Dixville Notch splits presidential vote 3-3 in first Election Day vote
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Harris, Obamas and voting rights leaders work to turn out Black voters in run-up to Election Day
MIAMI (AP) — Concerts and carnivals hosted at polling precincts. “Souls to the Polls” mobilizations after Sunday service. And star-studded rallies featuring Hollywood actors, business leaders, musical artists and activists.
Such seemingly disparate efforts all have a single goal: boost Black voter turnout ahead of Election Day.
How Black communities turn out in the 2024 election has been scrutinized due to the pivotal role Black voters have played in races for the White House, Congress and state legislatures across the country.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who if elected would be the second Black president, has made engaging Black voters a priority of her messaging and policy platform. Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump has sought to make inroads with Democrats’ most consistent voting bloc with unorthodox and at times controversial outreach.
Democratic candidates, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, right, and unincorporated Miami-Dade voters dance to the sounds of the Bahamian Junkanoo band during a festive visit to the polls at the Joseph Caleb Center during the “Souls to the Polls” event on the last day of early voting Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Miami. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)
Voters and attendees gather around for t-shirts in support of the Harris-Walz ticket at the Joseph Caleb Center during the “Souls to the Polls” event on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, the last day of early voting in Miami. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP) A key strategy in Harris and Democrats’ Black voter outreach includes dispatching the first Black president and his wife, the former first lady, to battleground states where winning may come down to how well the Obamas convince ambivalent or apathetic voters that they must not sit this one out.
Democratic efforts have ranged from vigorous door-knocking campaigns in Atlanta, Detroit and Philadelphia this weekend to swing state rallies. Michelle Obama rallied voters in Norristown, Pennsylvania on Saturday alongside Grammy award-winning artist Alicia Keys while Barack Obama stumped in Milwaukee on Sunday. The former first lady also conducted her own scrupulously nonpartisan rally on Tuesday where speakers evoked the South’s Civil Rights history.
“I’m always amazed at how little so many people really understand just how profoundly elections impact our daily lives,” Michelle Obama said. “Because that’s really what your vote is, it is your chance to tell folks in power what you want.”
Efforts to boost Black voter turnout often start at the community level. In Miami, members of local churches gathered Sunday at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center and marched to a nearby early voting center as part of a Souls to the Polls event.
“It helps a lot to encourage others to vote,” said Regina Tharpe, a Miami resident. She had voted earlier, but said people “get excited when they see us walking down the street. It encourages them to get out.”
Sharina Perez, a first-time voter, brought her mother, Celina DeJesus, to vote on the last day of early voting in Florida. She said a number of issues inspired her to vote. “It was for myself, my future, my mom’s future and for the younger generation,” she said.
Organizers focused on Black communities say they are often combating exhaustion and cynicism about politics, especially among younger Black voters and Black men. But they are cautiously optimistic that their efforts will bear fruit.
“If you want the people who are going to be most impacted to come out, you have to go where they are,” said Jamarr Brown, executive director of Color of Change PAC, whose campaigns aimed at Black voters included live events in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The group has reached more than 8 million voters in those states through text messaging and digital in the last month, he said.
”We’ve been going to those precincts and communities, those new platforms and websites where there is so often misinformation targeting our communities,” Brown said.
What to know about the 2024 Election
Other events have had a more free-flowing structure. The Detroit Pistons, for instance, hosted a “Pistonsland” festival in a majority Black neighborhood featuring musical performances from rappers including Lil Baby, carnival games, food trucks and other fanfare alongside the opportunity to cast a ballot. The nonpartisan carnival was constructed next to an early voting polling place.
Democratic candidates, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, left, and unincorporated Miami-Dade voters dance to the sounds of the Bahamian Junkanoo band during a festive visit to the polls at the Joseph Caleb Center during the “Souls to the Polls” event on the last day of early voting Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Miami. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)
“I don’t like neither one,” said Karl Patrick, a Detroit native who attended the festival. He strongly backed Harris, however, “because Trump wants to be a dictator.” Not all of his close friends had come to the same conclusion — at least one of his friends was fervently backing the former president, he said.
Black voters are the most overwhelmingly Democratic voting demographic in the country. But the Trump campaign has made a more concerted pitch to win a greater share of Black voters this year, particularly Black men.
The Trump campaign has similarly zeroed in on economic arguments. Trump has repeatedly argued that undocumented immigrants take “Black jobs,” despite economists finding the claim unfounded. The campaign believes the former president’s broader pitch on the economy, crime and traditional values has appeal in Black communities.
“If Kamala wanted to turn our country around, then she would do it now,” said Janiyah Thomas, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign. “We deserve more than token gestures — we deserve a leader who respects us, empowers us, and backs it up with action.”
