington Post's Erica Werner.

Our thought bubble: Two sources close to Senate leadership said President Trump is desperate, has zero leverage to push them to support a bill crafted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and congressional Republicans aren’t inclined to wrap themselves any tighter to a sinking ship.

The government has a newfound interest in looking into discrimination in the tech industry, which is overwhelmingly male and has a big problem with underrepresentation of Black and Latinx employees.

• The Trump administration, far from seeking greater diversity, is asking whether corporate goals to boost Black representation are a form of discrimination.

Why it matters: Experts say concrete goals are needed to ensure aspirations turn into results.

The number of business bankruptcies and insolvencies in most countries has declined this year through the coronavirus pandemic as the world is seeing far fewer bankruptcies than it did in 2019.

Yes, but: That is largely thanks to assistance from central banks and government measures restricting things like foreclosures.

President Trump has called an experimental coronavirus therapy he received "a gift from Heaven" and promised to make it widely available — igniting yet another round of concern about politics encroaching on science.

What they're saying: "We have an emergency use authorization that I want to get signed immediately," Trump said in a video Thursday.

Attorney General Bill Barr has begun telling top Republicans that the Justice Department’s sweeping review into the origins of the Russia investigation will not be released before the election, a senior White House official and a congressional aide briefed on the conversations tell Axios.

Why it matters: Republicans had long hoped the report, led by U.S. Attorney John Durham, would be a bombshell containing revelations about what they allege were serious abuses by the Obama administration and intelligence community probing for connections between President Trump and Russia.

One group of Americans needs a fresh stimulus package more than any other: The 2.4 million Americans — and rising — who have been unemployed for more than six months.

Why it matters: While the economic recession looks like it ended in April, rising long-term unemployment acts as a drag on the broader economy. Without new stimulus, the number of jobless could end up being almost as bad as the Great Recession of 2008-9.

Several Michigan voters who are sticking with President Trump think that if Joe Biden gets elected, Sen. Kamala Harris will be running the show — and her Wednesday debate performance reinforced their view.

Why it matters: These are some of the few voters for whom the vice-presidential pick has outsized importance in how they view the two tickets, and for now that's benefitting Trump.

The UN's World Food Program (WFP) was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize in a pointed assertion that multilateralism is saving lives despite the nationalism espoused by leaders like President Trump.

What they're saying: "Multilateralism seems to have a lack of respect these days,” said Nobel Committee director Berit Reiss-Andersen. "The need for international solidarity and multilateral co-operation is more conspicuous than ever."

Wednesday's vice presidential candidate debate got far better reviews in early poll numbers than a similar poll taken after the first presidential debate, with respondents calling it "civil," "informative," and even "presidential."

Why it matters: The new Axios-SurveyMonkey poll suggested that Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris made better impressions with the public than President Trump and Joe Biden did in their debate last week — or, at least, didn't actively repel voters.

Europe is now recording far more new coronavirus cases than ever before.

The big picture: One reason is testing. Deaths and hospitalizations remain far below the levels seen in the spring, though they continue to tick upward.