Trump wants the presidential winner to be declared on election night. Why that's unlikely

Former President Donald Trump is stepping up his demands that the winner of the presidential race be declared shortly after polls close Tuesday, well before all the votes are counted.

Trump set the pattern in 2020, when he declared that he had won during the early morning hours after Election Day. That led his allies to demand that officials “stop the count!” He and many other conservatives have spent the past four years falsely claiming that fraud cost him that election and bemoaning how long it takes to count ballots in the U.S.

But one of many reasons we are unlikely to know the winner quickly on election night is that Republican lawmakers in two key swing states have refused to change laws that delay the count. Another is that most indications are this will be a very close election, and it takes longer to determine who won close elections than blowouts.

In the end, election experts note, the priority in vote-counting is to make sure it's an accurate and secure tally, not to end the suspense moments after polls close.

“There's nothing nefarious about it,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “The time delay is to protect the integrity of the process.”

Trump's demand also doesn't seem to account for the six time zones from the East Coast to Hawaii.

David Becker, an elections expert and co-author of “The Big Truth,” debunking Trump’s 2020 election lies, said it’s not realistic for election officials in thousands of jurisdictions to “instantly snap their fingers and count 160 million multi-page ballots with dozens of races on them.”

During a Sunday rally in Pennsylvania, Trump demanded that the race be decided soon after some polls begin closing.

“They have to be decided by 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock on Tuesday night," Trump said. "Bunch of crooked people. These are crooked people.”

It was not clear who he was targeting with the “crooked people” remark.

Timing is one example of why Trump's demands don't match the reality of conducting elections in the U.S. By 11 p.m. Eastern time, polls will just be closing in the two Western swing states of Arizona and Nevada.

Trump has led conservatives to bemoan that the U.S. doesn't count elections as swiftly as France or Argentina, where results for recent races have been announced within hours of polls closing. But that's because those countries tabulate only a single election at a time. The decentralized U.S. system prevents the federal government from controlling elections.

Instead, votes are counted in nearly 10,000 separate jurisdictions, each of which has its own races for the state legislature, city council, school boards and ballot measures to tabulate at the same time. That's why it takes longer for the U.S. to count votes.

The Associated Press calls races when there is no possibility that the trailing candidate can make up the gap. Sometimes, if one candidate is significantly behind, a winner can be called quickly. But if the margin is narrow, then every last vote could matter. It takes a while before every vote is counted even in the most efficient jurisdictions in the country.

In 2018, for example, Republican Rick Scott won the U.S. Senate race in Florida, a state conservatives regularly praise for its quick tally. But the AP didn't call Scott's victory until after the conclusion of a recount on Nov. 20 because Scott's margin was so slim.

It also takes time to count every one of the millions of votes because election officials have to process disputed, or “provisional,” ballots, and to see if they were legitimately cast. Overseas ballots from military members or other U.S. citizens abroad can trickle in at the last minute. Mail ballots usually land early, but there's a lengthy process to make sure they're not cast fraudulently. If that process doesn't start before Election Day, it can back up the count.

Some states, such as Arizona, also give voters whose mail ballots were rejected because the signatures didn't match up to five days to prove they actually cast the ballot. That means final numbers simply cannot be available Tuesday night.

Some of the sluggishness is due to state-specific election rules. In Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, two of the most important swing states, election officials for years have pleaded with Republican lawmakers to change the law that prevents them from processing their mail ballots before Election Day. That means mail ballots get tallied late, and frequently the results don't start to get reported until after Election Day.

Democrats have traditionally dominated mail voting, which has made it seem like Republicans are in the lead until the early hours of the next morning, when Democratic mail votes finally get added to the tally. Experts even have names for this from past elections — the “red mirage” or the “blue shift.” Trump exploited that dynamic in 2020 when he had his supporters demand an abrupt end to vote counts — the ballots that remained untallied were largely mail ones that were for Joe Biden. It's not clear how that will play out this year, since Republicans have shifted and voted in big numbers during early voting.

Michigan used to have similar restrictions, but after Democrats won control of the state Legislature in 2022 they removed the prohibition on early processing of mail ballots. That state's Democratic Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, said she hopes to have most results available by Wednesday.

