Election Day is here. Voters are gearing up to head to the polls to cast their ballots for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in one of the nation’s most historic presidential races. They'll also be determining which party will control the House and Senate.
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Here’s the latest:
Kerstin Emhoff, second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife, posted a video casting a vote for Harris.
“I’ve been so moved by watching emotional videos posted by people after voting for Kamala & Tim,” she wrote. “Voting for our daughters, wives, sisters, from red and blue states. This is that moment. I proudly cast my vote for my friend and family Kamala Harris!”
Kerstin Emhoff has been a vocal supporter of Harris’ campaign, including attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Two counties in battleground North Carolina will delay turning in their results by 30 minutes after the State Board of Elections agreed to extend the close of voting at two precincts due to technical problems there on Tuesday morning.
The board voted to push the closing time at one precinct in Burke County and another precinct in Wilson County to 8 p.m.
According to election officials, likely voters at the Wilson County precinct were unable to cast ballots for almost an hour and a half because a printer needed to generate voter authorization forms wasn’t working. And in Burke County, people couldn’t vote for potentially 30 or 40 minutes when a precinct laptop computer with the official pollbook had a problem.
The state board won’t publish unofficial results from Burke and Wilson counties until voting ends at the precincts. Results in the state’s other 98 counties can be reported at the normal closing time.
Voters arriving at a polling place in Jacksonville, Florida, were diverted to another voting location for a short time Tuesday after a suspicious package was found outside.
Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland said in an email that about 20 voters were sent to other locations for about 40 minutes before operations at the polling place resumed. The package ended up being the personal belongings of a homeless person, he said.
Authorities in the Denver area are investigating after election officials discovered “discrepancies” with signatures on several mail ballots sent from an adult day care facility in the city.
That’s according to Denver clerk and recorder Paul Lopez in a statement.
Election workers in Colorado check the signatures on mail ballots against voter signatures on file to make sure they’re submitted by the voter the ballot was sent to. Lopez said his office notified law enforcement and the Denver district attorney’s office was investigating. He also said law enforcement in nearby counties were also investigating but did not explain why.
Denver’s KMGH-TV, which first reported the investigation, said ballots from the facility were sent to six counties.
Colorado overwhelmingly votes by mail.
In Central Iowa’s Story County, home to about 100,000 people and the city of Ames, voting machines at some precincts malfunctioned, portending possible delays to reporting results.
“We are aware of technical issues regarding tabulators in some precincts in Story County,” said Ashley Hunt Esquivel, a spokesperson for Iowa Secretary of State’s Office. “The auditor is working with the vendor and our office to resolve it. It is not stopping anyone from casting a single ballot. It may impact how quickly we can report results.”
Story County Auditor Lucy Martin told the Des Moines Register that machines did not read “certain ballot styles” at about 12 of the county’s 45 polling locations. Election workers would have to count ballots at those locations by hand, according to local Democratic and Republican Party officials. The machines were tested and the cause of the technical difficulties was unknown, Martin added.
“The path to the White House runs through North Carolina,” Harris said in an interview on Raleigh’s Foxy 107.1. “And it’s a tight race. We are tied. Every vote matters.”
Harris told host Karen Clark she plans to work the phones until polls close to get out every vote she can.
“This is about turning the page and bringing in a new generation of leadership for America,” Harris said.
Kamala Harris used her visit to a phone bank hosted by the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday to both thank the supporters working to turn out the vote and make calls herself.
“This truly represents the best of who we are,” Harris told the supporters making calls at the phone bank. She was then handed a cell phone and joined in the phone bank.
“I am well,” Harris told the person. “Have you voted already?”
The person responded, to which Harris said, “You did? Thank you.”
In Richmond, Virginia, the local Electoral Board held an emergency meeting to remove a precinct chief.
Board Chair Starlet Stevens said in a telephone interview that 11 voters were given ballots that only had the presidential race and not local races.
Because they cast the ballots, they were unable to redo their votes with the correct ballots.
Stevens said the Board voted to remove the precinct chief not for the error but because the chief was being “disrespectful.”
The Board also received a complaint that the precinct chief refused to help a person who wanted to vote curbside, something that Virginia law allows for anyone 65 and older or physically disabled.
Three out of four American adults believe this election is vital for the future of democracy. They believe that the stakes are high — and for some, so are their stress levels.
But there’s more you can do than doomscroll and hold your breath between news alerts.
Some experts advise using meditation and mindfulness to ease their stress. Headspace, a mental health company and app, has a whole series of guided meditations called its “politics without panic” collection.
It’s also important to be mindful of news intake and social media use and vetting news sources to ensure you’re not consuming inflammatory misinformation. Experts said “self-care” is critical, too, including eating well, exercising and getting enough sleep.
Churches also are drawing on meditation and breathing practices to help their congregants.
