Election Day voting unfolds generally smoothly with some scattered issues and delays
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day Voting went largely smoothly across the country on Tuesday, with only scattered reports of delays due to extreme weather, voting misprints and technical problems.
Most hiccups that occurred near the afternoon were “largely expected routine and planned events,” Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said at a news conference. She said the agency is not currently tracking any nationally significant incidents impacting election security.
In the swing state of Pennsylvania, early reports that Republican poll workers were not being allowed into some polling places were quickly resolved. A Pennsylvania judge ordered polls to remain open for an extra two hours in Cambria County, where 68% voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020. The province requested an extension after a software glitch affected the vote-scanning machines, although provincial officials did not confirm anyone. was rejected from the election and said that all votes would be counted.
A technical glitch in Champaign County, Illinois, and problems with e-pollbooks in Louisville, Kentucky, also caused voting to be postponed, but these problems were quickly resolved and voting was back on. In Maricopa County, Arizona, one voting location was delayed because an employee forgot to bring a key.
In Missouri, flooding made reaching one polling place in the St. Louis area difficult and knocked out power to another, forcing poll workers to turn to a generator to continue election operations. Still, voters in several rain-hit states sat enthusiastically under umbrellas as they queued to cast their votes.
“We will be like postal workers: rain, snow or sleet,” said voter Mary Roszkowski after casting her ballot in windy Racine, Wisconsin, wiping raindrops from her face.
In Maine, at least three high schools that served as polling places were subjected to false reports of gunmen, but voting continued uninterrupted when police confirmed the calls were a hoax. In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said some bomb threats had been reported at polling stations, but all were considered not credible and authorities were investigating.
The FBI said Tuesday afternoon that it was aware of multiple non-credible bomb threats against polling places in several states and said many of them appeared to come from Russian email domains.
What made voting on Election Day relatively smooth was the fact that tens of millions of Americans had already cast their ballots. That included record numbers of voters in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states who could determine the winner.
As of Tuesday, the Associated Press’ national record of advance voting showed more than 82 million votes have already been cast – just over half of the total votes cast in the presidential election four years earlier. That’s partly driven by Republican voters, who were cast votes faster than in recent earlier elections following a campaign by Trump and the Republican National Committee to counter Democrats’ long-standing advantage in early voting.
Early in-person and mail-in voting went off without any major problems, aside from some typical issues expected in any election. That includes the parts of western North Carolina that were hit by Hurricane Helene last month. State and local election officials benefit from this changes made by the Republican controlled legislature, made a huge effort to ensure residents could vote when faced with power outages, lack of water and washed-out roads. That appeared to continue Tuesday, with the North Carolina Board of Elections reporting no voting issues.
In addition to the hurricanes in North Carolina and Floridawere the most worrying disruptions of the election season so far arsons that damaged ballots in two drop boxes near the Oregon-Washington border. Authorities there were looking for the person responsible.
The absence of significant, widespread problems has not stopped Trump, the Republican nominee, or the RNC now under his ruleof making numerous claims of fraud or election interference during the early voting period, one possible harbinger of challenges after election day.
Trump and Republicans have also warned about the possibility of Democrats recruiting mass of non-citizens to vote, a claim they have made without proof and that goes against the data, including from Republican secretaries of state. Research has consistently shown that non-citizens rarely register to vote. Any non-citizen doing faces the potential of felony charges and deportationa significant obstacle.
One case of non-citizen voting was caught during early voting last month and resulted in felony charges in Michigan after a student from China cast an illegal early vote.
This is the first presidential election since then Trump lost to Joe Biden four years ago and began several attempts to bypass the outcome and stay in power. That culminated with the January 6, 2021, violent attack on the U.S. Capitol to halt the certification of the results after Trump told his supporters to ‘fight like hell’.
Even now one solid majority of Republicans believe Trump’s lie that despite this, Biden was not legitimately elected reviews, audits And tells the battlefield states that everyone confirmed Biden’s victory. A survey last month from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that Republicans are here to stay much more skeptical than Democrats that their ballots will be accurately counted this year.
Trying to rebuild voter confidence in a system that has been targeted false claims of widespread fraudRepublican lawmakers in more than a dozen states have passed new voting restrictions since 2020. These rules include shortening the period for requesting or returning a ballot, reducing the availability of ballot drop boxes and adding ID requirements.
In the last weekend before Election Day, Trump continued to do this falsely claiming that the election was rigged to him and said there should be a presidential winner declared on election nightbefore all ballots have been counted.
Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters not to fall into the trap Trump’s tactics of questioning the elections. The Democratic candidate told supporters during a weekend meeting in Michigan that the tactic was intended to suggest to people “that if they vote, their vote doesn’t matter.” Instead, she urged people who had already voted to encourage their friends to do the same.
By four years election lies And voting-related conspiracy theoriesthat local election officials have had to deal with intimidation and even death threats. That led to it high turnover and has led to increased security for election offices and polling stations panic buttons and bulletproof glass.
While there have been no major reports of malicious cyber activity targeting election offices, foreign actors have been active in using fake social media profiles and websites to drum up partisan vitriol and disinformation. In recent weeks, U.S. intelligence officials have done just that attributed to Russia several fake videos claiming election fraud in presidential swing states.
On the eve of Election Day, they released a joint statement with federal law enforcement agencies warning that Russia in particular was to step up its influence operationsincluding in ways that could incite violence, and are likely to continue those efforts long after the votes are cast.
Jen Easterly, the nation’s top election security official, urged Americans to rely on state and local election officials for election information.
“This is especially important as we find ourselves in an election cycle with an unprecedented amount of disinformation, including disinformation that is being aggressively spread and amplified by our foreign adversaries on a larger scale than ever before,” she said. “We cannot allow our foreign adversaries to have a voice in our democracy.”
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