White House says ‘Americans should feel safe going to the polls’

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that there are no “specific, credible” election threats and that all Americans should “feel safe going to the polls on Tuesday.”

She also reminded voters that the results may not be known right away. The results of the 2020 elections were not known until almost two weeks after those elections.

“Police have informed us that no specific credible threats have been identified at this time. The president has been briefed on the threat environment,” she said during her daily press conference.

“Americans should feel safe going to the polls,” she said.

She also asked for patience to know which party won control of the House and Senate.

“In modern elections, more and more early ballots are being cast,” she said, noting that “many states don’t start counting those votes until after polls close on Nov. 8.”

“Maybe we won’t know all the winners of the elections in a few days. It takes time to count all legitimate ballots in a legal and orderly manner. This is how it should work. And it’s important that we all be patient while the votes are being counted.”

Fears of violence spread after Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was attacked at their San Francisco home last week by a man searching for the speaker. She was not at home at the time.

The Justice Department is sending observers to 24 states to ensure federal voting laws are submitted in Tuesday’s election.

They will enforce the Voting Rights Act, along with the National Voter Registration Act and other statutes, as some voting rights groups have raised concerns about harassment at the ballot box.

But the elections also face non-physical threats, including disinformation campaigns and allegations of voter fraud.

“People should have faith in their electoral system,” Jean-Pierre said.

Conspiracy theories about the security of electoral systems were pushed by supporters of Donald Trump after his loss in 2020 and continued through the midterm elections.

Russia has reactivated its trolls and bots ahead of the November 8 match. And the FBI has warned about threats of disinformation.

When will the results of the midterms be in? It may take just hours or nearly a MONTH for control of Congress to be known…

Although Election Day is only a few days away, it could take up to a month for Americans to know which party will rule the United States Congress.

All 435 seats in the US House of Representatives are up for grabs Tuesday, as well as 35 US Senate seats and 36 governorships.

Republicans would need five seats to gain a majority in the House and only one to control the Senate. Unbiased election forecasters and polls suggest Republicans have a very good chance of winning a majority of the House, with control over the Senate likely to be fought for more closely as voters say they are most concerned about the economy.

A massive wave of support from Republicans could lead to declarations of victory hours after polls close.

But with dozens of races expected to close and key states like Pennsylvania already warning it could take days to count every vote, experts say there’s a good chance Americans will go to bed on election night not knowing who’s got it. won.

“When it comes to knowing the results, we should stop talking about Election Day and think about Election Week instead,” said Nathan Gonzales, who publishes the unbiased newsletter Inside Elections.

Watch out for red and blue ‘mirage’ states

The earliest ballot numbers will be skewed by how quickly states count the ballots sent in.

Because Democrats are more likely to vote by mail than Republicans, states that allow officials to make an early jump in ballot counting may report big Democratic leads early that evaporate as vote counters work through stacks of Republican ballots released on Election Day.

In these “blue mirage” states — like Florida and North Carolina — election officials are allowed to take the ballots out of their envelopes before Election Day and load them into the vote counting machines so they can count quickly.

But states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin don’t allow officials to open the envelopes until Election Day, leading to a possible “red mirage” in which Republican-leaning Election Day votes are reported earlier, and many Democrat-leaning postal votes counted later.

Experts such as Joe Lenski, co-founder of Edison Research, which will track hundreds of races on Nov. 8, said he’ll be monitoring the mix of different types of ballots each state counts all night.

“Blue mirage, red mirage, whatever. You just have to look at what kind of voices are being reported to know where you are in that state,” Lenski said.

So when will we know when the races will be won?

The first wave of votes is expected on the East Coast between 7 and 8 p.m. ET. An early indication of Republican success could come as the races expected to be close — such as Virginia’s 7th congressional district (where Republican Liz Cheney has lent her support to a Democratic candidate) or a disputed U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina — turn out to be democratic routes.

By about 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. EST, when Midwestern polls will be closed for an hour or more, Republicans may have enough momentum for experts at U.S. media organizations to project control of the House, Kyle Kondik said. a political analyst at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

If the battle for the House still seems close as the votes roll in from the West Coast — where there could be more than a dozen tight House races — it could be days before control of the Chamber is known, experts say.

California usually takes weeks to count all of its ballots, in part because it counts the ballots stamped on Election Day, even if they arrive days later. Nevada and Washington state will also allow late votes if they’re stamped for Nov. 8, slowing the march toward final results.

“If the House is really on the brink, it doesn’t matter,” Kondik said.

It may take longer, perhaps weeks longer, to know which party will control the Senate, with fierce contests in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia likely to determine final control.

And if the Georgia Senate race is as close as expected and no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, second elections would be held on Dec. 6, potentially leaving control of the chamber in limbo until then.