At an Episcopal church in Pennsylvania’s heartland, the Rev. David Peck has led a weekly gathering called “Contemplative Citizenship,” which guides apply ancient techniques of prayer and meditation that enable people to respond to conflict more deliberately
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told reporters Tuesday that his experience as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate “restored” his faith in the nation.
“This is truly a remarkable thing we do every four years,” he said in a conversation with reporters outside his campaign plane. “It’s democracy. It’s messy. It’s beautiful. It’s the people.”
“My faith in this country has been so restored,” he added.
Walz said he had not talked with Harris on Election Day but projected confidence that they would prevail over former President Donald Trump.
“I just can’t describe the difference in the vibe that is out there with folks and how hungry they are for something different,” he said
Ken Jeong is funny. But not on Election Day. Today, he’s serious.
The actor and comedian (who also is a doctor) was working the phone banks to support Harris, calling voters to make last-minute pushes in Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia.
“It’s been quite inspiring,” Jeong said. “I’ve never been on something like this on such a grand scale.”
Jeong said most of the people he called didn’t know who he was, but he randomly connected with a man in Michigan who had attended one of his standup shows.
And some of the people he called didn’t agree with him politically, which Jeong had no problem with.
“Even on these phone calls and phone banking, I listen to opinions that are completely different from mine,” Jeong said. “And I don’t discount anybody.”
Coming around 6 p.m. Eastern: Kornacki Cam.
The super-popular NBC News National Political Correspondent Steve Kornacki will be part of a multiview experience put together by Peacock and is expected to last until around 2 a.m.
Also part of the multiview (basically, some of the same technology NBC utilized during the Paris Olympics) is a live stream of NBC News coverage and analysis, projected Electoral College results — and lots and lots of Kornacki, who’ll be at his big board to break down all the numbers.
“We’re caffeinating and hydrating him. We’re making sure he’s eating,” NBC’s Craig Melvin wrote on X. ”@SteveKornacki, the national treasure, is rested and eager for his quadrennial Super Bowl.”
Officials in Northville, Michigan, closed a polling place at midday and sent voters to another precinct in the Detroit suburb because of a natural gas leak. Consumers Energy was investigating the leak.
Ballots sent to some polling locations in St. Clair County, Alabama, for Tuesday’s election were missing a state amendment and a local amendment, local probate judge Andrew Weathington said at a news conference Tuesday.
Judge Weathington said the first round of corrected ballots had been ordered from Birmingham and estimated they would arrive just before 2 p.m. CT.
“I’m as frustrated as anybody, and I understand that we have to take off work and all that stuff to go vote. And I apologize. I don’t know what else to say other than we’re very, very sorry,” Weathington said.
The local circuit court judge ordered polling locations across the country to stay open for two additional hours this evening, until 9 p.m. to accommodate the error. Weathington said ballots that had already been cast would still be counted. There are just over 95,000 residents in St. Clair County, according to the 2023 U.S. Census.
Officials warned residents to continue to expect long lines at polling locations.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen said in an email that his office is aware of the delays and stressed that his office is not involved in inspecting and printing the ballots.
The FBI did not identify the states in question, but Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said earlier Tuesday that the state’s election process had snuffed out some bomb threats that he said came from Russia.
Officials in Fulton County, Georgia, said they received “multiple calls” and the threats forced a brief closure of two polling places.
The bomb threats were among multiple disturbances that U.S. officials are tracking.
But Cait Conley, a senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told reporters on a call Tuesday there were no national-level security incidents that were threatening to disrupt the election on a wide scale.
Officials continue to warn of what they say is an unprecedented level of foreign influence and disinformation that they expect will persist beyond Election Day.
Many Americans will urge voters to stay in line and wait to vote today. Or will they say stay “on” line?
The slight variation — on vs. in — is a regional difference. The vast majority of Americans say “stay in line,” while those from the broader New York area often say “stay on line.”
“For much of the last several decades … on line has been viewed as peculiar to New York City (and the Hudson Valley),” according to Merriam-Webster.
The difference is clearest on the Republican ticket.
Trump, a native New Yorker, urged Republicans on Tuesday to, “Stay on Line. Do not let them move you. STAY ON LINE AND VOTE!” The presidential candidate has also used “in line.”
His running mate, Sen. JD Vance, a Republican who was born in Ohio, pressed people to, “Get in line, stay in line, and VOTE.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long been rumored to be weighing the sacking of Gallant, the defense minister and his political rival. The two have clashed over Netanyahu’s handling of the multi-front war in Gaza and Lebanon.
Netanyahu fired Gallant once before in March 2023, months before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the current conflict. Biden administration officials expressed concern to Netanyahu over his decision at the time.
The move then was spurred by Gallant’s criticism of the Netanyahu government’s contentious plan to overhaul the judiciary. Netanyahu reversed the decision weeks later.