GOP Reps. Byron Donalds and Wesley Hunt have emerged as key surrogates in Trump’s outreach to Black men. The campaign hosted a Black men’s barbershop roundtable with Donalds in Philadelphia in October. The Black Conservative Federation, which hosted a gala Trump attended earlier this year, held a “closing argument” event Sunday with Donalds and Hunt.
Millions of Black voters, like many Americans, have already cast a ballot in the election, including in Georgia and North Carolina.
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Georgia, spoke about that state’s turnout at a Tuesday brunch and bus tour launch hosted by the Black Music Action Coalition.
“The truth of the matter is that Trump has been advising his people who always vote on Election Day to get out early. So they’re the ones that are making these numbers look so big. On our behalf, Black people, we have been slightly underperforming,” Johnson said.
Early Black voter turnout slightly lagged in North Carolina compared to 2020, though increased turnout at the close of early voting shrunk the gap. Whether Black voter turnout breaks records in 2020 hinges on Election Day. Many veteran Black leaders are confident the myriad strategies will bring voters out.
“Now obviously, there’s always a group of people who still don’t believe that their vote makes a difference and they lag behind,” said the Rev. Wendell Anthony, a Detroit pastor and the president of the city’s NAACP chapter. But so far, he added, “the indicators to us are such that those people are going to turn out. They’re not going to miss this this historic moment.”
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Matt Brown reported from Wilmington, Delaware. Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed.
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Harris, Trump make final push before Election Day
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump made their final pitches to voters Monday in the same parts of Pennsylvania at roughly the same time, focusing on the state that could make or break their chances during the last full day of the presidential campaign.
In Pittsburgh, Trump delivered what his campaign aides described as his closing argument after his previous attempt — a mass rally at Madison Square Garden in New York — was derailed by crude and racist jokes. He has also veered off message with falsehoods about voter fraud and invocations of violence.
“Over the past four years, Americans have suffered one catastrophic failure, betrayal and humiliation after another,” said the Republican nominee, sounding raspy yet energetic after speaking for hours each day.
“We do not have to settle for weakness, incompetence, decline and decay,” he went on. “With your vote tomorrow, we can fix every single problem our country faces and lead America, and indeed the while world, to new heights of glory.”
AP correspondent Norman Hall reports on Donald Trump’s first campaign stop of the day, in North Carolina, in his final campaign push through key states.
The crowd exploded in cheers when the Republican nominee said the country should tell Harris, “You’re fired,” his catchphrase from “The Apprentice,” the reality television show that made him a nationally recognized star.
Trump started Monday in North Carolina and he’s scheduled to hold his last rally of the election in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he concluded his 2016 and 2020 campaigns.
Harris, the Democratic nominee, is spending all of Monday in Pennsylvania, and she was en route to Pittsburgh while Trump was speaking there. She’s holding her final rally in Philadelphia later in the evening.
“This is it,” Harris said in Pittsburgh in front of the Carrie Furnaces, a historic steel facility that nodded to the city’s industrial legacy. “Tomorrow is Election Day and the momentum is on our side.”
“We must finish strong,” she added. “Make no mistake, we will win.”
With 19 Electoral College votes, the state is the biggest prize of any battleground. A Trump victory there would puncture the Democrats’ “blue wall” and make it harder for Harris to win the necessary 270 votes.
“If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole ball of wax,” Trump said during an event in Reading, in the state’s southeast corner.
Both candidates visited the area, which is home to thousands of Latinos, including a sizable Puerto Rican population. Harris and her allies have repeatedly hit Trump for a comedian’s dig at Puerto Rico during the former president’s marquee Madison Square Garden event. The comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
“It was absurd,” said German Vega, a Dominican American who lives in Reading and became a U.S. citizen in 2015. “It bothered so many people — even many Republicans. It wasn’t right, and I feel that Trump should have apologized to Latinos.”
But 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 despite his family being Puerto Rican, saying he cares about the economy and that’s why he will vote for Trump.
With one day until the election, both presidential candidates are making their final pitches to voters. AP correspondent Julie Walker reports.
“Is the border going to be safe? Are you going to keep crime down? That’s what I care about,” he said.
What to know about the 2024 Election
Harris told the crowd, “I stand here proud of my long-standing commitment to Puerto Rico and her people.”
“And I will be a president for all Americans,” she said, adding that “momentum is on our side. Can you feel it?”
Trump, meanwhile, stuck to talking about his proposed crackdown on immigration. He called to the stage Patty Morin, the mother of 37-year-old Rachel Morin, who was found dead a day after she went missing during a trip to go hiking. Officials say the suspect in her death, Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, entered the U.S. illegally after allegedly killing a woman in his home country of El Salvador.
