Fire danger in effect from 11 00 tonight to 8 00 a. M. Wednesday for many of the Higher Elevations of marin county, parts of napa and Sonoma County and lake county, wind gusts could reach 40 Miles Per Hour or higher. Once again, this is in the Higher Elevations and for the nxt two days. Fires can start and spread easily under thesications. For the remainder of the bay area above 1,000 feet, a fire weather watch in effect from wednesday into friday. Similar conditions, only we expect only occasional gusts during that period of time, not the stronger, steadier gusts were expecting the next two days. All right. We will be watching it closely. Spencer, thank you. We are just 15 days away from the election that will decide our next president. And so far here in the bay area voters are responding in record numbers. Ballot boxes and Election Centers are swirling with activity, all of this as today marks the deadline for registering online in california. Heres abc 7 News Reporter laura anthony. Reporter the election may be two weeks away, but the action is in full swing at the Contracosta County elections headquarters where by days end registrar Debbie Cooper expects she will reach a new milestone. I think contracostas going to go over the 200,000 ballots returned mark. It will be nearly a third of our registered voters and it will be the most received weve ever received this early in the process. Reporter the ballot boxes around the county are filling up. Almost as fast as election workers can empty them. I saw you give the box a little pat there. Yes. Just praying for good luck. Reporter tonight is the deadline to register online, but it wont be the last chance to register in person. Otherwise, we will have opportunities here at our main Martinez Office or one of our 17 regional early voting sites and then, of course, at all of our 150plus polling places on election day. Reporter besides the deadline to register online, voters should also be aware of another deadline that is october 31st to make sure they get their ballots in to be counted on election day. Its a reality that many voters told us they consider a top priority. Especially this year. We want to vote early. To make sure that our ballot is counted. I have never voted by mail or early ever, just felt really important to get that in the mail early this year. Reporter at the current pace contracosta expects turnout could exceed the record set in 2008 when more than 80 of registered voters cast a ballot. In martinez, laura anthony, abc 7 news. Voter registration totals in three of the larger bay area counties are massive. Santa clara county has more than 1 Million People registered. Thats an 83 total of the total numbers of eligible voters in the counties. Alameda county is close to 1 million as well with 961,000 people registered to so far. San francisco has more than 520,000 people registered for next months election. Now to a look at one of the many crucial state propositions that are on your ballot this year. Proposition 19. What is it and whats at stake for you . Abc 7 news anchor liz kreutz takes a closer look. Ballot titles usually give voters some idea about what the measure is about, but proposition 19 is about so many things, it was given a vague title that says changes Certain Property tax rules. Proposition 19 could be good news for homeowners who are 55 or older or who are disabled and feel trapped in their home because they cant afford to pay new property taxes if they move. Prop 19 would allow them to transfer their current tax assessment to a primary home anywhere in the state without paying higher taxes as long as the home costs the same or less. Victims of wildfires or natural disasters could also apply the tax rules. Proposition 19 also makes big changes in property taxes on a home inherited from parents or grandparents. Under prop 19 a child would have to live in the inherited home as their primary residence or they lose the big tax break. Proponents say this would generate millions in new property tax revenue with the lions share going into a new fund for fighting wildfires. The state will lose some and gain some tax money under prop 19. Voters will need to decide if they like where the money is going. And for more information about the state propositions, just go to abc7news. Com. We also have mailin ballot first inperson voting information and key dates and deadlines. A polarized electorate and the possibility of a contested election. Both are raising concerns that they will be a drag on an economic recovery after covid19. Stanford researchers say they have studied patterns globally and abc 7 News Reporter david louie takes a look at the troubled road ahead. Reporter telltale signs of a troubled economy are everywhere. Retail stores have closed. Restaurants have either closed or are limping along. People are moving because they can remote work from almost anywhere where its cheaper to live. The pandemic is the number one reason for uncertainty. Business leaders tell researchers so is politics. Number two is the election. And, you know, anyone that watched the president ial debate and sees how opposite the candidates are in substance and in style, you can see how this real matters. Economic recovery could well be slowed by three to six months because of uncertainty. Companies are unsure whether to hire, lay off, reduce office space or invest. The economy is roughly 10 ms do down, but back up to 5 down. Catching up the remaining 5 is going to be hard. Reporter besides the election, there is the potential of a