“At the end of the day, chief election officials are the folks who have the ability to provide those accurate results. Americans should focus on what they say and not what any specific candidate or folks who are part of the campaign say,” said Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Some of Trump's allies say he should be even more aggressive about declaring victory this time around.

Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon, who in 2020 predicted the then-president would declare victory before the race was called, advocated for a similar strategy during a recent press conference after he was released from federal prison, where he was serving time for a contempt of Congress conviction related to the investigation into Trump's effort to overturn his loss in 2020.

“President Trump came up at 2:30 in the morning and talked," Bannon said. "He should have done it at 11 o'clock in 2020.”

Other Trump supporters have taken a darker tone. His former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, suggested during a recent interview on the right-wing American Truth Project podcast that violence could erupt in states still counting ballots the day after Election Day because people “are just not going to put up with it.”

Trying to project a sense of inevitability about a Trump win, the former president and his supporters have been touting early vote data and favorable polls to contend the election is all but over. Republicans have returned to voting early after largely staying away at Trump's direction in 2020 and 2022. In some swing states that track party registration, registered Republicans are outvoting Democrats in early voting.

But that doesn't mean Republicans are ahead in any meaningful sense. Early voting data does not tell you who will win an election because it only records who voted, not how they voted.

Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has been explicitly targeting Republicans disillusioned by Trump. In each of those states where more Republicans have voted, there also are huge numbers of voters casting early ballots who are not registered with either of the two major political parties. If Harris won just a tiny fraction more of those votes than Trump, it would erase the small leads Republicans have.

There's only one way to find out who won the presidential election: Wait until enough votes are tallied, whenever that is.

FILE - An election official sorts mail ballots at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix, March 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Serkan Gurbuz, File)

Washoe County election workers sort ballots at the Registrar of Voters Office in Reno, Nev., Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Tom R. Smedes)

FILE - Allegheny County Election Division Deputy Manager Chet Harhut carries a container of mail-in ballots from a secure area at the elections warehouse in Pittsburgh, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

Trump wants the presidential winner to be declared on election night. That's highly unlikely

Trump wants the presidential winner to be declared on election night. That's highly unlikely

FILE - An election worker examines a ballot at the Clackamas County Elections office, May 19, 2022, in Oregon City, Ore. Problems with a ballot-sorting machine are delaying the vote count in a suburban Portland, Oregon county where issues with blurry bar codes on mail-in ballots delayed elections results in a key Congressional primary race for two weeks in 2022. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File)

The presidential campaign comes down to a final push across a handful of states on the eve of Election Day.

Kamala Harris will spend all of Monday in Pennsylvania, whose 19 electoral votes offer the largest prize among the states expected to determine the Electoral College outcome. Donald Trump plans four rallies in three states, beginning in Raleigh, North Carolina and stopping twice in Pennsylvania with events in Reading and Pittsburgh, then ending in Michigan

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here's the latest:

The $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes that Elon Musk ’s political action committee is hosting in swing states can continue through Tuesday’s presidential election, a Pennsylvania judge ruled Monday.

Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta — ruling after Musk’s lawyers said the winners are paid spokespeople and not chosen by chance — did not immediately explain his reasoning.

Musk’s lawyers, defending the effort, called it “core political speech” given that participants sign a petition endorsing the U.S. Constitution. They also said that Krasner’s bid to shut it down under Pennsylvania law was moot because there would be no more Pennsylvania winners before the program ends Tuesday.

District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, believes the giveaways violate state election law and contradict what Musk promised when he announced them during an appearance with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump ’s campaign in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 19: “We’re going to be awarding a million dollars randomly to people who have signed the petition every day from now until the election,” Musk vowed.

▶ Read more about the decision on Musk’s sweepstakes

Between 400 and 500 people snaked out the door and around the corner of the Douglas County Election Commission office — the only place in the state’s most populous county where people can vote early in person. The crowds have been present every day for at least two weeks to cast their ballots, but the crush was particularly heavy Monday.

Nearly 370,000 people are registered to vote in Douglas County, and County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse has predicted voter turnout to be 73%. About half of Douglas County voters are expected to vote early, the commission office said.

Philadelphia rapper and prison reform activist Meek Mill surprise released a new track, “Who You Voting For” on Monday afternoon, sharing a snippet of the song with the caption, “I made this last night … who you voting for???” on TikTok.