About 77 million Americans have voted early. A victory by either side would be unprecedented.
Trump winning would make him the first incoming president to have been indicted and convicted of a felony, after his hush-money trial in New York. He will gain the power to end other federal investigations pending against him. Trump would also become only the second president in history to win nonconsecutive White House terms, after Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century.
Harris is vying to become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office — four years after she broke the same barriers in national office by becoming President Joe Biden’s second in command.
Heading into Monday, Harris has mostly stopped mentioning Trump by name, calling him instead “the other guy.” She is promising to solve problems and seek consensus.
Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said on a call with reporters that not saying Trump’s name was deliberate because voters “want to see in their leader an optimistic, hopeful, patriotic vision for the future.”
Harris also offered some insights into her personal formation as a politician that she doesn’t often divulge. In Scranton, she talked about once being a longshot while running for San Francisco district attorney in 2002 and how she “used to campaign with my ironing board.”
“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,” the vice president said, recalling how she would tape her 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.”
In Allentown, Harris rallied with rapper Fat Joe. She then made her own visit to Reading after Trump’s rally had concluded, visiting Old San Juan Cafe, a Puerto Rican restaurant, with Ocasio-Cortez. Both Fat Joe, whose real name is Joseph Cartagena, and Ocasio-Cortez are of Puerto Rican heritage.
Supporters chanted “Sí se puede” and “Kamala” as the vice president’s motorcade pulled up. Once inside, Harris chatted with some diners, even mixing in “Gracias” and a few Spanish words. The vice president later ordered cassava, yellow rice and pork, saying, “I’m very hungry” as she noted that she’s been too busy campaigning to find time for many meals.
Harris did some of her own canvassing afterward, stopping at two homes in Reading while flanked by campaign volunteers.
“It’s the day before the election and I just wanted to come by and say I hope to earn your vote,” she said at one house.
The woman replied, “You already got my vote” and said her husband would be casting his ballot the next day.
Standing in line for Harris’ Allentown rally, 54-year-old Ron Kessler, an Air Force veteran and Republican-turned-Democrat, said he planned to vote for just the second time in his life. Kessler said that, for a long time, he didn’t vote, thinking the country “would vote for the correct candidate.”
But “now that I’m older and much more wiser, I believe it’s important, it’s my civic duty. And it’s important that I vote for myself and I vote for the democracy and the country.”
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Superville reported from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Barrow reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Zeke Miller, Will Weissert and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.
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Here’s what to watch on the eve of Election Day 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day is nearly upon us. In a matter of hours, the final votes in the 2024 presidential election will be cast.
In a deeply divided nation, the election is a true toss-up between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.
We know there are seven battleground states that will decide the outcome, barring a major surprise. But major questions persist about the timing of the results, the makeup of the electorate, the influx of misinformation — even the possibility of political violence. At the same time, both sides are prepared for a protracted legal battle that could complicate things further.
Here’s what to watch on the eve of Election Day 2024:
History will be made either way
Given all the twists and turns in recent months, it’s easy to overlook the historical significance of this election.
Harris would become the first female president in the United States’ 248-year history. She would also be the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to hold the office. Harris and her campaign have largely played down gender and race fearing that they might alienate some supporters. But the significance of a Harris win would not be lost on historians.
A Trump victory would represent a different kind of historical accomplishment. He would become the first person convicted of a felony elected to the U.S. presidency, having been convicted of 34 felony counts in a New York hush-money case little more than five months ago.
Trump, who is still facing felony charges in at least two separate criminal cases, argued that he is the victim of a politicized justice system. And tens of millions of voters apparently believe him — or they’re willing to overlook his extraordinary legal baggage.
How long will it take to know the winner?
Election Day in the United States is now often considered election week as each state follows its own rules and practices for counting ballots — not to mention the legal challenges — that can delay the results. But the truth is, nobody knows how long it will take for the winner to be announced this time.
In 2020, The Associated Press declared President Joe Biden the winner on Saturday afternoon — four days after polls closed. But even then, The AP called North Carolina for Trump 10 days after Election Day and Georgia for Biden 16 days later after hand recounts.
Four years earlier, the 2016 election was decided just hours after most polls closed. The AP declared Trump the winner on election night at 2:29 a.m. (it was technically Wednesday morning on the East Coast).
This time, both campaigns believe the race is extremely close across the seven swing states that are expected to decide the election, barring a major surprise: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The size of the map and the tightness of the race make it hard to predict when a winner could be declared.
What to know about the 2024 Election
Where can I find early clues about how the contest might unfold?
