Certifying this year's presidential results begins quietly, in contrast to the 2020 election

ATLANTA (AP) — Local officials are beginning to certify the results of this year’s presidential election in a process that, so far, has been playing out quietly, in stark contrast to the tumultuous certification period four years ago that followed then-President Donald Trump’s loss.

Georgia was the first of the presidential battleground states to start certifying, with local election boards voting throughout the day Tuesday. As counties certified their results without controversy, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger hailed Georgia’s election as “free, fair and fast.”

Trump won Georgia and the six other presidential battleground states, after losing six of them to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. County certification meetings are scheduled later in the week in several other swing states — Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

The lack of certification drama so far this week is a return to how the typically routine process worked before Trump lost his bid for reelection four years ago. As he sought then to overturn the will of the voters, he and his allies pressured Republican members of certification boards in Michigan to delay or halt the process. They also sought to delay certifications in Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

The boards ultimately voted to certify, but Trump’s focus on certification caught on among Republicans. Some local Republican officials have refused to certify results in elections since then, raising concerns of a wider movement to reject certification this year had Trump lost to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Some of that sentiment was present on Tuesday. Michael Heekin, a Republican member of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections said he disagreed that certifying election results “is purely a ministerial duty.”

“We should be the first line of defense, at least one of the lines of defense in examining the goodness and the accuracy of the election,” he said.

A lawyer for the county, which includes heavily Democratic Atlanta, explained during the meeting that certification was a necessary step before any election challenge could proceed. The county election board certified the results late Tuesday.

Unlike Trump four years ago, Harris acknowledged her loss and conceded. Trump also won the popular vote for the first time during his three runs for the White House and praised the election results. Rather than descending on county ballot counting centers in anger, his supporters have been jubilant.

“This time four years ago, I was getting nasty phone calls constantly in my office,” said Lisa Tollefson, the elections clerk in Rock County, Wisconsin. This year, she said, “it’s been very quiet.”

That’s not to say everyone is happy. Conspiracy theories surrounding this year’s election are circulating within both parties.

Following Election Day, left-wing conspiracy theories proliferated on TikTok, X and other social platforms as users questioned why Harris’ total vote count was around 60 million — about 20 million fewer votes than Biden received four years ago.

Some right-wing accounts twisted the narrative, falsely claiming the vote gap was instead proof that Biden’s 2020 tally must have included fake votes.

The claims didn’t consider the fact that tabulation would take several days, including in Arizona and California, the nation’s most populous state. As votes continue to be counted this week, Harris has made up ground and now has nearly 72 million votes, a number that will continue to grow.

Counties and other local jurisdictions across the country will be conducting post-election audits of the vote over the next few weeks. Those typically involve hand-counting a certain number of ballots and comparing the results to machine tallies to ensure accuracy.

Before local results are certified, the top election official typically provides the vote totals by candidate in each race along with how many voters cast ballots and how many total ballots were cast. Any discrepancies get reported and explained.

“The whole point of this period is to find those types of errors,” said Kim Wyman, the former top election official in Washington state. “They are making sure the results were accurate, that the election was accurate.”

Every state will be going through the process, including presidential battlegrounds.

Election certification meetings start Wednesday in Nevada, which backed a Republican in the presidential race for the first time in 20 years. The state's 17 counties have until Friday to certify, while Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, and the Nevada Supreme Court must meet by Nov. 26 to finalize the statewide results.

Arizona's 15 counties must certify by Nov. 21 and forward the results to the governor and secretary of state — both of whom are Democrats — for statewide certification four days later.

In North Carolina, where election officials recovered quickly after Hurricane Helene devastated the western part of the state, election boards in all 100 counties were scheduled to meet Friday to certify results.

Pennsylvania counties have until Nov. 25 to certify. Some larger counties were still reviewing and counting provisional ballots on Tuesday, the deadline for them to report unofficial results to the state. Litigation was possible with a U.S. Senate race hovering near the threshold for an automatic statewide recount.

Michigan’s 83 county canvassing boards have until Nov. 19 to review local results before forwarding them to the Board of State Canvassers. The four-member board, comprised of two Democrats and two Republicans, is scheduled to certify the results by Nov. 25.

In Wisconsin, counties began the canvass process on Tuesday and have until Nov. 19 to certify. The Wisconsin Elections Commission will review the county reports and the chair — currently a Democrat — will certify the results by Dec. 1.

The biggest potential problem in the state was identified on Election Day and corrected. Vote-tabulating machines used for mail ballots in Milwaukee were not properly sealed. A bipartisan decision was made to start over the process of counting the ballots once the problem was addressed.

The state’s nonpartisan top election administrator, Meagan Wolfe, said the election had been a success with no major problems. She attributed that to years of training and preparations by local election workers.

“Well-run elections do not happen by accident,” she said.

Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix; Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan; Christine Fernando in Chicago; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

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An election worker looks over an absentee voter ballot, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, at Huntington Place in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez)

An observer watches as election workers sort mail-in ballots at the Washoe County Registrar of Voters office, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Reno, Nev. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

An election worker processes mail-in ballots for the 2024 General Election at the Philadelphia Election Warehouse, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

An Election worker sorts mail-in ballots at the Washoe County Registrar of Voters office, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Reno, Nev. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Election workers process ballots at the Washoe County Registrar of Voters Office, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Reno, Nev. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The person inside the Tesla Cybertruck that burst into flames outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel suffered a gunshot to the head before the explosion, officials said Thursday.

Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference that a handgun was found at the feet of the man who's been identified as Matthew Livelsberger. Officials believe the shot was self-inflicted.

Livelsberger served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train partners, the Army said in a statement. He had served in the Army since 2006, rising through the ranks with a long career of overseas assignments, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the Army said.

He was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. Livelsberger was on approved leave when he died, according to the statement.

The FBI said Thursday in a post on X that it was “conducting law enforcement activity” at a home in Colorado Springs related to Wednesday's explosion but provided no other details.

The explosion of the truck, packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters, came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. That crash was being investigated as a terrorist attack. The FBI said Thursday that they believe Jabbar acted alone, reversing its position from a day earlier that he likely worked with others.

Both Livelsberger and Jabbar spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to multiple Army special operations units. However, one of the officials who spoke to the AP said there is no overlap in their assignments at the base, now called Fort Liberty.

Chris Raia, FBI deputy assistant director, said Thursday that officials have found ‘no definitive link’ between the New Orleans attack and the truck explosion in Las Vegas.

Seven people nearby suffered minor injuries when the Tesla truck exploded. Video showed a tumble of charred fireworks mortars, canisters and other explosive devices crowded into the back of the pickup. The truck bed walls were still intact because the blast shot straight up rather than to the sides.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday afternoon on X that “we have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself."

"All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” Musk wrote.

Musk has recently become a member of Trump’s inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk was in Las Vegas early Wednesday. Both had attended Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at his South Florida estate.

Authorities know who rented the truck with the Turo app in Colorado, Kevin McMahill, the elected sheriff of Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, said Wednesday. He did not release the person’s ID, however.

Copp, Richer and Long contributed from Washington.

Investigators enter a townhouse in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, as the investigation connected to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continues. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP)

Investigators stand outside a townhouse complex in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, as the investigation connected to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continues. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP)

Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)