lame duck period where congress could be facing its own uncertainty. Polarization among voters even after the election could impact Consumer Confidence and impact holiday spending. If christmas sales are very poor, im nervous theyre just going to kind of limp on with this dreadful economy that isnt truly as bad as it was in the summer of 2020. Reporter uncertainty could also be prolonged if Election Results are contested as happened in 2000 involving george bush and al gore. Historically uncertainty then was not as heightened as it appears to be today. It was an era in which voters didnt view the parties as nearly as par apart ideological as they view them now. Reporter so both professors that work for stanfords institute for Economic Policy research believe the months ahead will make the postcovid recovery prolonged. David louie, abc 7 news. Happening now, a memorials being held for a San Francisco firefighter who died in a training accident. First responders from many agencies started arriving about 45 minutes ago as police and firefighters escorted the body of jason cortez to Saint Ignatius church. This is a private celebration with only cortezs family and guests with an invitation allowed inside. This is a leave look outside the church on parker avenue. The service is expected to conclude at around 9 00 p. M. , and the San FranciscoFire Department will do an honor salute afterward. Now to developing coronavirus news. Weve now reached more than 40 million cases worldwide. And abc News Analysis finds hospitalizations are rising in 41 states. 1 4 of the nations hospitals have 81 of icu beds full. Yesterday the Transportation Security Administration says it screened more than 1 million passengers, the highest number since march. 7 on your sides Michael Finney will have more on that coming up. Today Governor Newsom announced that a group of 11 california scientists will independently review the safety and efficacy of any vaccine that receives fda approval before its distributed in the state. We will do our own independently reviewed process. With our worldclass experts that just happen to live here in the state of california. Treasure trove of experts. The covid19 Scientific Safety Review Work Group is a key piece of the states initial covid19 Vaccine Distribution plan, which was submitted to the cdc on friday. The groups chairman is dr. Arthur riangold, the Division Head of epidemiology and biostatistics at uc berkeley. Governor newsom says we shouldnt anticipate mass Vaccine Availability until 2021. A usa today investigation found that Asian Americans in San Francisco are dying from covid19 at a higher rate than other racial groups. Asian americans account for 34 of the citys population and 38 of the citys covid19 deaths. Now, keep in mind, the sample size is relatively small, as the citys overall death toll is at 133. Community leaders worry Asian Americans in San Francisco may not be receiving Adequate Health care. Covid information in their native languages and that many live in large households or work in highexposure jobs. Another free popup covid testing site is now open in the east bay. B. A. R. T. Is partnering with Bay Area Community health to provide tests today, tomorrow and thursday in the parking lot of the union city bart station. The site is open from 9 00 until 4 00. Appointments can be made through the Bay Area Community health website, but walkups are also welcome. San mateo countys newly formed Covid Compliance Team hit the streets today to make sure businesses are enforcing the mask requirement. The team is made up of eight people with a primary goal of working with businesses to keep the public safe, but businesses that dont comply could face sanctions. If theyre not, theyll be warned and theyll be told how they can comply. If they fail to comply after that, they could be fined through administrative citations or they could face criminal prosecution. Fines can be as high as 3,000. Now, weve made it easy for you to keep tabs on the rules and whats open where you live. This interactive reopening tracker is on our website, abc 7 news. Com. Our america, living while black. We kick off the weeklong special event today at 4 30. And free speech. The controversy over social media and just what rights you have on their platforms. And sierra statue. It was t the pain is always around the corner. O new details on free speech rally that turned violent over the weekend in San Francisco. We want to warn you some pile might find this video very disturbing. A watsonville man has been arrested for the attack on phillip anderson. Anderson organized the event. You can see him in this video here. He had already been punched once in the face and then is punched again. Anderson ended up having two of his teeth knocked out. Now, that free speech event was organized to protest alleged censorship and bias by twitter, facebook and google against conservative users. The Tech Companies were criticized after the 2016 election for not doing enough to stop disinformation. But now some say their changes have gone too far. Abc 7 News Reporter luis pena spoke to experts about what tech economies are actually allowed to do. Reporter just weeks before election day, social media giants are facing criticism from conservative voices. Some users claim new rules are censoring their free speech, but twitter and facebook say thats not the case and they claim section 230 of the communication decency act protects them. Who can be held liable is whoever produces that content, right . So what section 230 really