“My homie say vote for Trump / You want that stimulus / I wanted two from him but the way he movin’ venomous,” he starts the song. “I’m going probably vote Kamala.”

“It ain’t fair when your lawyer look like Trump / D.A. lookin’ like Kamala,” he continues, critiquing Harris’ past as a prosecutor. “We Thanksgiving to the system / They’ve been eating us for lunch / And it’s the last supper / Hope you be with us for once, Mrs. Harris.”

In 2017, Meek Mill was sentenced for probation violations involving a decade-old gun and drug possession case. The Pennsylvania trial judge sentenced him to two to four years in prison, but a court ordered his release in April 2018.

On July 24, 2019, an appeals court tossed his conviction over doubts about the arresting officer’s credibility. The next month, Meek Mill pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge in a deal that resolved the 2007 arrest, ending his legal limbo with the criminal justice system. He is now an activist for justice reform.

Threats against election workers have gotten so bad that all polling places in Washoe County, Nevada, have a “panic button” that workers can hit to automatically call 911.

But Andrew McDonald, the deputy registrar of voters in the swing county of half a million people, says there’s only been one incident in nearly two weeks of in-person early voting that required someone to hit the panic button.

That incident, McDonald said at a press conference, involved a voter at one of the county’s 24 early voting sites who would not remove his hat when asked by a worker, who was following state law prohibiting campaign signs or paraphernalia within 100 feet (30 meters) of a polling station.

“A few other voters in line sort of ganged up on the site manager,” McDonald said. But when police arrived, he added, “they calmed down and were able to vote.”

Washoe has become a hotbed for election conspiracy theorists who believe Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Still, McDonald noted that the panic button incident is the only significant one that’s happened during the early vote period, when 90,000 people cast their ballots.

“I get an incident report daily,” McDonald said, “and there haven’t been that many incidents.”

Thousand gathered Monday afternoon at the Carrie Blast Furnaces in the Pittsburgh area in anticipation of Harris’ arrival.

They listened to upbeat music as a DJ led in singing “Don’t Stop Believing “ and dancing to “Cupid Shuffle” in the shadow of historic steelworks in Rankin.

“Pittsburgh is the center of America right now,” said attendee Susan Wadsworth-Booth of Pittsburgh. “It’s one of those pivotal places, and we live here. It almost feels like a responsibility to be here and show we care. “

Ahmad Rudd of Pittsburgh, attending his third Harris rally in western Pennsylvania, said he’s “cautiously optimistic” of undecided voters winning her the presidency.

“I feel it’s going to be enough,” he said.

Randie Pearson, director of Women of Steel, joined other members of the women’s group within the United Steelworkers in handing out stickers proclaiming “We’re Not Going Back.”

”She supports women’s rights, she supports women on the job,” Pearson said, citing an array of legislation and policies she said boosted laborers.

Georgia’s highest court on Monday ruled ballots in the state’s third-largest county must be returned by Election Day.

A previous lower court ruling would have allowed certain voters in Cobb County who received their absentee ballots late to return them after the deadline as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday.

The county, just north of Atlanta, didn’t mail out absentee ballots to some voters who had requested them until late last week. Georgia law says absentee ballots must be received by the close of polls on Election Day.

The Georgia Supreme Court ruling means the affected residents must vote in person on Election Day, or get their absentee ballots to the county elections office by 7 p.m. that day.

The high court ruling instructs county election officials to notify the affected voters by email, text message and in a public message on the county election board’s website. And it orders officials to keep separate and sealed any ballots received after the Election Day deadline but before 5 p.m. Friday.

Harris subtly accused Trump of being backward-looking because of his attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“To those certain individuals who still want to get rid of the Affordable Care Act,” Harris said on Monday in Allentown, Pennsylvania, referring to the 2010 health care law, “To them, we say we are not going back.”

The comment led to loud cheers of “We’re not going back” from the crowd in Allentown.

Trump tried multiple times as president to overturn the ACA, only failing because of one vote from the late Sen. John McCain.

Those attempts were rekindled last week when House Speaker Mike Johnson was asked at an event, “No Obamacare?” Republican leaders answered: “No Obamacare.”

