Firing squads have a long and storied history in the U.S. They've served as a punishment for mutiny in colonial times, a way to discourage desertion during the Civil War and a dose of frontier justice in the Old West.

Down in the polls and at a cash disadvantage to his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, Trump is turning to rallies to help keep his message in front of voters. With more than 91 million votes already cast, Trump and Biden are out of time to reshape the race. For Biden, that means paying close attention to Black voters who are a critical part of the coalition he needs to build to win. But that runs counter to the tradition of some Black voters who prefer to vote in person on Election Day. In a separate analysis, the Democratic data firm TargetSmart found that more than 385,000 of the early Democratic voters didn’t vote at all in 2016.