did at its core, it really opened up the internet and allowed free speech to flourish. Reporter but conservatives claim freedom of speech is being violated. They point to last weeks New York Post article about alleged communications between joe bidens son hunter biden and a Ukrainian Company adviser. The article was blocked from distribution by both twitter and facebook. As i understand it, their rationale was not necessarily related to the content of that post, but that the way that the information had been gained through hacking. Reporter after backlash, twitter said it would update its policy. Facebooks communication lead responded. While i will intentionally not link to the New York Post, i want to be clear that this story is eligible to be fact checked by facebooks thirdparty Fact Checking partners. In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform. Are these social media platforms also opening themselves up to legislation by choosing what type of content is distributed . Absolutely. Again, theyre effective monopolies using a public resource, and once they decide that theyre going to push their own views to the exclusion of other views, i think it calls out for government regulation. Reporter uc hastings constitutional law professor Matthew Coles says section 230 works as a shield to protect these private companies. Section 230 was designed to allow them not to be liable if they made decisions about blocking people, and thats precisely what theyre doing. Reporter now tomorrow the Senate Judiciary committee is expected to vote on whether to subpoena facebook and twitters ceos to test about alleged anticonservative bias. In San Francisco, luiz pena, abc 7 news. All right. Time now for consumer news. Yeah, 7 on your sides Michael Finney joining us now with a look at todays headlines, starting with some not so good news on the streaming front. Thats very true. One of the very best deals, free trial deals consumers have ever received, now no more. Netflix says it will no longer offer its 30day, i should say, free trial. For years the streaming giant offered the free trial to lure in new subscribers. For two years now netflix has been phasing out free trials all around the worrell. Its now simply americas turn. And heres another free trial that has come to an end. Mashable is reporting that teslas weeklong return policy is no more. Tesla sells cars without franchised dealers and part of that unique process has allowed buyers to return their car after essential days, or i should say before seven days, for any reason whatsoever. Mashable says there was no major announcement but the return policy was apparently scrapped last week. The Transportation Security Administration, the tsa, broke the 1 million passengers screened in a day mark this past sunday. Yesterday. For the First Time Since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak began. The last time the tsa screened that number of people was on march 17th. The tsa also says the proceeding week saw 6. 1 Million People screened. That shows that more and more of us are traveling. Whether or not we feel safe in the air, were actually taking to the air. Back to you two. All right. Thank you so much, michael. All right. Turning to the weather now. All eyes on the wind and i guess cooler temperatures eventually, spencer. Eventually, yeah. So later in the week, dion, but right now we have another offshore flow developing over the hills and that means, you know, dry, sometimes gusty wind and that, of course, adds to fire danger. Right now we can see the surface winds are basically calm. Most locations have under 10mileperhour winds right now. But look at the gusts in the Higher Elevations we were talking about, 10 to 15, maybe up to about 20 Miles Per Hour. Those gusts are likely to intensify during the latenight hours and as a result we have a red flag warning that will be in effect from 11 00 tonight to 8 00 wednesday morning for many of the Higher Elevations of the north bay. This includes lake county, parts of napa and sonoma counties and marin county. Wind gusts up to 40 Miles Per Hour. Dry fuels all those add up to high fire danger. San francisco under blue skies right now. Currently 62 here in the city. 60, rather. 72 across the bay. In oakland we have mid80s in Mountain View and san jose. 87 in gilroy. 55 at half moon bay. Mount tam showing a Little Finger of fog to push out over the bay through the golden gate right now. So the marine layer is returning. 82 in santa rosa. 95 in concord. 89 at livermore. Nice view from our rooftop camera looking out over the embarcadero from abc 7 and these are our forecast features, cooling marine layer tonight will expand a bit during the overnight hours. North bay fire danger, as i just pointed out, in effect through tonight and tomorrow morning. Well have cooler days by the end of the week. Right now were looking at the overnight. Forecast animation showing the development of a bit of a marine layer that will expand over the bay. Not likely to make it too far inland. For tomorrow, sunny breaks along the coastline and lingering clouds as well. Low to mid50s. Cooler in the inland valleys where some locations like santa rosa will drop into the upper 40s. Tomorrow look for highs of 69 in half moon bay. 74, San Francisco. 79, oakland. And some upper 80s to about 90 in the warmest inland location. Here is the accuweather sevenday forecast. So the next couple days, inland highs around 90, 92 degrees in the warmest spots. Notice this red flag warning in effect actually into wednesd