Look to two East Coast battleground states, North Carolina and Georgia, where the results could come in relatively quickly. That doesn’t mean we’ll get the final results in those states quickly if the returns are close, but they are the first swing states that might offer a sense of what kind of night we’re in for.
To go deeper, look to urban and suburban areas in the industrial North and Southeast, where Democrats have made gains since 2020.
In North Carolina, Harris’ margins in Wake and Mecklenburg Counties, home to the state capital of Raleigh and the state’s largest city, Charlotte, respectively, will reveal how much Trump will need to squeeze out of the less-populated rural areas he has dominated.
In Pennsylvania, Harris needs heavy turnout in deep blue Philadelphia, but she’s also looking to boost the Democrats’ advantage in the arc of suburban counties to the north and west of the city. She has campaigned aggressively in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties, where Biden improved on Clinton’s 2016 winning margins. The Philadelphia metro area, including the four collar counties, accounts for 43 percent of Pennsylvania’s vote.
Elsewhere in the Blue Wall, Trump needs to blunt Democratic growth in Michigan’s key suburban counties outside of Detroit, especially Oakland County. He faces the same challenge in Wisconsin’s Waukesha County outside of Milwaukee.
Where are the candidates?
Trump will likely spend the very early hours of Election Day in Michigan, where he is scheduled to hold a final late-night rally in Grand Rapids as has become his tradition.
The Republican candidate plans to spend the rest of the day in Florida, where he is expected to vote in person — despite previously saying he would vote early. He’s scheduled to hold a campaign watch party in Palm Beach Tuesday night.
Harris plans to attend an Election Night party at Howard University in Washington, a historically Black university where she graduated with a degree in economics and political science in 1986 and was an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Aside from Howard, she has no public schedule announced for Election Day.
Harris said Sunday that she had “just filled out” her mail-in ballot and it was “on its way to California.”
Who’s left to show up on Election Day?
On the eve of Election Day, it’s unclear which voters will show up to cast ballots on Tuesday.
More than 77 million people participated in early voting — either in person or through the mail. So many people already cast ballots that some officials say the polls in states like Georgia might be a “ghost town” on Election Day.
One major reason for the surge is that that Trump has generally encouraged his supporters to vote early this time, a reversal from 2020 when he called on Republicans to vote only in-person on Election Day. The early vote numbers confirm that millions of Republicans have heeded Trump’s call in recent weeks.
The key question, however, is whether the surge of Republicans who voted early this time will ultimately cannibalize the number of Republicans who show up on Tuesday.
There are also shifts on the Democratic side. Four years ago, as the pandemic lingered, Democrats overwhelmingly cast their ballots early. But this time around, without the public health risk, it’s likely that more Democrats will show up in person on Election Day.
That balance on both sides is critical as we try to understand the early returns. And it’s on the campaigns to know which voters they still need to turn out on Tuesday. On that front, Democrats may have an advantage.
Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee have outsourced much of their get-out-the-vote operation operation to outside groups, including one funded largely by billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk that’s facing new questions about its practices. Harris’ campaign, by contrast, is running a more traditional operation that features more than 2,500 paid staffers and 357 offices in battleground states alone.
Could there be unrest?
Trump has been aggressively promoting baseless claims in recent days questioning the integrity of the election. He falsely insists that he can lose only if Democrats cheat, even as polls show that show the race is a true toss-up.
Trump could again claim victory on election night regardless of the results, just as he did in 2020.
Such rhetoric can have serious consequences as the nation saw when Trump loyalists stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in one of the darkest days in modern American history. And unfortunately, there is still a potential of further violence this election season.
The Republican National Committee will have thousands of “election integrity” poll monitors in place on Tuesday searching for any signs of fraud, which critics fear could lead to harassment of voters or election workers. In some key voting places, officials have requested the presence of sheriff deputies in addition to bulletproof glass and panic buttons that connect poll managers to a local 911 dispatcher.
At the same time, Trump allies note that he has faced two assassination attempts in recent months that raise the possibility of further threats against him. And police in Washington and other cities are preparing for the possibility of serious Election Day unrest.
As always, it’s worth noting that a broad coalition of top government and industry officials, many of them Republicans, found that the 2020 election was the “most secure” in American history.”
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AP writers Tom Beaumont and Will Weissert in Washington and Jill Colvin in Grand Rapids, Michigan contributed. -
When do polls close on election day, Tuesday, 5 November 2024? | US elections 2024
After a historic US election cycle that saw the incumbent president step down from his party’s ticket and two assassination attempts against the Republican presidential nominee, voters are (finally) casting their ballots.
Tens of millions of Americans will have already voted by the time that polls close on 5 November, but tens of millions more will cast ballots in person on election day. In 2020, more than 200 million Americans voted in the presidential race, as turnout hit its highest level since 1992.