Trump responded to the comment by saying he doesn’t want to end Obamacare, despite repeatedly trying to do so in office.

Federal law enforcement officials are working around the clock at a command post at FBI headquarters to monitor and respond to any threats surrounding the election.

The FBI runs a command post around every federal election, but this year’s is more “robust” with more federal agencies involved, according to James Barnacle, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division.

The command post brings officials from the FBI, Justice Department, Secret Service, Capitol Police, Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies together under one roof to allow law enforcement to quickly respond to any threats to election security.

“Those threats include criminal threats — such as threats to election workers — foreign malign influence, cyber threats and acts of domestic violence,” Barnacle said.

Barnacle said federal officials have seen “some foreign malign influence operations,” as well as attempted cyber attacks “where adversaries are trying to hit the secretaries of state or state governments or local governments and cause issues with their infrastructure.”

The command post will operate 24/7 through at least Saturday, Nov. 9, with about 80 people working per shift, he said.

Harris dropped the pretense at an event in Allentown on Monday: Pennsylvania voters, she said, would make the difference in the 2024 presidential election.

“We need everyone in Pennsylvania to vote,” Harris said. “You are going to make the difference in this election.”

Both Harris and Trump have put considerable focus on Pennsylvania in the closing hours of the 2024 campaign, with Harris spending all of Monday campaigning across the state. Both Trump and Harris aides see the commonwealth as central to their respective paths to victory.

Trump brought his children on stage at his rally in Reading after he gave them a shoutout from the podium and appeared to get wistful in one of his final campaign events of the 2024 election, saying, “This is our last time now, for forever.”

His children Eric, Don Jr. and Tiffany, along with Eric’s wife and Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump and Tiffany’s husband Michael Boulos, all appeared with the Republican presidential candidate on stage.

Trump’s children, as well as Lara, each addressed the crowd, including a rare turn speaking from Tiffany.

“They’re kind people,” Donald Trump said. “They have big hearts. They’re strong. They can be nasty. But they have big hearts, those great children of mine.”

Harris touted her “longstanding commitment” to Puerto Rico at an event in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Monday, contrasting herself with Trump and his recent rally that featured a comedian calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”

“I stand here proud of my longstanding commitment to Puerto Rico and her people and I will be a president for all Americans,” Harris said to sizable applause, repeating “all Americans” for emphasis.

Harris’ campaign is looking to use that comment to win over voters in Pennsylvania and nationwide. Fat Joe, a rapper of Puerto Rican heritage, spoke shortly before Harris.

“Momentum is on our side,” Harris said. “Can you feel it? We have momentum.”

A federal judge will hear a legal motion Tuesday by Republican Party attorneys who argue that several Georgia counties wrongly allowed voters to hand-deliver mail-in ballots over the weekend and Monday.

A similar court challenge was shot down over the weekend by a state judge in Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta. Now the Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party are suing election boards in Fulton and six other heavily Democratic counties in U.S. District Court in Savannah.

GOP attorneys argue that counties should have stopped taking absentee ballots dropped off in-person once early voting ended Friday.

They want U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker to order those counties to keep absentee ballots delivered by hand Saturday through Monday separate from others so they can be preserved as evidence in further litigation. The Republicans’ legal motion does not ask the judge to stop those ballots from being counted.

It has long been the practice for Georgia election offices to accept mail ballots over the counter. State law says voters can deliver their absentee ballots in person to county election offices until polls close at 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Wintry weather is forecast for Election Day in parts of Alaska, with blizzard conditions in the southwest and a winter storm warning that could bring more than a foot (30 centimeters) of snowfall in parts of south-central Alaska.

The blizzard warning issued by the National Weather Service until early Tuesday afternoon includes rural villages in the Kuskokwim Delta, with snowfall totals of up to 9 inches (23 centimeters) along the coast and wind gusts of up to 50 mph (80 kph) possible.

“Yo soy boricua, pa’que tu lo sepas!” Rapper Fat Joe started his speech in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with a chant referencing the popular Puerto Rican mantra. In English: “I am Puerto Rican, so that you know!”

“They said they needed a Puerto Rican in Allentown and boy, I was more than honored to come out here and talk to my people,” he said, addressing Harris as “the next president of the United States of America.”