The White House on Tuesday had no immediate reaction to Netanyahu’s move to oust Gallant once again.
U.S. Capitol Police say the man was stopped Tuesday during a security screening at the Capitol Visitor Center. Authorities say he smelled of fuel and was carrying the flare gun and torch.
Officials have canceled public tours of the Capitol for the remainder of the day.
Police say they are still investigating.
The arrest comes as authorities are on heightened alert for security issues around the nation’s capital and have increased patrols in areas downtown and near the White House around Election Day. Nearly four years ago, a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
They take college football very seriously in Clemson, South Carolina.
But no, they did not take away Tigers coach Dabo Swinney’s right to vote just because his team lost to Louisville last week.
Let’s explain: Dabo Swinney’s given first name is William. Dabo Swinney went to vote on Tuesday. The state of South Carolina said William Swinney had already voted.
“I’m like, ‘Dang, they done voted me out of the state. Lost a game. ... They done shipped me off,’” Swinney said.
Here was the issue: Dabo’s oldest son, also named William, voted last week.
They counted William Jr. as William Sr. Hence, the confusion.
Dabo Swinney got to submit a paper ballot and there will be a hearing on Friday to clear it up.
“It was quite an experience this morning,” the coach said. “Me and Will, our two votes will count on Friday.”
Michigan voters are deciding between Democratic U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin and Republican former congressman Mike Rogers in a tight U.S. Senate battleground contest that could sway the balance of federal power.
Slotkin had a clear head start, but as Republicans became more confident about Donald Trump’s presidential prospects in Michigan, the contest drew more attention from funders who believed Rogers had a good chance of becoming the first Republican to win a U.S. Senate seat in the state in 30 years.
The race could determine whether Democrats continue to hold their slim majority in the Senate, where they’re defending more seats than Republicans in this election.
▶ Read more about Michigan’s Senate race
Only a slice of America knew Tony Hinchcliffe before he took the stage at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in late October.
But what the comic said that night — namely calling Puerto Rico a “ floating island of garbage ” — not only made him known nationwide but also thrust him into the core of presidential politics.
While the Trump campaign attempted to distance itself from the joke, the Republican candidate never apologized, allowing Harris to take full advantage. Democrats cite that joke, and its aftermath, as the turning point in their effort to win over late-deciding voters.
Harris pressed this advantage on Monday, using precious time in her final day on the campaign trail to rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a city with a large Puerto Rican community, and to drive over an hour to Reading to visit a Puerto Rican restaurant.
Hinchcliffe, in the immediate aftermath of the joke, accused Democrats of having “no sense of humor” and wrote that he “made fun of everyone.” He hasn’t tweeted since.
If Trump loses and Hinchcliffe’s joke is a turning point, his appearance could go down as the most influential comedy set of all time.
There’s one way to make a long line at a polling place seem like it’s moving a bit faster: Play music.
In four battleground states — Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania — the non-partisan group Joy to the Polls has DJs and performers out and about, helping voters pass the time.
In Arizona this morning, voters at one location stood in line (and, yes, a few tapped their feet) to the sounds of Queen, Arrested Development, Freddie Jackson and more.
Part of the group’s mantra: “You bring the vote, we bring the music!”
Election Day voting unfolded largely smoothly across the nation Tuesday but with scattered reports of extreme weather, ballot printing errors and technical problems causing delays.
Most of the hiccups occurring by mid-day were “largely expected routine and planned-for events,” said Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in a press briefing. She said the agency was not currently tracking any national, significant incidents impacting election security.
Helping voting run relatively smoothly on Election Day was the fact that tens of millions of Americans had already cast their ballots. Those included record numbers of voters in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.
▶ Read more about how Election Day is going so far
Asked about the measure, which would keep the state’s six-week restriction in place, he avoided answering by simply saying he’d done “a great job bringing it back to the states.”
The second time, he snapped at a reporter, saying: “You should stop talking about it.”
Trump had previously indicated he would back the measure, but then changed his mind, saying he would vote against it.
The abortion measure would prevent lawmakers from passing any law that penalizes, prohibits, delays or restricts abortion until fetal viability, which doctors say is sometime after 21 weeks. If it’s rejected, the state’s current abortion law would stand.
In the small county seat of Butler, Pennsylvania, voter turnout was brisk at city center precincts, just a few miles from where Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13.
Voters and an elections official said the process was going smoothly.
Several voters were about evenly split between Trump and Harris, even as surrounding neighborhoods and countryside were overwhelmingly marked with Trump signs and flags, some depicting a photo of him raising his fist in the moments after the shooting.
Elizabeth Nanni said she voted for Harris, saying the candidate is “infinitely smarter “ than her opponent, though she voted Republican in some down-ballot races.
Like others, she said Butler still feels the trauma of July 13.