This year, election experts expect voter turnout to be similarly robust, with Americans eager to make their voices heard in what will probably be a very close contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Voters will also have the opportunity to weigh in on thousands of other elections happening at the federal, state and local levels.
As voters head to the polls, here’s a guide on how to navigate an election night that is guaranteed to be eventful:
6pm ET: polls start to close
The first polls will close in eastern Kentucky and much of Indiana at 6pm ET. Democrats’ expectations are low in the two Republican-leaning states: Trump is virtually guaranteed to win both, and Republicans are expected to easily hold most of the two states’ House seats as well.
7pm ET: polls fully close in six states, including Georgia
Americans will get their first clues about the outcome of the presidential race at 7pm ET, when polls close in the battleground state of Georgia. Joe Biden won Georgia by just 0.2 points in 2020, after Trump carried the state by 5 points four years earlier. This year, Trump appears to have a slight advantage over Harris in the Peach state, but a strong night for Democrats could put Georgia in their win column again.
As Georgia starts to count its ballots, polls will also close in Virginia, where both parties hope to flip a House seat. Republicans are looking to expand their narrow majority in the House, and the results in Virginia’s second and seventh congressional districts could give an early indication of the party’s success.
7.30pm ET: polls close in North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia
North Carolina represents one of the largest tests for Harris, who has run neck and neck with Trump in the state’s polling. Trump won North Carolina by 1 point in 2020 and 3 points in 2016, and a loss in this battleground state could doom the former president. Democrats also expect a victory in the North Carolina gubernatorial race, given the recent revelations about Republican Mark Robinson’s disturbing internet activity.
Meanwhile, the results in Ohio and West Virginia could decide control of the Senate. Republicans are expected to pick up a seat in West Virginia, where the independent senator Joe Manchin decided against seeking re-election; and the Democratic incumbent, Sherrod Brown, is facing a tough race in Ohio. If Republicans win both races, that would erase Democrats’ current 51-49 advantage in the Senate.
8pm ET: polls fully close in 16 states, including Pennsylvania
This will represent a pivotal moment in the presidential race. Whoever wins Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes is much more likely to win the White House, a fact that both nominees acknowledged as they held numerous campaign events in the state.
“If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing,” Trump said at a rally in September. “It’s very simple.”
Pennsylvania will also host some of the nation’s most competitive congressional races. If it is a good night for Republicans, they could flip the seat of the incumbent Democratic senator Bob Casey, who is facing off against the former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick.
But if Democrats have an especially strong night, they may set their sights on Florida, where the final polls close at 8pm ET. In addition to Harris’s long-shot hopes of flipping a state that Trump won twice, the Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is looking to unseat the Republican senator Rick Scott, who has maintained a polling advantage in the race. An upset win for Mucarsel-Powell could allow Democrats to maintain their Senate majority.
8.30pm ET: polls close in Arkansas
There won’t be much suspense in Arkansas, as Trump is expected to easily win the solidly Republican state. Arkansas does have the distinction of being the only state where polls will close at 8.30pm ET, but most Americans’ attention will be on the results trickling in from battleground states by this point in the night.
9pm ET: polls fully close in 15 states, including Michigan and Wisconsin
This will be the do-or-die moment for Harris. In 2016, Trump’s ability to eke out narrow victories in the “blue wall” states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin sent him to the White House, but Biden won all three battlegrounds four years later.
Harris’s most likely path to 270 electoral votes runs through Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin this year, so Trump could secure a second term if he can pick off even one of those states.
Michigan and Wisconsin will also play a potentially decisive role in the battle for Congress. Democrats currently hold two Senate seats in the states that are up for grabs this year, and Republican victories in either race could give them a majority. Michigan’s seventh congressional district, which became an open seat after Elissa Slotkin chose to run for the Senate rather than seek re-election, has been described as “the most competitive open seat in the country”.
In New York, where polls also close at 9pm ET, Democrats have the opportunity to flip several House seats that Republicans won in 2022. If they are successful, it could give Democrats a House majority.
10pm ET: polls fully close in Nevada, Montana and Utah
Harris hopes to keep Nevada in her column, as Democratic presidential candidates have won the state in every race since 2008. Trump previously led Nevada polls, but Harris has closed that gap in the final weeks of the race.
Another two Senate races will come to a close at this point in the night as well. In Nevada, the Democratic incumbent, Jacky Rosen, is favored to hold her seat, but her fellow Democratic senator Jon Tester’s prospects appear grim in Montana.
If Republicans have not already clinched a Senate majority by the time Montana’s polls close, this may be the moment when they officially capture control of the upper chamber.