His speech focused on Latinos, referencing comments Trump made about Mexicans and Haitians in the past, and criticizing his response to Hurricane Maria in 2017.

“The other day at Madison Square Garden, that was no joke, ladies and gentlemen. That was no joke,” he said. “Calling Puerto Rico the island of garbage, my Latinos, where is your pride?”

Fat Joe was referencing Tony Hinchcliffe, a comic who called Puerto Rico “garbage” before a packed Trump rally in New York.

The effects of Hinchcliffe’s remarks are felt on the island and elsewhere: One of the biggest artists on the planet, the Grammy-award winning Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, threw his support behind Harris shortly afterward.

Students on some college campuses in Florida had to wait upwards of two hours to vote early over the weekend, raising concerns among some advocates that the delays could depress turnout among young voters, a bloc that historically favors Democrats but turns out to vote at much lower rates than older Americans.

At times on Sunday, long lines were reported at early vote sites at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and at a Broward College campus in Pembroke Pines, 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Fort Lauderdale.

Christopher Heath, chief elections administrator for the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office, which includes Orlando, said the long lines on campus were because many college students hadn’t updated their addresses before coming to vote.

Heath said elections staff encouraged voters to update their information online while they waited, but for those that didn’t, clerks had to spend about 20 minutes per voter making the changes.

“At a certain point, you are going to get a lot of people trying to vote all at the same time and lines are going to be long,” Heath said

For months, progressive groups have been organizing voter outreach campaigns on college campuses. Advocates hope two constitutional amendments that would expand abortion rights and legalize recreational marijuana in Florida will galvanize young people — and that young voters will help push the measures over the 60% threshold needed to pass.

Vice President Kamala Harris urged the overflow audience at her second event on Monday in Pennsylvania to “remind people the power they have” as they encourage their friends and family to vote.

Harris’ event at Muhlenberg College Memorial Hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania, was filled, so the Democratic nominee addressed additional supporters in a nearby venue, thanking them for coming to the event and touting the difference they can make by voting.

“We are fighting to live forward,” Harris said. “We are all in this together.”

Allentown, once known for its steel industry, has become a majority-minority community with more than half of the city identifying as Hispanic, many with ties to Puerto Rico. A comedian at a Trump rally recently called it a “floating island of garbage.”

In the lead-up to Election Day, the governors of Nevada and Washington state have activated some of their National Guard members to be on standby in the event they are asked to support local law enforcement.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo announced Oct. 28 that 60 National Guard members will be stationed in National Guard facilities in Las Vegas and the state capital Carson City on Election Day. They will be available to help with things such as building security and traffic enforcement, his office said in a statement.

Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee has also activated some National Guard members to be on standby.

In a Friday news release, he said the order was a precautionary measure taken in response to incidents in October in which incendiary devices set fires at ballot drop boxes in Vancouver, Washington. One of the incidents occurred just a week before Election Day and damaged hundreds of ballots, forcing elections officials to scramble to identify the voters affected and issue replacement ballots.

Inslee’s order activates as many National Guard members as determined necessary for up to four days, beginning Monday and ending at 12:01 a.m. Friday, Nov. 8.

Washington D.C. police are increasing patrols in areas downtown and near the White House around Election Day, though officials say there are no known credible threats to the nation’s capital.

D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters Monday that the increased patrols are a “preventative measure.” Police will also be using a helicopter and drones to monitor areas downtown, she said. Police will be working out of a new command center to coordinate other agencies and respond to events from election week through the inauguration in January.

Four years after a mob of Donald Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, D.C. officials say they welcome peaceful protests but will have no tolerance for violence.

“We will hold all offenders accountable,” Smith said. ”We will not tolerate the destruction of property, and we will not tolerate threats to public safety as well as this election process.”

Emilio Feliciano, 43, waited outside Reading’s Santander Arena for a chance to take a photo of Trump’s motorcade. He dismissed the comments about Puerto Rico even though his family is Puerto Rican, saying he cares about the economy and that’s why he’ll vote for Trump tomorrow.

“Grow a pair. Boohoo, we’ve got bigger fish to fry. I will never cry over Puerto Rico being called garbage,” he said at the arena entrance, near a man wearing an orange Trump mask. He acknowledged that the comments weren’t funny, but he said Trump didn’t need to apologize because he didn’t say it at his rally.