“We’re not used to having people shot and killed in Butler,” she said. “Hopefully that will be the first and last time anything like that happens here.”
Louis Fell, who voted for Trump, said he didn’t think the shooting changed anyone’s decision about whom to vote for, but it affected the community.
“I feel more connected to the whole thing. We’re not just a small town in the middle of nowhere,” he said.
A provisional ballot is used to ensure every registered voter can cast a ballot in an election. The unique kind of ballot is cast when there are questions about a voter’s registration status, whether they don’t have photo identification in a state that requires it, or, in some cases, if the voter made an error on their mail-in ballot. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 guarantees access to a provisional ballot.
According to MIT’s Election Lab, how exactly provisional ballots are handled varies from each state, but they’re segregated from traditionally cast ballots on Election Day so each ballot’s status can be determined. According to the Election Administration and Voting Survey compiled by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, roughly 700,000 provisional ballots were cast in federal elections in 2022, and around 550,000 were counted.
Last week, the United States Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal from Republicans that could have led to thousands of provisional ballots not being counted in Pennsylvania. The ruling will let voters cast a provisional ballot on Election Day if their mail-in ballot is to be rejected for a garden-variety error.
In a new video posted early Election Day, Beyoncé cosplays as Pamela Anderson in the television program “Baywatch” — red one-piece swimsuit and all — and asks viewers to vote.
In the two-and-a-half minute clip, set to most of “Bodyguard,” a cut from her 2024 country album “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé channels the blonde bombshell before concluding with a simple message, written in white text: “Happy Beylloween,” followed by “Vote.”
At a rally for Donald Trump in Pittsburgh on Monday night, the former president spoke dismissively about Beyoncé’s appearance at a Kamala Harris rally in Houston last month, drawing boos for the megastar from his supporters.
“Beyoncé would come in. Everyone’s expecting a couple of songs. There were no songs. There was no happiness,” Trump said.
She did not perform — unlike in 2016, when she performed at a presidential campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland — but she endorsed the vice president and gave a moving speech.
“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said. “A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we’re not divided.”
The Harris campaign has taken on Beyonce’s track “Freedom,” a cut from her landmark 2016 album “Lemonade,” as its anthem.
A man was arrested in upstate New York on Tuesday for threatening to burn down a polling site after he was told his registration wasn’t current, police said.
The man went to vote in the town of Fowler near the Canadian border around 6:30 a.m., New York State Police said in a news release.
The man, who had previously been convicted of a felony, was told he was ineligible to vote because he had not re-registered after being released from prison.
The man became irate and began threatening to return with a gun or to burn the place down, police said.
The man fled but was later picked up by state police and brought to the station for questioning. Charges against him were pending.
“If it’s a fair election, I’d be the first one to acknowledge,” the results, Trump said, though what meets that definition wasn’t clear.
Speaking to reporters after voting in Florida, Trump said that he had no plans to tell his supporters to refrain from violence should he lose.
“I don’t have to tell them,” because they “are not violent people,” he said.
Trump planned to visit a nearby campaign office to thank those working on his behalf.
“I’m hearing in Pennsylvania they won’t have an answer ’til two or three days from now,” Trump said. “I think it’s an absolute outrage if that’s the case.”
Trump says he will have “a very special group of people” at Mar-a-Lago and a few thousand people at a nearby convention center to watch the election results.
“It looks like we have a very substantial lead,” he said without elaborating on whether he has a plan on when to declare victory.
Tara Palmeri, a reporter with Puck, had been assigned by Amazon to cover Donald Trump’s election night event at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. But she was denied a credential to get in, according to Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita, who described her as a “gossip columnist” in a post on the social platform X.
Instead, Amazon will fly Palmeri to its California studio, where she will be on-set with the former NBC News anchor Williams, who is hosting the streaming service’s first-ever election night live coverage. The change was first reported by the Status news website.
Amazon said Palmeri will be replaced at Trump’s Florida headquarters by New York Post reporter Lydia Moynihan.
In Palm Beach, Florida, Marilyn Falotico said she believes Trump is the president who will deliver best for the Sunshine State and the rest of the country.
“Without him, things in Florida might not happen,” Falotico said.
Falotico says the country she’s living in “is not the country I was born into, so I’m voting for America.”
“It seems that the conservatives are voting very powerfully,” Trump told reporters in Palm Beach, Florida.
“It looks like Republicans have shown up in force,” he said.
Asked if he had any regrets about his campaign, Trump responded, “I can’t think of any.”
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
FILE - Lights shine inside the U.S. Capitol Building as night falls on Jan. 21, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/J. David Ake, File)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump waves as he departs a campaign rally at Van Andel Arena, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Grand Rapids, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
John Farnsworth sets up voting machines at the Hynes Charter School in New Orleans on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
People arrive at polling place to vote, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Springfield, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