11pm ET: polls fully close in four states, including California
While Harris is virtually guaranteed a victory in her home state of California, the state’s House races carry important implications for control of Congress. Five House Republicans face toss-up races in California, according to the Cook Political Report, so the state represents Democrats’ biggest opportunity to regain a majority in the chamber.
12am ET: polls close in Hawaii and most of Alaska
By the time polls close in Hawaii and most of Alaska, Americans should have a much better sense of who will be moving into the White House come January. But if 2020 is any indication, the nation may have to wait a bit longer to hear a final call on who won the presidential race.
In 2020, the AP did not declare Biden as the winner of the presidential election until 7 November at 11.26am ET – four days after the first polls closed. And in 2016, it took until 2.29am ET the morning after election day to declare Trump as the winner.
Given how close the race for the White House is expected to be, Americans might have to settle in for a long night – or even week – to learn who their next president is.
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US election: 1 day left – What polls say, what Harris and Trump are up to | US Election 2024 News
With just one day remaining until the US presidential election, campaigning has hit overdrive.
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump are on a tour of swing states aiming to sway undecided voters. On Sunday, Harris was in Michigan, while Trump focused on North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
What are the latest updates from the polls?
A recent New York Times/Siena poll shows that Trump and Harris are effectively tied in Pennsylvania, each receiving 48 percent of the vote.
Meanwhile, according to FiveThirtyEight’s National Polls tracker, Harris holds a narrow lead of 1 percentage point over Trump.
However, this lead is shrinking, indicating that either candidate has a strong chance of winning.
In critical swing states, the competition is intensifying, with candidates frequently alternating their lead based on the latest polls.
Key battleground states include Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nevada.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s daily tracker, Harris holds a narrow lead in Michigan and Wisconsin, with margins of approximately 0.8 points and 0.6 points, respectively.
On the other hand, Trump is gaining ground in Arizona, where he currently has a 2.5-point advantage over Harris. In North Carolina and Georgia, his lead hovers at about 1.5 points. Additionally, Trump maintains a 0.9-point advantage in Nevada and holds a slim margin of 0.3 points in the crucial state of Pennsylvania.
What was Harris up to on Sunday?
Harris made her first stop in Detroit, where she spoke to a church congregation.
“We heard Harris speak about the need to unite the country, to help it heal after a polarising election,” Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo, reporting from Detroit, Michigan, said.
“She’s certainly appealing to the African American voters in Michigan, a crucial swing state. Recent polls show that she’s lagging behind, especially among African American men. Many people we have spoken to say they are not going to vote because they don’t believe it will impact their lives,” Bo said.
Harris visits Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ in Detroit, Michigan [Leah Millis/Reuters] Later in the day, Harris mentioned that she had submitted her mail-in ballot for the 2024 election, sending it to California. She continued her campaign in Michigan in efforts to earn the support of Arab American voters.
“I have been very clear [that] the level of death of innocent Palestinian children is unconscionable. We need to end the war, and we need to get the hostages out. And as president of the United States, I will do everything in my power to achieve that end,” she said.
Many Arab Americans, who have historically favoured Democrats, have shifted towards the Republican presidential candidate this election amid widespread anger and frustration over US support of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza.
A recent Arab News/YouGov poll found Trump leading Harris among the group 45 percent to 43 percent.
Harris gestures during a campaign rally at Michigan State University in East Lansing [Carlos Osorio/Reuters] What was Trump up to on Sunday?
The former president started his campaign in Lititz, Pennsylvania where he said he felt he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after his 2020 election loss, which he has yet to concede.
The Republican presidential candidate also launched into a tirade against the voting process, accusing his opponents of “fighting so hard to steal this damn thing”. He also lashed out at the press.
“I have this piece of glass here,” said Trump, referring to the ballistic glass placed in front of him at events following a gunman’s attempt to assassinate him at a July rally. “But all we have really over here is the fake news. And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much.”
Reporting from a Trump rally in North Carolina, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher noted that Trump appeared tired during his speech in Kinston.
“It’s a very low-energy sort of performance for Donald Trump, understandably, since he’s been on the road for a long time,” Fisher said.
“He started the day in Pennsylvania, is here in North Carolina, and has still one more rally to do in Georgia. He’s already running about two hours behind.
In Georgia, Trump slammed the Biden-Harris administration on immigrants and the economy. “I am hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.”
Trump gestures as he finishes speaking at a campaign rally in Lititz [Evan Vucci/AP] What’s next for the Harris and Trump campaigns?
Harris heads to Pennsylvania
Harris will spend the final day before the election at a series of campaign events in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
She will be joined by several celebrities, including Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin, Just Blaze and Oprah Winfrey at a Get Out the Vote event in Philadelphia on Monday night.