Feliciano said that even if candidates insulted Latinos using a racial epithet, he’d be OK if they address the pressing issues for Americans.

“Is the border going to be safe? Are you going to keep crime down? That’s what I care about,” he said.

But they say they’re confident it won’t be possible for foreign adversaries or anyone else to alter the results of the election in any meaningful way.

Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told reporters Monday that state governments have already encountered disruptions such as the criminal destruction of ballot drop boxes and cyberattacks that have taken websites temporarily offline.

She said that while assorted problems may continue Tuesday and in the following days, built-in safeguards make it all but impossible to hack voting systems or cause other disruptions that could affect the results of the election.

Easterly said, “We cannot allow our foreign adversaries to have a vote in our democracy.”

Besides physical concerns, officials are also attuned to what they say is an “unprecedented” level of disinformation about the election from Russia and other countries, and are working to call out false claims.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told an audience in Wisconsin on Monday that if he and Vice President Kamala Harris defeat former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, voters “aren’t ever going to have to see this guy on TV again and listen to him.”

The prediction, which led to roars from the audience of supporters in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, hints at an open question around the 2024 campaign: If Trump loses a second presidential bid in a row, what happens to his political movement and does he run again? Democrats are eager to cast the 2024 campaign as the final battle with Trump after three straight elections with the Republican as their general election competition.

“Just tell yourself how great it is going to be. We get this thing done. … We will win, and when that thing is done, we aren’t ever going to have to see this guy on TV again and listen to him,” Walz said, referring to Trump.

Trump’s campaign has handed out pink signs that say “Women for Trump” to members of the audience seated in the rows of bleachers behind him at his rally in Reading, Pennsylvania.

His rallies lately have had more women seated behind him and appearing on camera wearing pink “Make America Great Again” hats. The former president has faced a gender gap in the race and had been aggressively courting men as part of his strategy.

Trump’s crowd in Reading, Pennsylvania responded with a roaring “No!” as Trump opened his second rally of the day by asking the crowd whether they are better off now than four years ago.

He called the 2024 presidential election “the most important political event in the history of our country.”

The former president, who has refused to acknowledge he lost the presidential election four years ago, said of Tuesday’s election: “I’ve been waiting four years for this.”

“One day. You’ve got to show up,” he added. He also told his supporters they need to show up in droves and “just swamp them tomorrow.”

He said that if he wins Pennsylvania, “we win the whole ball of wax.”

Football is important to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. But even he can’t put the National Football League trade deadline over Election Day.

Tuesday is both, the last day NFL teams can make trades and the day the country picks their next president, something that was not lost on Walz, Democrats' vice presidential nominee, as he spoke in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, on Monday.

“Tomorrow is an important day,” he said. “No, not NFL trade deadline. … It is that and we probably need a little help.”

Walz, a Minnesota Vikings fan, was speaking a short 90-minute drive west of Lambeau Field, the home of the Green Bay Packers, the Vikings’ rivals.

Farage has long been a Trump ally and is the leader of the right-wing party Reform U.K.

It was not clear if Farage planned to speak during Trump’s remarks in Reading, Pennsylvania, but he was seen in the audience before Trump took the stage.

Harris campaign attorney Dana Remus says that efforts by Republican Donald Trump to sow fraud and discord will not work. She says the volume of cases brought by Republicans so far does not mean their claims are legitimate or that there is fraud.

“They know they can’t win at the ballot box because their candidate can’t earn the votes,” Remus said on Monday, so Trump and his allies are instead trying to sow doubt.

She added that the election systems nationwide are stronger than ever.

Trump has drawn thousands of supporters to Santander Arena, but once again, many of the venue’s 7,200 seats remain unfilled more than an hour after he was scheduled to take the stage.

The campaign has hung a large American flag near the back of the arena, blocking view of the back sections, behind the press riser, which are empty.

A 24-year-old man was arrested after punching an election judge at a polling place in Orland Park, Illinois, southwest of Chicago.

The man on Sunday walked past people waiting in line to enter the voting area at about 11 a.m. at the township office, Orland Park police said Monday in a news release.

