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
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“I’m anxious. I think we all are,” said Nancy Julian of Pittsburgh.
But she said it was important to turn out to support Harris, whom she said she has admired since Harris was on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Bradyn Yahner of Altoona, wearing a camo-style Harris-Walz hat, said he shares the vice presidential nominee‘s affinity for hunting and camping.
“You can be a supporter of those things as far as guns go and still understand that the U.S. does need better gun restrictions,” he said.
He was attending with Katrina Shedd of Ebensburg, Pennsylvania. They were feeling hopeful about the election, saying the energy here is even stronger than at an earlier Harris rally they attended in Erie.
“I’m here fighting for women’s rights, gay people’s rights, trans people’s rights,” Shedd said. “We cannot truly be free until every person has the same human rights.”
Sarah Kesner of Pulaski, Pennsylvania, said she was backing Harris because she supports democracy, “and I don’t support bullies, and he (Trump) always has been one.”
Her son, Joshua Kesner of Hubbard, Ohio, wearing a “Veterans for Harris “ T-shirt, said the vote was important to him as an Army veteran.
“We all, when we join the military, take an oath to defend the Constitution,” he said. “That means voting for the candidate who will defend the Constitution, rather than trample on it.”
Harris, flanked by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, mingled with diners at Old San Juan Cafe, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Reading, a Northeast Pennsylvania city with a large concentration of Puerto Ricans. She asked about school, the restaurant and what kind of food she should take to-go.
Harris did not mention a comedian telling a recent crowd at a Trump rally that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage,” but she didn’t need to — the scene of Harris ordering Puerto Rican food with imagery from the island everywhere was enough to prove the point.
The Democratic presidential nominee eagerly looked on as the owner walked her through what they had to offer. At first, she said she was interested in a “spicy taquito,” but after going through the rice, plantains, pork and cassava, Harris added, “I want that too. I’m very hungry. I don’t get to eat as often as I like.” She paid for her order with a credit card.
“I’m very happy to be here,” Harris said. “I’ve been reading about your restaurant.”
After she and Ocasio Cortez touted the Latino owner of the cafe and the work that went into the restaurant, Harris said: “I have a saying, I eat no for breakfast. Which means I don’t hear no.”
Pennsylvania has become a key part of the final day of the campaign between Harris and Trump. Both were in Reading on Monday.
Millions more Americans in some states chose to vote early compared to the last presidential election, despite the unusually high advance voting due the COVID-19 pandemic at the time.
In New York, nearly 3 million advance ballots have been counted compared to just over 1.5 million advance voters in 2020. This year, advance votes amongst registered Republicans in Louisiana, as well as the battleground states of Florida and North Carolina, outpaced 2020’s numbers.
In those same states, and in the additionally closely-watched Arizona, advance votes totals amongst registered Republicans is greater than Democrats right now.
Alondra Cortes, who attended Harris’ Allentown rally, said it made her cry with happiness just hours before Cortes — a first-time voter born and raised in Puerto Rico — becomes the first in her family to vote in a mainland U.S. election.
“This is my first rally ever. I am a first time voter, so it’s really, really nice. Some tears were shed. I’m really excited to vote,” Cortes, 21, said.
“She’s really inspirational, especially for a minority like me, so I’m really excited to vote for her,” she added, speaking about Harris.
Cortes, a senior at Moravian University, said she has class in the morning and then work, but she’ll go vote with her friends and hopes to celebrate after that, since they’re all first-time voters.
Harris’ supporters were chanting “Si se puede” and “Kamala” as the vice president’s motorcade pulled up to Old San Juan Cafe, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Harris’ stop, her third of the day in Pennsylvania, has a clear focus: Call out Trump for allowing a comedian at his recent rally at Madison Square Garden to label Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” Trump has not apologized for the comedian’s comment, but his campaign attempted to distance itself from the remark.
That didn’t work, and the comment has dominated the closing days of the campaign.
Harris, who has four scheduled events in the commonwealth, drove over an hour from Allentown to visit the cafe in Reading, a Northeast Pennsylvania city with a large concentration of Puerto Ricans and other Latinos. Supporters lined the streets as Harris arrived at the restaurant.
A crowd gathered outside Old San Juan Cafe, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Reading, Pennsylvania, to catch a glimpse of Harris.
“I’m so proud that she’s in our neighborhood,” said Juan Rivas, 66, a Dominican American who lives just a block from the restaurant. “She’s the only who can do something for this country. I don’t think Trump with his hypocrisy, and his hate of Hispanics can do anything. He only thinks about himself and the rich, and even when he tries to benefit himself, he leaves a trail of debts behind him.”
Trump had also been in Reading earlier Monday, hosting a rally at Santander Arena.
Rivas said that he has several Puerto Rican friends and they were all equally disgusted by comments made against the island during Trump’s rally.
“Whatever they say about a Hispanic, they say about me,” said the retiree, who had already mailed his vote for Harris.
His wife walked out of their home to take photos of Harris supporters that waited for Harris behind a police line.
“I’m so excited,” Claudia Guzman, 52 said. “I never thought the vice president would come here. Tomorrow I vote for Kamala. Women are coming to power.”
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.
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)