Harris will also campaign with D-Nice, Katy Perry and Andra Day in Pittsburgh.
In Pennsylvania, which holds 19 Electoral votes, all eyes are on what many see as the “tipping point” in the race for the White House.
According to FiveThirtyEight, the race in Pennsylvania is nearly deadlocked. A recent poll by Univision and YouGov shows that more than 60 percent of Latino voters in Pennsylvania say they plan to support Harris in the election.
Trump is back in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan
Trump will hold a rally in North Carolina in the morning before travelling to Pennsylvania for events in Reading, west of Philadelphia, and in Pittsburgh.
He will end the day with a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he will seek to energise his base to vote on November 5.
Trump won North Carolina in 2016 and 2020. But according to Al Jazeera’s Fisher, Trump needs to win again in the swing state.
“The fact that four of his last 10 events have been here in the state tells us his campaign is not certain it is a done deal,” Fisher added.
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In the last day of 2024 election campaigning Harris asks voters: ‘Are we ready to do this?’
Intent on firing up volunteers in Pennsylvania, Vice President Kamala Harris chants: “Let’s get out the vote.” Harris spoke to her supporters in Scranton, a key area that could decide whether she or former President Donald Trump wins the state.
Intent on firing up volunteers in Pennsylvania, Vice President Kamala Harris chants: “Let’s get out the vote.” Harris spoke to her supporters in Scranton, a key area that could decide whether she or former President Donald Trump wins the state.
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Georgia high court says absentee ballots must be returned by Election Day
ATLANTA (AP) — Thousands of voters in Georgia’s third-largest county who received their absentee ballots late will not get an extension to return them, the state’s highest court decided on Monday.
Cobb County, just north of Atlanta, didn’t mail out absentee ballots to some 3,400 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. But a judge in a lower court ruled last week that the ballots at issue could be counted if they’re received by this Friday, three days after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruling means the affected Cobb County residents must vote in person on Election Day, which is Tuesday, or bring 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.
Board of elections Chair Tori Silas said the board will comply with the Supreme Court order, but it’s still up in the air whether ballots received after Election Day will be counted. The order only addressed a motion for a stay, so election officials will have to wait for the court’s final ruling to see whether votes received after Tuesday will be counted, she said in a statement.
To deliver the ballots on time, election officials in Cobb County were using U.S. Postal Service express mail and UPS overnight delivery, and sending the ballots with prepaid express return envelopes. The Board of Elections said that more than 1,000 of the absentee ballots being mailed late were being sent to people outside of Georgia.
Silas last week blamed the delay in sending out the ballots on faulty equipment and a late surge in absentee ballot requests during the week before the Oct. 25 deadline.
The original ruling extending the deadline stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of three Cobb County voters who said they had not received absentee ballots by mail as of Friday.
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How will US Election Day unfold? | US Election 2024 News
Millions of Americans will head to polling booths on Tuesday to cast their ballots in the 2024 presidential election, in which Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican rival, Donald Trump, are locked in a tight race.
There are 230 million eligible voters, but only about 160 million of them are registered. Nearly half of the 50 states in the United States, however, allow on-the-day registration while citizens can vote without registering in North Dakota.
More than 70 million people have already voted through postal ballots or at early in-person polling stations.
Voters will also elect 34 US senators (out of 100) and all 435 members for the US House of Representatives. Additionally, gubernatorial races will take place in 11 states and two territories (Puerto Rico and American Samoa).
The US stretches across six time zones. Using US East Coast time (ET), voting will start as early as 5am (10:00 GMT) on Tuesday and go as late as 1am (06:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
We break down when polls open and close across the states:
5am ET (10:00 GMT)
Polls open at different times from state to state. The earliest voting will start well before dawn in some municipalities in Vermont.
6am ET (11:00 GMT)
Polls open in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Virginia. Some polls in Indiana and Kentucky also open.
In Maine, polls open from 6am ET to 10am ET (15:00 GMT) depending on the municipality guidelines. In New Hampshire, polls open from 6am ET to 11am ET (16:00 GMT).
6:30am ET (11:30 GMT)
Polls open in the battleground state of North Carolina as well as the red states of Ohio and West Virginia. States that traditionally back Republicans are called red states.
7am ET (12:00 GMT)
Polls open in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Carolina.
Some polls in Indiana, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan also open at this time. In Tennessee, voting starts from 7am ET to 10am ET (15:00 GMT) depending on the municipality.
Georgia is a critical swing state. In the 2020 election, Democrat Joe Biden won by 0.2 percentage points over Trump, making it the narrowest margin of victory that year.
From 1972 to 2016, Republican candidates would usually sweep Georgia. However, races have become tighter in the state recently due to demographic changes.
