Voting on election day goes smoothly, with occasional problems and delays

WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day voting went largely smoothly across the country Tuesday, with only isolated reports of delays due to extreme weather conditions, errors printing ballots and technical problems.

Most of the disruptions that occurred by midday were “broadly expected, routine and planned events,” Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said in a news conference. She said the agency is not currently tracking nationwide, significant incidents impacting election security.

REGARD: Election security officials are tracking misinformation and groups trying to sow chaos

In the swing state of Pennsylvania, early reports that Republican poll watchers were barred from some polling stations were soon resolved. A Pennsylvania state judge ordered polls to remain open for two more hours in Cambria County, which voted 68% for former President Donald Trump in 2020. The ballot boxes were turned away and said all ballots would be counted.

A technical glitch in Champaign County, Illinois, and problems with e-pollbooks in Louisville, Kentucky also delayed voting, but those problems were soon resolved and voting resumed. In Maricopa County, Arizona, a polling place experienced slight delays because a worker forgot to bring a key.

In Missouri, a polling place in the St. Louis area was difficult to reach due to flooding and another polling place was without power, forcing poll workers to rely on a generator to continue polling operations. Still, voters in various rain-hit states enthusiastically huddled under umbrellas to cast their ballots.

“We will be like postal workers: rain, snow or sleet,” said voter Mary Roszkowski after casting her vote in windy Racine, Wisconsin, wiping raindrops from her face.

In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said there had been some reports of bomb threats against polling places, but they were all deemed unreliable and authorities were investigating. In Maine, at least three high schools that served as polling places received false reports of shooters, but the polls remained open as police confirmed the calls were hoaxes.

“The voting continued uninterrupted. “This is a testament to careful planning and communication between officials and law enforcement,” Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows told The Associated Press.

The fact that tens of millions of Americans had already cast their votes contributed to the relatively smooth running of the elections on Election Day. That included record numbers of voters in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states who could decide the winner.

As of Tuesday, AP's nationwide tracking of the primary showed that more than 82 million ballots had already been cast – just over half the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier. That's due in part to Republican voters who cast early ballots at higher rates than in previous elections, following a campaign by Trump and the Republican National Committee to offset Democrats' longstanding advantage in early voting.

Early in-person voting and absentee voting proceeded without any major problems, aside from some typical glitches that are to be expected in any election. That includes the parts of western North Carolina hit by Hurricane Helene last month. State and local election officials, benefiting from changes made by the Republican-controlled Legislature, made a herculean effort to ensure residents could vote amid power outages, water shortages and flooded streets. That appeared to continue Tuesday as the North Carolina Board of Elections reported no voting issues.

Along with hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida, arson attacks that damaged ballots in two mailboxes near the Oregon-Washington border were the election season's most worrisome disruptions. There the authorities 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 control from making numerous claims of fraud or election interference during the early voting period, a possible prelude to post-election challenges Day.

Trump and Republicans have also warned about the possibility that Democrats are recruiting masses of non-citizens to vote, a claim they have made without evidence and that contradicts data, including from Republican secretaries of state. Research has consistently shown that it is rare for non-citizens to register to vote. Any non-citizen who does so faces the risk of criminal charges and deportation, which represents a significant disincentive.

A case of non-citizen voting was uncovered during early voting last month and led to criminal charges in Michigan after a student from China cast an illegal early vote.

This is the first presidential election since Trump lost to Joe Biden four years ago and has made various attempts to circumvent the result and remain in power. The culmination was the violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, to prevent the certification of the results, after Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell.”

Even now, a solid majority of Republicans believe Trump's lie that Biden was not legitimately elected, even though audits, audits and recounts in battleground states all confirmed Biden's victory. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll last month found that Republicans remain much more skeptical than Democrats about whether their ballots will be counted correctly this year.

In an effort to restore voter confidence in a system targeted with false claims of widespread fraud, Republican lawmakers have enacted new voting restrictions in more than a dozen states since 2020. Those rules include shortening the time to request or return a mail-in ballot, reducing the availability of ballot drop boxes and imposing ID requirements.

In the final weekend before Election Day, Trump continued to falsely claim that the election was being rigged against him and said that the presidential winner should be announced on election night, before all the ballots were counted.

Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters not to fall for Trump's tactics to question the election. The Democratic candidate told his supporters at a weekend rally in Michigan that the tactic was aimed at suggesting to people “that their vote doesn't matter when they vote.” Instead, she urged those who had already voted to encourage their friends to do the same.

REGARD: How poll workers prepare to combat voter intimidation and potential violence

In four years of election lies and election-related conspiracy theories, local election officials have been subjected to harassment and even death threats. This led to high turnover and increased security at election offices and polling places, including panic buttons and bulletproof glass.

While there were no major reports of malicious cyber activity affecting election offices, foreign actors actively used fake social media profiles and websites to incite partisan hatred and disinformation. In recent weeks, U.S. intelligence officials have attributed several fake videos to Russia that claimed election fraud in presidential transition states.

On the eve of Election Day, they issued a joint statement with federal law enforcement warning that Russia in particular was increasing its influence operations, including in ways that could incite violence, and would likely continue those efforts even after the vote was cast.

Jen Easterly, the nation's top election security official, urged Americans to rely on state and local election officials for information about elections.

“This is particularly important as we find ourselves in an election cycle with unprecedented levels of disinformation, including the aggressive spread and amplification of disinformation by our foreign adversaries on a greater scale than ever before,” she said. “We cannot allow our foreign adversaries to have a voice in our democracy.”

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