An election judge posted at the entrance told him to go to the back of the line and wait his turn. After the man refused, he tried to push past a second election judge and was prevented from entering, police said.

The man yelled profanities and hit at least one of the election judges, police added.

When officers arrived, he was being being restrained by several other people.

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office approved two counts of aggravated battery to a victim over 60, two counts of aggravated battery in a public place — both felonies — and misdemeanor resisting arrest and disorderly conduct against the man. He was jailed overnight.

Campaign communications director Michael Tyler told reporters Monday that Vice President Kamala Harris was going to “end this campaign the way she started it: speaking directly to the voters that are going to decide this election.”

Tyler said Harris would do radio interviews in all seven battleground states to make sure “that those final voters who are on their way to work, on their way home, taking a lunch break, understand the stakes” of the election and where Harris intends to take the country if elected.

According to the Republican National Committee, the elections commission announced over the weekend that certain precincts will be limited to only one Republican and one Democratic poll watcher on Election Day.

The commission hasn't disclosed which precincts will be affected, according to the RNC.

The lawsuit seeks an emergency injunction prohibiting the commission from implementing or enforcing any arbitrary restrictions on the number of observers. The commission denied in a statement that observers will be arbitrarily limited but said they are subject to “reasonable limitations” under state law.

Republican observers will be allowed on Election Day, the commission added.

“Let’s get out the vote,” Vice President Kamala Harris chanted at her first event of the day in Pennsylvania, the Democratic nominee throwing her first in the air as she tried to fire up people about to knock on doors for her.

Harris spoke to her supporters at a get-out-the-vote event in Scranton, a key area in Pennsylvania that could go a long way to deciding whether she or former President Donald Trump wins Pennsylvania this year.

Polls have the state tied headed into Election Day.

“All right, let’s get to work — 24 hours to go,” Harris said.

Harris, on the precipice of an Election Day featuring her name atop a major party’s presidential ticket, recalled the more humble kind of campaigning that started her political career.

“When I first ran for office as DA, I started out at 6% in the polls, so anyone who knows that is six out of 100. No one thought I could win. And I used to campaign with my ironing board,” she told supporters at an event in Scranton on Monday.

“I’d walk to the front of the grocery store, outside, and I would stand up my ironing board because you see, an ironing board makes a really great standing desk,” Harris added, recalling how she would tape posters to the outside of the board, fill the top with flyers and “require people to talk to me as they walked in and out of the grocery store.”

“That is how I love to campaign. I don’t do it as much anymore, obviously,” Harris said, sounding wistful.

Harris was elected as District Attorney of San Francisco in 2003.

Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off election eve with a get-out-the-vote event in Scranton, Pennsylvania, urging supporters who were about to knock on doors for her to “enjoy” the final 24 hours of her campaign.

“Are you ready to do this?” Harris yelled Monday, with a large handmade “VOTE FOR FREEDOM” sign behind her and a similar “VOTE” banner to her side.

Tables near the vice president were full of campaign literature, including door hangers that will be left on doors across the Scranton area. She urged supporters to understand “there’s a huge difference between me and the other guy,” referring to Trump.

Harris’ final day of campaigning will be about one state — Pennsylvania — with the Democratic nominee covering the commonwealth over four events. Polls have the candidates tied heading into Election Day.

“Over these next 24 hours, let’s enjoy this moment to knock on a neighbor’s door,” she said.

Trump appeared Monday on the podcast hosted by former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and sportscaster Jim Gray in which he said he feels “great” about the election and said he’s going up against “a system” with the Democratic Party.

“It’s a system. It’s just the way it is. And it’s very interesting to watch,” Trump said. “Let’s see if I can take down that system. I did it once, very successfully.”

The former president also noted how many rallies he’s doing in the final days, with three or four daily.

“It’s been an amazing experience for me,” he said. “I think we’re doing really well.”

Supporters get ready before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak to a campaign rally at J.S. Dorton Arena, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Supporters get ready before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak to a campaign rally at J.S. Dorton Arena, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Supporters arrive before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak to a campaign rally at J.S. Dorton Arena, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Atrium Health Amphitheater, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Macon, Ga. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Jenison Field House on the campus of Michigan State University, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in East Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)