8am ET (13:00 GMT)
Polls open in Alabama, Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. Some polls in Florida, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Texas also open at this time.
In North Dakota, voting starts from 8am ET to 11am ET (15:00 GMT) depending on the municipality.
Arizona recently became a swing state when Biden defeated Trump by 0.3 percentage points four years ago. From 1952 to 2016, the Republican presidential candidate won in Arizona with one exception – Democrat Bill Clinton when he ran against Republican Robert Dole in 1996.
8am ET (13:30 GMT)
Arkansas starts voting.
9am ET (14:00 GMT)
People start casting ballots in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Polls also open at this time in some parts of South Dakota, Oregon and Texas and for the New Shoreham municipality in Rhode Island.
In Idaho, polls open from 9am ET to 11am ET (16:00 GMT) depending on the municipality.
10am ET (15:00 GMT)
Voting starts in California and Nevada as well as some parts of Oregon. In Washington, polls open from 10am ET to noon ET (17:00 GMT) depending on the municipality.
11am ET (16:00 GMT)
Some polls open in Alaska, a state with two time zones. The state’s other polls open at noon ET (17:00 GMT)
12pm ET (17:00 GMT)
Polls open in Hawaii.
Polls start to close at 6pm ET (23:00 GMT)
Some polls in Indiana and Kentucky close.
7pm ET (00:00 GMT)
Polls close in six states: Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and the remainder of Indiana and Kentucky.
Trump disputed the 2020 Georgia election result. He was later indicted on charges of election interference there. False claims about election fraud in the swing state in this election are already circulating.
Indiana, Kentucky and South Carolina are leaning towards Trump while Virginia and Vermont are expected to go to Harris.
7:30pm ET (00:30 GMT on Wednesday)
Polls close in Ohio, North Carolina and West Virginia.
In 2020 in North Carolina, Trump won the battleground state by 1.3 percentage points over Biden, and in 2016, Trump won the state by 3.6 percentage points over Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.
From 1980 to 2020, Republicans have won in North Carolina in every election except 2008 when Democrat Barack Obama won against John McCain by 0.3 percentage points.
Ohio and West Virginia have historically voted Republican, and a Trump win is expected in the two states.
8pm ET (01:00 GMT on Wednesday)
Polls close in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Washington and the District of Columbia.
Most polls in Michigan and Texas also close at this time.
Pennsylvania is a swing state that Biden won by 1.2 percentage points in 2020. In 2016, Trump won against Clinton by 0.7 percentage points.
After a Democratic win in 1976, Republicans swept the state from 1980 to 1988. From 1992 to 2012, Democrats won Pennsylvania.
8:30pm ET (01:30 GMT on Wednesday)
Polls close in Arkansas, marking a conclusion of voting in half of the US states.
Arkansas is expected to go to Trump because Republicans have won comfortably in the state from 2000 to 2020.
9pm ET (02:00 GMT on Wednesday)
Polls close in 15 states: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
These include three swing states: Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin.
From 1976 to 2020, Republicans have won in Arizona every election except 1996 and 2020. In 2020, Biden beat Trump by 0.3 percentage points. In 2016, Trump beat Clinton by 3.6 percentage points.
From 1992 to 2020, Michigan has swung blue for Democrats every election except 2016 when Trump beat Clinton by 0.2 percentage points. In 2020, Biden beat Trump in the state by 2.8 percentage points. But US support for Israel’s war on Gaza could turn the sizeable number of Arab American voters in the state towards Trump or the Green Party’s Jill Stein.
Wisconsin has also historically turned blue, doing so in every election from 1988 to 2020 except in 2016 when Trump defeated Clinton by 0.7 percentage points. In 2020, Biden won the state by 0.7 percentage points.
10pm ET (03:00 GMT on Wednesday)
Polls close in Montana, Nevada and Utah.
Montana and Utah are expected to go to Trump. Nevada, however, is a swing state.
While Republicans won the state from 1976 to 1988, Democrats have won there since 2008. In 2020, Biden won by 2.4 percentage points. In 2016, Clinton beat Trump by 2.4 percentage points.
11pm ET (04:00 GMT on Wednesday)
Polls close in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
California is the most populous US state, and it is expected to go to Harris, who is from California and has represented the state in the US Senate and served as its attorney general.
From 1992 to 2020, Democrats have won comfortably in California.
Oregon and Washington are also likely to see a Harris victory while Idaho is expected to go to Trump.
Midnight ET (05:00 GMT on Wednesday)
Polls close in Hawaii and parts of Alaska.
Trump is expected to win in Alaska while Harris is expected to win in Hawaii.
1am ET on Wednesday (06:00 GMT)
The final polls close in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.
